Examples of Suspected Fraud or Fake Emails

PayPal_Andy
Moderator
Moderator

Hey Everybody!

 

In an effort to make things easier to find and research, I'm going to consolidate as many threads as possible where we have examples of people trying to defraud hard working sellers (Craigslist emails, 'PayPal' emails asking you to send money outside of PayPal, etc).  This will also be used as a master thread for future posts regarding this same situation.

 

When you post your examples here, please remember to not include last names or contact information of whoever is sending these emails.  There's no way to confirm if that person has been defrauded as well and the name is being used fraudulently.

 

Thanks for your cooperation and remember, keep the conversation productive, on task, and above all, keep it clean. I know these things can be difficult and frustrating, but bleep filled posts or posts that look like government redacted files will never benefit anyone. 😄

 

Andy

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2,000 REPLIES 2,000

Petermcgauley
New Community Member
Are you positive that this E Mail was not from PayPal? Because they pull every trick in the book to stop you closing your account.
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Scarlet822
Contributor
Contributor
The fraudulent emails will have a general salutation, I.e. Not specify ur full name. If u get an email from them it's a lot safer and less hassle in the long run to make the call to verify its authenticity bBEFORE u click on any links within the email Besides your reasoning makes no sense. If there is fraudulent activity they will freeze ur old account put a flag on it noting the issue and set u up a new account and send u a new card. If the fraud-ster is caught legal action is pursued by PayPal as technically it was a fraud against them. Generally u personally have limited liability as long as u report the issue expeditiously, to PayPal and your bank.
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Scarlet822
Contributor
Contributor
I got one of those emails. I did not open any links In this email. I called the PayPal fraud dept. Determined it was a fraudulent email, forwarded a copy to them and deleted! Not sure how whoever even found out I had a PAyPal acct, only used it once in the last yr. They need to make more people aware of this issue, not sure how ongoing it is. Meanwhile in another dept of pay pal I've been on hold for 30 minutes!!! Don't they make enough money to hire more help!! This is beyond ridiculous ! Or they need to invest in that call back software to help with high call volumes!
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majere1222
New Community Member

in regards to those suspicious emails, there are varies ways to tell whether or not it is fake, of course the first is to check the header but most people do not realize you can veiw a full header to find out all sorts of information.  Of course another thing is to never NEVER click on any links in any emails but to manually go to the required address (i.e. paypal) and also to never download any "forms" they may say you need to fill out.  If you ever receive an email from paypal saying your account is limited due to suspected fraudulant activities and you need to download a form to fill out and email in, always check the information in the header and call paypal to verify if you have been limited or not.  If you find you havent then you need to forward the email you received to paypals fraud department.

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andbuty
New Community Member

From all the scam related messages, is that save to use PayPal to send and receive cash?  Or giving out bank account number is more safe?  what about MoneyGram?  Is that safe?

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Seymour-
Frequent Contributor
Frequent Contributor

If you noticed, most of these scams follow a similar pattern, trying to get money in advance, or stealing your information.  As long as a person uses common sense, doesn't succumb to any pressure the scammers try to apply, doesn't pay any money to get more money (the advance fee scam), PayPal is about the safest method available. You DEFINITELY do NOT want to be giving out your Bank Account info!!!

 

Moneygram comes with it's own unique set of scams associated with it's use.

 

Nothing is 100% safe... unless, you're careful.

'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.'
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chevymama
Member
Member

I also recieved this email message in my spam. I didn't open it I have just been trying to find out if this was true since I recently purchased something on ebay.  Contacting Pay Pal  hopefully it's not true

 

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Seymour-
Frequent Contributor
Frequent Contributor

I get at least 1 per day, often 3 or 4 or more.  Easy to identify the compomised website (that was hacked) to host the false PayPal login form by viewing the page's HTML source. I always write an email to the site's owner informing them they've had their website's server hacked.

'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.'
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SuperFitHippie
New Community Member

I received this message this morningas well.  I logged onto my paypal account and there are no messages about an account limitation.  In the e-mail, when I clicked "Resolution Center" it took me to a website= whitneyjadehalsted.com

Definately a SCAM

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minty1
Advisor
Advisor
Hi SuperFitHippie. Never click on links from your emails and since u have to be on the safe side change your password and security questions immediately
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