Examples of Suspected Fraud or Fake Emails

[PayPal_Andy]

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

[minty1]

Hi nabel

DEFINITELY a scam email

Ppal always address u as Dear Full Name

Never ask u to click on links/downloads

Never ask for personal/sensitive info

Always log into your account by the official site

[nabel]

Thank you.  That is what I figured.

nabel

[minty1]

Welcome

Spoiler

If u are ever unsure again can send them to spoof@paypal.com for confirmation

[dblaze911]

PayPal Account System Upgrade Verification.

Technical services of the PayPal Inc. are carrying out a planned system upgrade. We earnestly ask you to start with

the procedure of confirmation on customers data.

This email has been sent to all PayPal members, and we ask a few minutes of your online experience. We have sent

you an attachment form through this email. Please download and open it in your web browser.

Your personal information is protected by state-of-the-art technology. After you have filled in all the required fields in

the form, our verification system will automatically update your account records.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Thank you for using PayPal.

Attached.html 

download

[Faolchu]

I just got an email that looks exactly like a PayPal email down to every detail, even the return email address looks like its from PayPal, BUT When I hover my mouse over the email address, it shows the real address and hovering over the link embeded i the email shows what appears to NOT be a PayPal website! 

the email says: We noticed unusual activity in your PayPal account 

but when I log into my account from a seperate browser window, no problems are indicated.

Be careful out there!

[LS-49]

These scammers are very active and their emails that claim to be from paypal appear to be the real thing.  "Yvonne" claimed to be out of the country for the World Health Organization - and while she "usually deals in cash, she had to use PayPal this one time because she's out of the country for an extended period of time".  It was fishy that she wanted to buy an antique sight unseen - all too ready and willing to pay the full asking price.  When we bit on her offer, we got an email telling us the funds were temporarily on hold until we sent her "shipping agent" $900 for the transfer cost.  Checked my paypal account and no funds were there.  Her email also indicated that the only way to communicate with PayPal about this transaction was to reply to the provided email link, and that the transaction was not visible to the PayPal Customer Care team - so don't call them.

[bluetiger]

Scammers tried to scam me...

[ARMA]

Dear PayPal Customer 

Technical services of the PayPal Inc. are carrying out a planned system upgrade. We earnestly ask you to start with the procedure of confirmation on customers data.

To get started, please kindly and follow the instruction to get your account fixed.

This instruction has been sent to all PayPal customers and is obligatory to follow.
Your personal information is protected by state-of-the-art technology. For more detailed security information or to update your privacy choices,
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click Help in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

You can choose to receive plain text emails instead of HTML emails. To change your Notifications preferences, log in to your PayPal account, go to your Profile and click My account settings.

Copyright © 1999-2014 PayPal. All rights reserved.

PayPal Email ID

[Mokeedokee]

Dear Customer,                                                  

Updating your account or credit card information on PayPaI

To pay for or receive payment for items with PayPaI, you need to link a valid bank account or credit card to your PayPaI account.

To add a bank account or credit card to your PayPaI account:

If you add a bank account, PayPaI will ask for additional information to confirm that you are the owner of that account.

If you need more information,

No Paypal Logo, No name addressed, looks like phishing to me. I have already received payments here. My account was linked when I registered.

[minty1]

Hi Mokeedokee

Definitely phishing

Genuine ppal emails always address u as Dear Full Name not generic wording

Never ask u to click on links/downloads

Never ask u for personal/sensitive info