Spam or real?

[Griffin831]

Hello, I have recently checked my spam folders and I had 2 messages from "PayPal" that to me look a little suspicious. I haven't got any transactions showing for these in 'my recent activity' within the official PayPal site. I will copy/paste them below, the 'request refund' is a link in the emails but I havent clicked on them... A payment of 37,14 gbp was made from your PayPal account to Facebook Ireland, Ltd. for zynga poker chips. If you don't want to authorize this purchase, login as soon as possible to confirm your account ownership by entering the financial information requested. We will cancel the payment and you will receive your refund. Request Refund PayPal takes the safety of your account, business and financial data as seriously as you do. Your patience and efforts increase security for our entire community of users. Regards, Paypal Security Department. And... A payment of 33,17 gbp was made from your account to Facebook Ireland, Ltd. for zynga poker chips. If you don't want to authorize this purchase, login as soon as possible and confirm your account ownership by entering the financial information requested. We will cancel the payment and you will receive your refund. Request Refund Your patience and efforts increase security for our entire community of users. Paypal Department. Both emails are worded slightly different that makes me think they're not official. What are your thoughts? Many thanks.

[kernowlass]

I think they are hilarious

Don't click on any links, the fact they are in your spam folder shows they are being sent to as many people as they can try and scam by hijacking their accounts.

If you want to double check then go log into your account NORMALLY and if there are no transactions in there from that company............and i'll eat my hat if there are then you are ok.

[Griffin831]

Thanks for your reply, yeah it seemed instantly spam just from how they are composed. There is no transactions of alike when i login, Do you think it's worth changing my password? Sorry that my posts are all grouped together, I am spacing lines out but they seem to clump together as soon as I post? Thanks again 🙂

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

Well its always good to change your password regularly to something stronger.

But i expect those emails addressed you as Dear Paypal User or Member or something didn't they?

Paypal only ever call you by your real name eg Dear John Smith etc.

[Griffin831]

Thanks for your help, I'll mark this as a solution 🙂

[proncesskitten]

Thank you - that's a perfect awnser.  I was just wondering if the 'account suspended' was a real one (quite a good  one!) - but it said dear member.  Dumped that then!

[mamami]

Hi - I've received the following as well - a couple of dodgy parts

• sent on 4th March and only giving 7 days for completion
• stating "it's come to our attention"
• pointing towards "Information about FDIC pass-through insurance"
• but mainly email name shown is "service(_a_)paypal.co.uk" but email behind this is "<service(_a_)ppa1.co.uk>"
• and once clicked on the link the url is "http://www.schimers.de/img/.z/webscr.html?cmd=_login-run"

some other companies are providing an email address that customers can forward suspicious emails to and who can then confirm as to whether the email is true or fake. Does anyone know whether paypal is providing something like this? I am very concerned about people who are not that computer literary and would recognize the wrong URL or so. I hope Paypal is doing something proactive to counterfight this.

Kind regards,

Mamami

*********

Dear PayPal Costumer,

It has come to our attention that your PayPal® account information needs to be updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud on our website. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any future problems with the online service.

However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension. Please update your records before March 10 2013.

Once you have updated your account records, your PayPal® account activity will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

Click here to update your PayPal account information

               

Copyright © 1999-2013 PayPal. All rights reserved.
Information about FDIC pass-through insurance

***********

[SM67]

I have received the email below today - can someone confirm to me that this is spam?

Many thanks

Re: Verify additional account information

Verification procedures

Slight error

During our regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification procedures,

we have detected a slight error in your account information.

To securely confirm your personal information:

- download the Verify Form attached to this email

- open it in a browser (recommended mozilla firefox or google chrome)

- follow the instructions on your screen

If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to temporary suspend your account.

Thank you for using PayPal!

______________________________________________________

Copyright © 1999-2014 PayPal. All rights reserved.

Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.

PayPal is located at 2211 N. First St., San Jose, CA 95131.

[PayPal_Sophie]

Hi SM67,

Welcome to the Community Forum! This definitely sounds like a phishing email.

We'll never ask you to download any attachments within an email. If there's an issue with your account, we will notify you, but we will normally advise you to log into your account and go to the Resolution Centre to complete any requested steps.

We would appreciate if you could forward this email to spoof@paypal.co.uk so we have a record of this. You should receive a response from our colleagues there within 24-72 hours.

Thank you for making us aware of this!

Sophie