Got this e-mail and suspect it is a fraud

[rdquick]

This e-mail was received today. I did not use the link, instead i logged into paypal account and found nothing to be concerned with.

I highly suspect this is a phishing e-mail.

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. We recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your account. We requested information from you for the following reason: A recent review of your account determined that we require some additional information from you in order to provide you with secure service. Case ID Number: PP-545-960-696 This is a second reminder to log in to PayPal as soon as possible. Once you log in, you will be provided with steps to restore your account access. Be sure to log in securely by using the following link: Click here to login and restore your account access Once you log in, you will be provided with steps to restore your account access. We appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure account safety. In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement, your account access will remain limited until the issue has been resolved. Unfortunately, if access to your account remains limited for an extended period of time, it may result in further limitations or eventual account closure. We encourage you to log in to your PayPal account as soon as possible to help avoid this. To review your account and some or all of the information that PayPal used to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the Resolution Center. If, after reviewing your account information, you seek further clarification regarding your account access, please contact PayPal by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us". We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience. Thanks, PayPal Account Review Department 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 the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999-2010 PayPal. All rights reserved. PayPal Email ID PP522 

[GOWAMMOGO]

Oh my God, yes...these scammers post fake Craigsist auto ads every7 single day, dozens of repeat ads. They even have a fairly new program whereby they can post multiple times but in every major U.S. city.

Anyway, this is now an old con over 5 yrs now.  The scammers try so hard posting tons of daily fake ads...hoping someone is stupid enough to fall for an email like the one you got above.  The internet is absolutely chock full of interesting detail and what not...nothing you don't already know by now.  The bottom line to all that website scam warning stuff is Buyer Beware and to use common sense.  This old scam is so ridiculous with the phony canned letters, refusal to provide a phone number where they are, the "car for sale" never in the city you responded to, it's supposedly "already packed and crated and sitting in awarehouse in Maine......Once I replied saying I was also in same twn in Maine they refer to and to please provide shipping address as I'm so close......yes, ha ha...I never heard back from these maggots.  This laughable but sad attempt to scam is really riddled with holes from the get go. Anyone at this point who'd fall for such a dumb thing, or has doubts the canned pathetic story letters the maggots send back to you might or might not be true.....well anyne that stupid shouldn't be tryig to buy a used car online anyway. Interesting but pathetic scam attempt.  Scams these days have goten so more high tech, advanced, etc....the 6th year sedning out these ridiculous canned leters to entice a "not so bright buyer" to wire money for a car they've never seen....sad maggots.

[Walt1928]

WERE YOU ABLE TO FORWARD THAT EMAIL TO SPOOF@PAYPAL.COM ?  I RECEIVED THIS EXACT EMAIL THE OTHER DAY, AND I WAS NOT ABLE TO FORWARD IT TO SPOOF@PAYPAL.COM , TO LET PAYPAL KNOW OF THIS PHISHING EMAIL.

[GOWAMMOGO]

Hi Walt!!  Good question.  No, you would only email to spoof@ebay.com.  PayPal didn't create their own spoof email address because the mothership, ebay, has the safety and security dept which also handles issues for the PayPal division, as well.

Just so you know (and I don't like this entirely), the reply you'll get is a canned response saying thank you and we'll notify the Fraud unit appropriately...yada yada...and blah blah......

My problem with this is every forward you, me and whoever sends is not boilerplate stuff so the canned response really felt like they just took our email forwarded work and stuffed it into some e-folder or something.  My only request was for that canned response letter to AT LEAST offer an email address to the person on the canned letter inviting us to email THAT PERSON for any individual (human eyes) for any additional questions or info we'd like to relay that is SPECIFIC to what we're talking abouit on that ONE instance.  

I had a few emails with a Mr. Chet Ricketts who was nice to acknowledge my rec but nothing will probably change. I got feel they don't have staffing options to blindly offer narcs like us to fill their ears and emails with our additional detective work.....cie la vi (sp?)..............I was nice to forward all that stuff for their benefit (and to hopefully bust the **bleep** of the maggot scammer criminals, as well) and they were KIND enough to respond witha bit of corporate gobbley **bleep** - a perfect American business transaction, eh?  All is good!!

Ask me anything else anytime. I have SOOOO much more info I could fill a novel.  I've belonged to a Scam Baiting org which is really interesting....I mean REALLY interesting....well, I've gone on and on.

Later

[Webmaster]

I have received this email several times from "intl.paypal.com".  There are three things that alert me of spam.

1. Misspellings:  This may be obvious but misspelled words are common as I've learned that many of these scams originate from China and Korea.
2. Addressed to "Dear Member":  A financial institution will have your full name on file.
3. They ask you to log in by clicking on a link within the email. 
4. The originating domain name.  This one made me look twice as the key words "paypal.com" are in the email address.

These spammers seem to be sophisticated enough to scan the web for any ecommerce businesses and harvest  email addresses, then send these incredibly realistic emails designed to frighten the recipient into clicking the link in order to quickly resolve a matter with your financial institution.

[GOWAMMOGO]

Hi there,

I'm glad to have gotten your message this morning, thanks!! I'm 100% in agreement without seeing the doc, of course, but your well done list of three below is right on the bullseye.   If both of us are correct, these folks are SCAMMERS for their proposed/hopeful fraud of stealing you blind and also SPAMMERS for probably searching the internet for ecommerce victims, good point you made. I'm curious how the "TO:" of the email reads, was it to your name or business directly or does it look like you were part of some massive dump of emails as receiver?  If you have any questions on the different places to report these things that were emailed to you, let me know.

I enjoyed hearing from you today. Have a nice one!!!

Barbarella B.

Atherton, CA

[iriseifall]

I got the exact same email, forwarded it to spoof@paypal.com two days ago with no reply, my only question was is it a real email from them or a scam.  Isent an email asking for a reply using the spoof address and have had no reply to that.  Paypal has changed my available balance to zero and will not reply to any inquiry I send them.  I have never seen such poor customer service, I have done nothing wrong but they have taken away my more than 2,000.00 dollar balance and will not tell me why.  I am looking for another way to shop on line.