Spurious emails

[benalder17]

Recently I have received a few spurious emails purporting to come from PayPal and refering to purchases I have not made.   My wife has received similar messages and she doesn't have a PayPal account.   Is this happening to anyone else?   The emails look genuine and I'm not sure what exactly they are after.

[kernowlass]

@benalder17

If its a spoof, DO NOT USE ANY LINK.

Firstly if the email addressed you as ''Dear Member'' / ''Customer'' / ''Client'' OR your ''email address'' then that confirms its a spoof as paypal would address you by your full name eg Dear John Smith.

Secondly if there was a link OR attachment in that email to ''cancel'' the transaction or ''confirm'' any details then again it would be a spoof.

If there was a problem with your account paypal would not ask you to click on an unsafe link in an email or by downloading an attachment, they would direct you to log in normally and go to the resolution or the message centre for more information.

More info here >>
https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/how-to-spot-fake-emails-faq2340/2

[benalder17 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for that information.  The emails did contain a link to "Cancel the payment" but fortunately I did not click on these but deleted the emails.

[aj_moore1]

This isn't really a solution, as the emails keep coming. Mine are now arriving daily, advising that money has gone out of my account, or that there is a problem with my account. I block each fraudulent e-address as I receive it, but still they come.

I have just been looking around the site to see if I could, perhaps, change my email account to different one, perhaps ducking this constant irritation of spurious emails at least for a while. But no such option appears to exist. Unless it is contained in the gnomic 'paypal.me'. I don't know what that is, and 'help' doesn't seem to recognise it either.

[kernowlass]

@aj_moore1

Changing your email address on paypal is pretty easy  >>

Go and click on the profile tab (icon next to log out) > click on the + and ''add'' another/new email address > verify it > IF YOU WANT TO MAKE IT THE PRIMARY ONE THEN go back and click on ''update'' and tick the box underneath that says ''make primary'' > then you should get the remove option by the old now longer primary email. You can remove that one or leave it on as you can have up to 8 email addresses on the one paypal account.

HOWEVER, as the emails are not being sent via paypals site or have anything to do with paypal its unlikely to stop them if they already have one of your email addresses. But if you just ignore them then they should give up. If they come from the same email addy then just block it on your email address site.

[aj_moore1]

Well, I have managed to add a second email by following your instructions - thank you - but have not been able make it 'primary' (despite much clicking of appropriate button) nor have I managed to delete the old one. 

You say that the spurious emails have nothing to do with paypal. When I have had this problem with Amazon it is a genuine Amazon email address which has been hijacked - the one they use for telling you a package is on its way. As a result I now get no parcel notifications (having blocked the e-address). This is why I am keen not to be blocking what may be genuine emails from paypal.

[PayPal_Martin]

Hi aj_moore1,

If you still cannot change the primary email address settings please contact our Customer Support by requesting this through the secure Message Centre on your account. It could have been our security not allowing this if you tried to add and remove an email address all at once.

In regards to the sender of the phishing email, I would suggest if you still have this on file, to hover your cursor over the sender's email address that looks legitimate. This would normally reveal an underlying email address, this is the address you block.

Thanks

Martin