how do I know that an online store is redirecting me to paypal and not a phishing site

peterg
Contributor
Contributor
I have noticed that if I follow a typical paypal link eg the one found on http://www.blender.org/blenderorg/blender-foundation/donation-payment/ I get a security warning (In Opera) a ? appears at the end of the address, and when I click on it, it says- the connection to www.paypal.com is not secure, do not send any sensitive information.... so how do I know when its safe to proceed and when not.
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2 REPLIES 2

skier
Advisor
Advisor

You're getting the warning message because the owner/designer of web site has a business logo graphic linked to the PayPal Screens.   The business logo graphic is not stored on a secure server.  This condition causes your web browser to display a warning message because it now has to mix secure with non-secure information.

 

The following explains a bit more in detail, info that site owner/designer should be aware of and also may help others who want to display a business logo graphic on the PayPal Screens:

 

Some tips about displaying your business/logo graphic.

* Your PayPal Account must be a Business Account.
* The maximum size for your business/logo graphic is 750 pixels wide by 90 pixels high.
* The business/logo graphic format can be a gif, jpg or png.
* The business/logo graphic should be stored on a secure or https server.

Note, if your business/logo graphic is not stored on a secure server, each time the PayPal screen is displayed, a security message will say that this page contains both secure and nonsecure items, do you want to display the nonsecure items? This may scare of some of your customers.

If you don't have access to a secure server, there are 3rd party services that can do this for you. For example, check out this site, "www.sslpic.com", the service is free and works well.

If you want to keep it simple, you can use the "cpp_header_image" variable in your button HTML code. The line of code would look similar to the example below. Note, you would need to include this line of code with each item and any View Cart Buttons you have.
Code:

<input type="hidden" name="cpp_header_image" value="https://www.yourwebsite.com/yourlogo.gif">

 

If you are "hosting" your button code on PayPal Servers you can also use the "cpp_header_image" variable in your button HTML code.
How to modify button code using the "Advanced Variables" in Step 3.
Note the text box near the bottom of the page. There you can insert extra variables.
For example, to insert the "cpp_header_image" variable just enter:
cpp_header_image=https://www.yourwebsite.com/yourlogo.jpg
There's no HTML extras, just the name of the variable, an equal sign and the value.


If you are using text type button links, then you need to include the following in your text link code:
&cpp_header_image=https://www.yourwebsite.com/yourlogo.jpg

You can also setup custom pages through your PayPal Account. To learn more about how to setup your custom pages, download a copy of PayPal's PayPal's Merchant Setup and Administration Guide from here.

Should you have everything setup properly and your business/logo graphic is not displaying try deleting your web browser's cookies. When ever you make changes to HTML Button Code and want to test your new code, you should delete your web browser's cookies, close your browser, reopen and then test. If you don't delete the cookies before you test to see the new email address or business graphic logo on the PayPal Screens, you will still see the old information.

Regards,
skier
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peterg
Contributor
Contributor

thanks for the detailed response, that makes sense... I used firefox to block the logo and the security warning went away... 

 

I'm now going to forward this url to the vendor, and hopefully others who had the same problem will also be able to sort this out

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