Examples of Suspected Fraud/Fake Emails

[PayPal_Adrian]

Hello everyone!

One of the greatest strengths consumers possess against fraud and phishing is education and collaboration.  To help support your safety online, I'm going to open this special thread up for you.  Here, you can post examples of what you believe to be attempts by individuals to defraud you or others of their hard earned valuables and money. 

Before we begin, a few housekeeping points:

• We will be using this as a "master thread," so if we find an example in other areas of the boards, we may merge the post into this one.

• For everyone's safety, please remove any last names or contact information (including email addresses) from your examples.  In many instances, the names provided by fraudsters are fake or may actually be the name of someone they already defrauded. 

• On that same note, please don't ever attempt to confront a fraudster or attempt to track them down.  Instead, turn the information you do have over to your local authorities. 

• Please also remove any links from your posts, as these could potentially go to spoofed or phishing websites.

Other than that, we only ask that you keep it productive and stay within the Forum Decorum and posting guidelines.  I'll be stopping in on a regular basis to clean house and comment on posts, so don't be surprised if you see my mug - or another moderator - stopping in to say hello! 

With that said, I'm going to start moving posts in, so you might see some older examples mixed in with the new posts.  I hope this thread becomes a great resource for everyone!

Stay safe,

Adrian

[Mo_C]

Hey Everyone,

I just received the below email which looks a little odd so would appreciate some perspective about it! I have been contacted by someone as I'm selling some furniture but then when I saw the below not sure about their intentions. (the email origin is not from paypal, what it's asking me to do doesn't make sense, language use is not appropriate, and then signed by David Marcus doesn't make sense for a transactional email)

Thoughts?

Dear xxxx,

We are contacting you regarding your Transaction with .  We are still expecting to receive the necessary Western Union Information from you, and you are required to send the Western Union information to us within the next 24HRS or the necessary Legal Action would be taken against you.

 You are required to send to us the Western Union Information Stated Below for Verification:

(1) Sender's Name;

(2) Receiver's Name;

(3) MTCN (Money Transfer Control Number);

(4) Amount Sent;

(5) Western Union Receipt.

So you should go ahead and send the $900.00 CAD within the next 24HRS, and we shall be expecting to receive the Western Union Information from you as soon as possible. You can contact us if you have any question(s).

Sincerely,

David <removed>,

The PayPal Team

NOTE: This is important as a security measure to ensure safety of this transaction. As this transaction was done via our e-mail payments service, any inquiries and necessary information should be sent to us by directly replying to this message, because of the status of this transaction, it has not been passed on to our customer care phone service section and all inquiries should be directed to this e-mail address as it is the one monitored for your transaction.

[PatrickS99]

So this person is now a "construction engineer" working offshore.  Here is a response to an ad I have for an RV after his email asking if it was still available.

"Thank you for the response. I'm buying it for my Dad as a gift and I want it as a surprise package to appreciate him towards his achievements and should be delivered before my arrival to Wisconsin cause my family resides in Wisconsin.

Anyways, I am working as a Construction Engineer and we are presently offshores in USA/Mexico and we do not have access to phones at the moment so am working 15days offshore and 15days onshore that's why I contacted you with internet web messaging application and you can easily text me on my phone number XXXXXXXX

Please I will need to ask a few question from you:

- Where is it located at the moment?

- Does it have any history I should be aware of?

- Why are you selling if you don't mind my asking and What is your last price?

I am already in talks with the courier that will handle the pick-up and delivery to Wisconsin. As regards the payment, I can pay you through direct bank deposit, using paypal instant bank wire transfer service.  I will need your bank details (Bank name, routing#, account # and name of account). If you are not comfortable with that, you can set up a paypal account and I will make the payment through paypal, this way all I will need is your paypal email address. Hope to read from you soon.

Thank you !!"

"i really need most as wont be able to come for inspection as am at work ,just want to buy the it as a surprise package for him and i really believe he will really enjoy it.I would have love to ask for inspection but am making it a %100 surprise package for my Dad and i don't want him to know about it until it delivered.

Happy to inform you that i  have now upgraded my paypal account to business merchant account so i can transfer the fund into your nominated account from my paypal account .Please advise me of the details so i can make the transfer ASAP and after have sorted out with the payment i have a private courier that will come for the pick up and make a personal delivery for him."

Please am trying to sort out with the pick up agent though am having little problem with them now but hope to sort it out soon. i will email you when am done with the payment.thanks"

I am now waiting for his next email which I'm sure will be the one showing me a bogus paypal transaction and asking for money to get it released.

[PatrickS99]

LOL and as predicted, I just received this one

"   I got a mail from the shipping company now that i will need to pay for the freighting fees before they can schedule pre-shipping pickup date,they charged $1,260usd for the pick up and delivery  but the problem is they only accept Bank transfer as form of payment which is sent to their HQ.

As you are well aware of, I am away and do not have access to the bank here ,will it be ok with you if I add the $1,260usd  to the amount I am transferring? and as soon as the money goes through you can help me make the Bank transfer of the freighting fees through your bank You are not obliged to help me, but i will indeed appreciate your help as I am a little incapacitated here."

[YoshiJL]

I got this phishing email today. Links to a Russian website.

Note that this email was made to look like it was sent from my own email account. 

Dear customer,

As part of PayPal's commitment to excellence, we invite you update your account by enacting the 2014 .

Your Account Will Be Limited , Until We Here From You .

To Update Your Info . Simply click on the web address below
(or copy and paste the link into your browser):

Please Click Here To Update Your Info

We appreciate your participation and look forward to hearing from you.

John

Senior Vice President
Customer Service and Operations


Please do not ?Reply? to this invitation.

For technical assistance, should you have any problems accessing or completing the survey, please e-mail Medallia, our partner in this process, at Technical Support.

If you prefer to be excluded from future surveys and survey correspondence, please go to: Opt Out.

Please do NOT forward this email to others. You have been given a unique URL with which to take the survey. The system accepts only one response for each unique URL.

? 2014 PayPal Inc. All rights reserved.

[DjKlodio]

He is another exemple of Scammers...

His name are Robert P

He begin by a Mercedes car, and i propose another car et up the price with no problem.

He contact me by SMS but the numbur of his phone as disapear...

When i asked him all personnals information he refuse and say :

Thanks for the swift reply and will like to purchase it. I will pay you $28,500for it and i will be paying you with my PayPal because it's attached to my bank account,If my offer is accepted send me your paypal email address so i can pay in right away,you can set up an account at www.paypal.com it is very easy and secure. I am a marine engineer on a rig offshore and do not have much time on me. Make sure you get back to me so that i can arrange for pick up as i will like the vehicle to be picked,so no shipping included. I await your reply

After i asked this he said :

Send me all your personals information. I prepare a bill. COMPLETE NAME ADDRESS TELEPHONE AT HOME CELLULAIRE TELEPHONE BORN DATE SOCIAL INSURANCE NUMBER ( NAS) NUMBER OF YOUR DIRVER LICENCE Call me by phone at : . Claude

ANSWER OF ROBERT :

I have already explained to you that the shipping company will take care of that, including the SAAQ too. All I need from you is your paypal email to proceed with the payment.

[Nightmare5]

This was a close one paypal deemed fake Pending Notification‏ Actions 1:04 PM To: . Dear "my name" This PayPal® payment of $400.00 CAD has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been "APPROVED" but will not be credited to your account until the shipment reference/tracking number is sent to us for verification. This security measure is embark on, due to the fact that the buyer was subscribed under PayPal User Protection Policy so as to secure the buyer's transaction.The buyer as also mailed to know the status of this transaction.

[Catmandoo]

Here is the one I am getting everyday..  >>> 

We recently reviewed your account, and we need more information about your business to allow us to provide uninterrupted service.

We would like to return your account to regular standing as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.

# 8/30/2014 14:56:27 : Before we can offer you certain products and services, federal regulations require that we collect specific information to verify your identity.

We haven't been able to verify your identity using the information you provided, so we need some additional documentation from you.

Until this issue is resolved, you'll be able to log in to your PayPal account but you might not be able to add money to it or use some of your account features.

Most of the time, we just need a little more information about your account or latest transactions.

To help us resolve this issue, please go to the

We'll review the information you provide and email you if we need more details.

Once you complete all of the checklist items, your case will be reviewed by one of our Account Specialists.

I delete it everytime because I believe it is a scam just to get my info. I am smarter than that..lol 

[prairierose]

I, too, received an email saying I had my account limited.  I was online early and actually filled in information on the link!!!  Never get online before your morning coffee...  However, what tipped me off was when they asked for my Social Insurance Number...  I'm Canadian.  How do I protect my account now?  Change my password?  How do I protect the credit card information they now have?  Phone my CC issuer?  As of this point I can obviously still get on to PayPal...

[Tim_Preacher]

I have recieved an email asking for my email address in order to confirm my email address. I clicked on the link, however after nothing happened, I began to suspect this email is a fake. Has anyone else recieved a similar email request?

[minty1]

Hi

Genuine ppal emails:

Always address u as Dear Full Name

Never ask u to click on links/downloads/attachments

Never ask for personal/sensitive info

Since u clicked on the link change your password and security questions immediately