phishing email coinciding with legitimate transaction; how?

FaceGuy
Contributor
Contributor

I recently signed out of my Paypal account on my PC to sign into my mother's on her behalf to make a transaction. Turns out the password she first gave me was wrong, so my first 2 attempts to sign in were incorrect. A day later she shows me an email she received that is obviously a phishing scam (Idk how it wasn't auto-filtered to her trash) that was a screenshot of a message saying "Dear valued member, we recently have determined that different computers have logged onto your account and multiple password failures were present before the logons .
we now need to you reconfirm your account information for us. "
Followed by a 'click here' button that is obviously just part of the larger image, which hyperlinks to a phishing website asking for personal details. 

Anyway, Is it normal for some scammer to be able to know i attempted to sign in on my mother's account? Is my PC infected? Is her account compromised in some way allowing scammers to view attempted sign ins?
Thanks.

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1 REPLY 1

PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi @FaceGuy,

 

It sounds like the email that she received is a generic attempt to scare her into revealing personal information, and the fact that there was a failed password attempt was a coincidence. Running a virus scan never hurts, though!

 

I would recommend against logging in to your mother's account. Password sharing is not permitted and activity such as you describe can lead to the security system limiting the account or declining payments or withdrawals for safety.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Olivia

 

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