If you get an e-mail from Pay Pal, Ebay, Network Solutions, or anyone else, think twice before entering any information.
These scam e-mails will often look legitimate, containing all kinds of information you would expect from the company. but remember what’s a little copy infringement to someone who is trying to steal from you?
If you get an e-mail stating your account has expired, or was suspended, and you are not certain if it might be legitimate, do not click on the link in the e-mail. Instead type the website directly into your browser, get the companys phone number and call them.
The people sending out these e-mails are counting on you to be responsible and take care of your account issues immediately. The websites they create to steal your information are often only in place for a day or two, so take your time and go straight to the source, and no one will gain access to your personal accounts.
Sample of a scam aimed at Pay Pal members
Dear valued PayPal member,
PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of buyers and sellers. To protect the security of your account, we employ the most advanced security systems in the world and regularly screen our system for unusual activity. Recently, our Account Review Team identified some unusual activity in your account. Per PayPal’s user agreement, we have limited access to your account until this issue has been resolved. This is a fraud prevention measure meant to ensure that your account is not compromised. In order to secure your account and quickly restore full access, we require some specific information from you.
Dear valued PayPal member,
1. Login follow our secure site and update all necessary informations to your account.
2. Review your recent account history for any unauthorized payments sent or received, and check your account profile to make sure not changes have been made.
To get started, please go directly to https://www.paypal.com/ log in to your PayPal account and perform the steps necessary to restore your account access as soon as possible.
Here is another common PayPal Scam Mail
We recently have determined that different computers have logged onto your PayPal account, and multiple password failures were present before the login. One of our Customer Service employees has already tryed to telephonically reach you. As our employee did not manage to reach you, this email has been sent to your notice.
Therefore your account has been temporarily suspended. We need you to confirm your identity in order to regain full privileges of your account.
If this is not completed by October 11, 2005, we reserve the right to terminate all privileges of your account indefinitely, as it may have been used for fraudulent purposes. We thank you for your cooperation in this manner.
To confirm your identity please follow the link below:
http://server.vendhost.com/~thomas/p/update.html
Thank you for your patience in this matter.
PayPal – Customer Service
Please do not reply to this e-mail as this is only a notification. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.
In the above example, the link to PayPal will take you to a fake site that appears to be PayPal but is actually designed to steal your login credentials. These email scams are designed to look legitimate, and you should Delete them on site!
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