Paypal Scam?

[zachary80]

I recently received this email:
Quote:

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, PayPal employs some of the most advanced security systems in the world and our anti-fraud teams regularly screen the PayPal system for unusual activity. Recently, our Account Review Team identified some unusual activity in your account. In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement and to ensure that your account has not been compromised, access to your account was limited. Your account access will remain limited 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 may require some specific information from you for the following reason: We would like to ensure that your account was not accessed by an unauthorized third party. Because protecting the security of your account is our primary concern, we have limited access to sensitive PayPal account features. We understand that this may be an inconvenience but please understand that this temporary limitation is for your protection. Case ID Number: PP-040-187-xxx We encourage you to log in and restore full access as soon as possible. Should access to your account remain limited for an extended period of time, it may result in further limitations on the use of your account. However, failure to restore your records will result in account suspension. Please update your records on or before April 05, 2005. Once you have updated your account records, your PayPal session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. To update your Paypal records click on the following link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure meant to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience. Sincerely, PayPal® Account Review Department PayPal Email ID PP522 Accounts Management As outlined in our User Agreement, PayPal will periodically send you information about site changes and enhancements. Visit our Privacy Policy and User Agreement if you have any questions. http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...rivacy-outside

Immediately I logged in by typing the paypal address and everything normal. I havn't even had any activity for a couple of weeks. I noticed that the link they gave, https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run, is https instead of http. Without the 's' it does not work. If you click the link it takes you to a page on http://online-account-verification.net/ , which FireFox does not recognize as secure (like it does with paypal).

Any thoughts?

I may not be able respond to replies for a while.

 

[ameyer17]

Phishing scam.

 

[DanT]

Scam. Foward it to spoof@paypal.com

 

[comabereni]

100% phishing. Go directly to PayPal's site and log in. If the same message doesn't jump out at you as you after you log in, you can be assured it was/is a scam. Never click on links in emails that take you to sites where you supposedly "update" your information--that's how you get snagged.

-coma

P.S. This is a common phrase used by the phishing bunch: "Once you have updated your account records, your PayPal session will not be
interrupted and will continue as normal." What "interrupted session"? A legit service might restrict access to protect you, or them, but they would probably only alert you of the restriction the next time you tried to use the service, not send a suspicious email inviting you to click on links and update sensitive information since it would cause them to look just like the phishing crowd.

 

[screwdriver]

I recently received one saying my account is being used in europe and someone might have hacked my identity.

they are asking me to log in and change my passsword.

i did not go to the link - instead i went to go to paypal site on a new window - checked my account and there are no said activities.

i tried to respond to their email giving them a big F word

but the email goes nowhere.

 

[morphie]

Goes to show how secure PayPal is - if people resort to such scams to get access it means theyre well protected against hackers.