If it feels like impostor emails land in your inbox faster than you can hit delete, you are not alone. The problem is, they mix right in with authentic emails and together, the notes leave you wondering if you can afford to ignore them. We've already reported on how to spot a fake Apple email , now let's focus on how to spot a fake PayPal message.
The nickname for this type of hacker attack is a "phishing email" because the email is actually bait and the bad guys hope you'll take the bait— hook, line and sinker. A very important thing to note: Each fake PayPal email has something urgent you must act on quickly.
Hackers hope this will override your suspicion you are looking at a fake. Example 1 is the "Update Required" fake PayPal email. It wants you to click a link Log in here , which will take you to a fake website that looks like PayPal. Once you are on the "spoofed" website, it asks you to "Please provide the information needed.
As soon as you give hackers that information, they'll be selling your information to other criminals or draining your PayPal account balance. Additionally, make sure that the entire web address is legitimate. Any email coming from PayPal will have an email address that ends in paypal. Any variation of that, such as intl. Many popular websites get spoofed in various ways. When scammers create a fake PayPal website and try to collect user information through, they are usually part of a phishing scam.
Phishing is a collection of tactics used to impersonate trusted entities, tricking victims into giving up information. They set up fraudulent websites and email addresses that are designed to look legitimate.
But there are a few ways to avoid falling for phishing site traps like this one. TNW reported on one such scam that Twitter allowed to propagate, where the scammer bought ad space and pretended to be an official although unverified Twitter employee offering users a chance to win Twitter-sponsored sweepstakes.
The scam pushed individuals to a phishing website which was designed to look like a real Twitter page. The ultimate goal was to get users to enter their username and password into the form, which would not actually log into PayPal, but instead collect private information. This is not a real PayPal address. Any other version is likely a scam. Next, check the certification status of the website. Check the details listed here. You should see the following information, or something similar:.
If the information looks vastly different, or there is no information available, you are likely on a phishing site and should close the tab immediately. For more information, check out our review of the top antivirus products in Fake web address scams can appear as part of other types of scams, including within email scams, and quite obviously as a part of a phishing website. Doing so will bring up the actual hyperlink URL in your web browser window.
If the hyperlink goes somewhere other than the stated target or is clearly not a link to PayPal, do not click on it. In some cases, this can include feelings of pity or greed. Either can cause some victims to walk right into PayPal scams without considering the consequences. Fake charities occasionally pop up following a tragedy, or once scammers get hold of enough information about a victim to try to target them with a fake charity scam.
In these situations, the fake charity may have a website, or simply send information over the web, and will ask for payment through PayPal or other means. Meanwhile, fake investment opportunities similar to or Nigerian Prince-style scams try to convince potential victims that a seemingly small investment can reap a big reward. This will always apply to investment opportunities. Anyone promising a high reward for seemingly little investment should raise your alarms.
Chances are, plenty of official and trusted charities will be collecting money for the same cause. This is a scam that PayPal vendors should be concerned about. The overpayment scam works like this:. In this case, not only does the buyer get a product or service obtained illegitimately, but he also gets some of that money back, deposited into a different account that will likely be untraceable later.
Another subset of this is the hacked account scam. In this situation, the buyer is paying with a PayPal account that has been hacked. The buyer receives the item, but you may be forced to refund payment to the actual account holder. If that happens, instead of returning the money, cancel the order altogether and do not ship the item. Additionally, never return a payment to an account different from the one that originally made the payment. A mismatch in buyer account information and where products are getting shipped is normal.
Your best option is to contact PayPal directly. PayPal offers merchant fraud protection for all sellers who utilize PayPal. The fear that someone has hacked your account based on what the email is saying will cause people to click that fake link without thinking. Logging into your account direct and not clicking on any link in the email is the safest way to check what is going on if anything.
PayPal have a long list of the types of scams that they are aware of and advice on how to avoid them. If you have provided any personal info after receiving a scam email then log into PayPal and change your password and security questions immediately. You can also report it to Action Fraud on or use their online reporting tool. Your email provider can help too. Most email providers have a report function where you can mark the email as junk then once in your junk folders you can mark it as a phishing scam, which will then report the sender.
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