Fraudulent email from Paypal...BEWARE!

[anna_66]

Yesterday I received this email from Paypal:

Subject: Notification of limited account access.
As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. We recently noticed the following issue on your account:
Recent account activity has made it necessary for us to collect
additional verification information.
Case ID Number: PP-071-363-053
For your protection, we have limited access to your account until
additional security measures can be completed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
From 1st March 2005 PayPal requires your Personal Identification
Number.
This is the latest security measure against: identity theft , credit
card fraud and unauthorized account access.
PayPal will verify it with your bank records for your own protection.
If you provide a wrong PIN your account will be suspended for
unauthorized account access. Due our latest security
improvements PayPal became a global leader in online payments.
To review your account and some or all of the information that PayPal used to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the Resolution Center. If, after reviewing your account information, you seek further clarification regarding your account access, please contact PayPal by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us".
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.
If you are the rightful holder of the account you must click the link
below and then complete all steps from the following page as we try to verify your identity.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run
Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department


Well went I went to the link they sent me it was asking for all kinds of info. My name, address, credit card # (and also the 4 #pin on the back of my card!) and my social security #
I knew this couldn't be right because I don't remember ever giving out my social security # or my pin #! So I went to their website and yes they were verifying accounts but I NEVER needed to put in anything but a change of password!
So needless to say I sent this on to their department that deals with things like that.

This is the email I got back:
Dear Anna,

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

We appreciate you bringing this suspicious email to our attention. We can confirm that the email you received was not sent to you by PayPal.
The website linked to this email is not a registered URL authorized or used by PayPal. We are currently investigating this incident fully.
Please do not enter any personal or financial information into this
website.

If you have surrendered any personal or financial information to this fraudulent website, you should immediately log into your PayPal Account and change your password and secret question and answer information. Any compromised financial information should be reported to the appropriate parties.

If you notice any unauthorized activity associated with your PayPal transaction history, please immediately report this to PayPal by following the instructions below:
1. Log in to your account at https://www.paypal.com/ by entering
your email address and password into the Member Log In box

2. Click on Security Center at the bottom of the page

3. Click on the 'Unauthorized Transaction' link under the Report a
Problem column

4. Please follow the instructions in order to access the appropriate form

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department



************************************************** **********************
This
email is sent to you by the contracting entity to your User Agreement,
either PayPal Inc or PayPal (Europe) Limited. PayPal(Europe) Limited is
authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the UK
as an electronic money institution.

************************************************** *********************
PayPal and its representatives will NEVER ask you to reveal your
password. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this policy. If anyone claiming to work for PayPal asks for your password under any circumstances, by email or by phone, please refuse and immediately contact us via webform at
https://www.paypal.com/wf/f=sa_pass.


So if anyone else gets this email make sure you send it to Paypal right away!!!

[Pawsitive Thinking]

will do - thanks for the warning!

[Corinna]

We used to get that all the time. Pay pal only contacts you though your acct. once you log in. They never send e-mail that isn't an answer to a question you sent.

[sirrahbed]

Thanks Anna!
I have also received several odd e-mails from paypal and just deleted them. If it happens again, I will send it on to paypal to check out. Good idea! The e-mail address I found at the site was [email protected] (for forwarding unusual email)

[trayi52]

Thanks for the info, Anna!

Willie

[gini]

Anna, thanks for sharing this with us.

There must be people who do nothing all day but sit there and dream up new scams. Disgusting!

[Freckles]

A friend recently had the same problem with Earthlink. I copied the letter and questioned Earthlink about it. It too, was a scam.

[Edwina's Secretary]

I have had this with Earthlink, my banks, banks I have never done business with, and credit card companies.

DO NOT EVEN OPEN THE EMAIL....

[anna_66]

Can you believe I just got another one I just put it in my spam folder

[Lady's Human]

Any time you get these emails, they should be sent to the companies whose websites have been ghosted so they can take proper action.

While a repeat of the same email may seem to you like it is coming from the same place or the same email address, the header info may be different, and they may have more than one person to go after.

[KYS]

I got this e-mail too.

[Karen]

I get many of these emails, all the time. And I don't even have a paypal account!

[Fox-Gal]

We get them a lot.

You should keep in mind that when Paypal sends you any e-mails, they will always have your name in the letter. If something comes in from Paypal, it should always start with Dear, so and so. If your name is not in it or it says something like dear Paypal user, it's a scam.

[AmberLee]

Note: there are a lot of these hoax emails purporting to come from eBay, also. Report them to [email protected]

[Barbara]

I got them too. My provider has a very good spam detection so they all end up in the spam folder.

I also get similar mails from all kind of banks here. Of course you must never type your PIN number in- it is just a way of trying to get your money