Warning to PayPal users

[gareth]

Hi All,

Some of you may be using PayPal for making international payments - well, I should like to warn you about a suspicous e-mail, purporting to be sent by PayPal, requesting that you update your account information.

I have had two of these, the second even stating that if I didn't update by May 31, my PayPal account would be suspended. The e-mail then conveniently provides a link to a PayPal look-alike page. Except - it isn't a PayPal address.

If you received such an e-mail recently - DO NOT click the link, and most certainly do not enter your PayPal password on that page. The page is non-secure, and undoubtedly intended to obtain people's passwords under false pretences.

If you have received such an e-mail, and have responded to it, log into your PayPal account as soon as possible (via the normal PayPal web address), change your password and check your account for suspicious purchases.

I have taken this matter up with PayPal and they have now described the website to be fraudulent and are investigating its antecedents.

Gerrit

[Dave]

Hi Gerrit, thanks for the warning. And not only Paypal have been faked like this, for example Barclays Bank customers suffered a similar email scam last year.

No reputable organisation will ever send an email asking for passwords, or phone you asking for passwords. So emails (or phone calls) like the paypal one are invariably fake.

[gareth]

Hi Dave,

The interesting thing is that in the course of my work commitments, I have contributed to some e-learning applications for one of the largest Dutch banks - and one of these dealt with Security Awareness for employees. One of the topics covered in that application was exactly the type of scam I now encountered privately! The more people are made aware of these scams, the better.

Gerrit