Official Luthiers Forum!

I got the following email tonight. Problem is I don't have a Paypal account and I didn't respond to this.

Did anyone else get one of these?
__________________________________________________________
Feedback Assistance

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.

We are contacting you to inform you that on July 28, 2005 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.


Our system requires further account verification.
Case ID Number: PP-563-002-410

We encourage you to log in and perform the steps necessary to restore your account access as soon as possible. Allowing your account access to remain limited for an extended period of time may result in further limitations on the use of your account and possible account closure.



Click here to restore your account



Security Tips: For your security, PayPal will never ask you to enter your credit or debit card number without providing you at least the LAST TWO DIGITS of know the number. These digits let you know the we already know the full number and are asking you for the rest of it.


Ignoring our request, for an extended period of time, may result an account limitation or may result in eventual account closure.

Please understand that this is a security measure meant to help protect
you and the safety of your account.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

You can also confirm your identity by logging into your PayPal account
at https://www.paypal.com/us/.

Sincerely,
Lory
PayPal Account Rewiew Departament.


------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------


Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not
receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose
the Help link located in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

To receive email in plain text instead of HTML,
update your preferences here.




PayPal Email ID PP-563-002-410
__________________________________________________________

send a copy to paypal. they have a vested interest in catching these scammers.

I got the same message a few weeks ago. I sent it to Paypal but never received a reply.

_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

I get about 5-6 of these per week. Always to the address I don't have a registered PayPal and/or eBay account with. Always bogus, these things. Never click on any links in email messages if you can help it; go to the site in question's front page and log in from there.

Thanks for the advice ya'll. I already sent it to Ppal. Actually this is the first of these I have received.

I have learned the hard way not to click on a link in an email and I don't open attachments unless I am expecting them.

The address for sending these in is spoof@paypal.com

Be very very careful with these. Sometimes you can be burned by them even if you don't click.

A lot of these come with "Phishing" tools and now your computer can become infected with malicious software (not viruses, but software that changes the behavior of your web browser) simply by downloading a jpg file.

So for instance. Suppose you get a mail like this and it has graphics in it, the graphics download a phishing scam that REDIRECTS your web browser to specialized web pages when you type in things like

http://www.citibank.com
http://www.bankone.com
etc.

They can redirect you to pages that look EXACTLY like the banks home pages but aren't. You would have to really be on your toes to catch the more sophisticated of these scams ... and in an instant they have your account numbers, userids, passwords, the whole shooting match....



The fix?


Good virus protection software, and a suite of spyware detection products.... and even then you need to be careful.

It can be dangerous out there....

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

..alternately, use something that's not Outlook or Outlook Express. Mozilla Thunderbird blocks all off-site bits of stuff in email, and I believe blocks out pretty much everything non-text related. You can allow content per message. Better yet, turn off HTML email, and use and read/convert everything to plain text (it's in the settings). Personally, I really don't like HTML in my mailbox, and anything I reply to gets stripped of formatting and turned plaintext.

This said, you need at least two spyware suites you use every once in a while (Adaware SE and Spybot Search & Destroy are two good and free/shareware bits of software), a good antivirus program that runs non-stop and scans all incoming and outgoing email (Grisoft.com's AVG Home Edition is free, compact, works well) and a firewall program (I'm still using ZoneAlarm, free version. Don't use Windows XP, and even on XP machines I prefer to use non Microsoft solutions, because generally, if something's gonna get hacked, it's gonna be a MS product. The downside to market dominance, that. Ignoring their shoddy track record when it comes to delivering bug-free software for a moment, anyway...)

IF PAYPAL CONTACTS YOU IT WILL BE BY NAME. THEY CALL ON THE PHONE SELDOM USE EMAIL
    Having used Paypal forever I have learned that if you are contacted by paypal or Ebay you will be contacted and your name will be used. Seldom if ever will you hear from them.
    Any email that you think is wrong send to spoof@paypal.com   and spoof@ebay.com
   you will be notified if the email is real or phishing emails
Protect yourself NEVER ANSWER THOSE EMAILS

[QUOTE=Mattia Valente] ..alternately, use something that's not Outlook or Outlook Express. Mozilla Thunderbird blocks all off-site bits of stuff in email, and I believe blocks out pretty much everything non-text related. You can allow content per message. Better yet, turn off HTML email, and use and read/convert everything to plain text (it's in the settings). Personally, I really don't like HTML in my mailbox, and anything I reply to gets stripped of formatting and turned plaintext.[/QUOTE]

I don't know about that... it is sort of like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.... I like HTML mail, there are definitely a lot of positives that come with that technology... but your point regarding security is valid. Plain text is safer.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

[QUOTE=Brock Poling] [QUOTE=Mattia Valente] ..alternately, use something that's not Outlook or Outlook Express. Mozilla Thunderbird blocks all off-site bits of stuff in email, and I believe blocks out pretty much everything non-text related. You can allow content per message. Better yet, turn off HTML email, and use and read/convert everything to plain text (it's in the settings). Personally, I really don't like HTML in my mailbox, and anything I reply to gets stripped of formatting and turned plaintext.[/QUOTE]

I don't know about that... it is sort of like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.... I like HTML mail, there are definitely a lot of positives that come with that technology... but your point regarding security is valid. Plain text is safer.[/QUOTE]

What can I say, I'm old school that way ;-)

I don't have a use for HTML mail, probably largely because I use it much like I use usenet; plaintext communication, quote relevant texts, reply below. If I want pictures to go with the email, I post links or attachments. I can see how HTML email can be a powerful and useful tool when it comes to marketing, newsletters, that sort of thing, but for day to day use I put it to? Not really. I only allow HTML email 'actions' from people I trust (say, a mailing from BobC, or an Amazon.com newsletter), and even then I'm wary.

Oh, and one other thing I see far, far, far too often: anyone using a Microsoft OS who doesn't either set windows update to automatic (I don't like doing that. Control freak side of me) or check for critical updates at least once a month is asking for trouble. If you don't have broadband, it's annoying. If you do, you have no excuse not to.