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Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 12:36 pm
I’ve shared about PayPal phishing scams in the past but there always seems to be a new twist to these types of email scams. I thought I’d share another PayPal phishing scam that is going around.
I shared this video on Instagram yesterday (10/2/2020)
the email
The email I was sent had proper PayPal logos when I moved it to my inbox. It also had a general login button.
The email subject was Your Account has been suspended followed by a reference number. It also had a dot gov email as the sender.
Email text
The email text was the following:
???? ????????,
???? ?????? ??????? ??? ???? ??????????? ??????????.
?? ???? ????? ?????????? ???????? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ???????. ??? ???? ??????? ???? ???????? ?? ??????? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ????.
?? ???????? ??????? ????????, ?????? ??????? ????????? ???? ??????? ???? ????????.
??? ?? ?? ??????
????? ??? ???????? ??? ????????? ????, ?? ???? ?????? ??? ??????? ??? ??????? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ?????? ? ??????? ????.
????? ??? ??? ???? ????????? ?? ???? ???????.
Here’s the thing
One of the big red flags for me was that the email stated there was suspicious activity on a card connected to my PayPal account. I don’t think PayPal monitors your credit cards. Secondly, I also noticed that the URL that the page wants to send you too is a MySpace URL. The PayPal email was a stream of letters and numbers but also had a dot gov as the end of the URL.
Remember My Space (source Wikipedia) it was the all the rage in the early 2000’s. My Space is still alive and being used it seems. I highly doubt that their site has anything to do with this Phishing scam but it was a unique URL choice for a scammer.
The other thing that gets me is that it addresses me as Dear Customer. It is also linked to an old email account so I know this was a scam. If you’ve updated your email address PayPal will contact you at the new address.
the biggest red flag
The email requests you to validate your identity. that is something you should never do via these types of emails. I assume they will ask for your log in info or some form of ID along with any account numbers.
What you should do in this case
You can always contact PayPal directly to make sure there aren’t any issues with your account. You can also forward the email to Paypal as well. Use the following email address:
You can read more by visiting PayPal’s info page as well.
Always remember if the email seems odd or has a URL to another dot com besides PayPal don’t reply to it.
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