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General Forge Forums => Site Discussion => Topic started by: Valamir on May 23, 2005, 08:33:14 PM

Title: Public Service Announcement - Paypal
Post by: Valamir on May 23, 2005, 08:33:14 PM
I'm posting this here because I know a number of indie publishers use paypal to collect payment.

I've been getting a number of spoof emails claiming to be from paypal and leading to a VERY authentic looking paypal log in site...which of course is just trying to farm your log in.

The latest ones have been in the guise of "notifying" me that a new email address has been added to my paypal account...one that is obviously a spammer type email that would provoke an immediate "oh no, someones trying to rip me off I better notify paypal that thats not a good address" response.  Of course the "notify paypal" link is a farming site.

As I said, they look VERY authentic.  The farming site is actually a mirror of the actual paypal page complete with current ads, so be careful.

If you get any of these you can forward them on to Spoof@Paypal.com
Title: Public Service Announcement - Paypal
Post by: Paganini on May 23, 2005, 11:05:33 PM
These are usually pretty obvious if you check your browser's address bar. A good rule of thmub is, don't type your password in a form, unless you actually manually pointed your browser there by typing "www.paypal.com" or whatever in the address bar yourself. These spoofers also try to farm eBay and other big online companies. (I think I've had a couple scamming Amazon.Com.)
Title: Public Service Announcement - Paypal
Post by: Andrew Morris on May 23, 2005, 11:29:55 PM
Even better is not to click the link on any email. Go directly to the company's site, and handle it that way.
Title: Public Service Announcement - Paypal
Post by: Paganini on May 24, 2005, 11:18:16 AM
Even better than what I said is to.... do what I said!

Hmm...

My writing skills must be degrading if Andrew thought he was upgrading my suggestion. :)
Title: Public Service Announcement - Paypal
Post by: Andrew Morris on May 24, 2005, 11:22:04 AM
Eh, sorry. I thought you were saying to check the URL once you'd clicked on the link and gone to the site.