Hi everyone. I don't know if this has been posted anywhere, but just in case, here's a note a friend of mine sent me regarding an incident in which she received an email from PayPal that turned out to be a phising scam. Just an FYI:
"Hey guys,
I was recently trying to sell an iPod on Craigslist and I had an offer from someone who wanted me to ship it to the US. Since I am in Europe, I figured this might be common here and did not suspect anything. I sent a PayPal money request to the buyer's email and subsequently received a notice that the funds were pending and, for the security of the buyer & seller, I would not receive payment until a tracking number was provided. I checked my PayPal account and it showed that the funds were pending. So, I figured this was normal and I was about to ship it until, luckily, the guy at the shipping place tipped me that this might be a scam, since one of his employees had the same thing happen to him (poor guy lost over £1,000 because of it). I came home and called PayPal and they said that they would never ask for a shipment tracking number before adding payment and they said never to ship an item unless payment has been received in full. I was also warned not to click any of the links in the fake email provided, as it is a phishing email.
PayPal does not have explicit warnings about these kinds of emails. These emails are very deceiving, as they look very official, and scarily, this one had my full name included in it - which I did not list in the money request.
~ N "
"Hey guys,
I was recently trying to sell an iPod on Craigslist and I had an offer from someone who wanted me to ship it to the US. Since I am in Europe, I figured this might be common here and did not suspect anything. I sent a PayPal money request to the buyer's email and subsequently received a notice that the funds were pending and, for the security of the buyer & seller, I would not receive payment until a tracking number was provided. I checked my PayPal account and it showed that the funds were pending. So, I figured this was normal and I was about to ship it until, luckily, the guy at the shipping place tipped me that this might be a scam, since one of his employees had the same thing happen to him (poor guy lost over £1,000 because of it). I came home and called PayPal and they said that they would never ask for a shipment tracking number before adding payment and they said never to ship an item unless payment has been received in full. I was also warned not to click any of the links in the fake email provided, as it is a phishing email.
PayPal does not have explicit warnings about these kinds of emails. These emails are very deceiving, as they look very official, and scarily, this one had my full name included in it - which I did not list in the money request.
~ N "