Paypal threatening to close account

dniester007

I received an email from Paypal saying that I had violated intellectual property and should "act now to stop my account being closed".

This is the email:

----

PayPal Violation of Intellectual Property (xxxxxxxxxxxxx) :kf2
From: harbor1@paypal.com

Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,

We appreciate the fact that you chose PayPal to send and receive
payments for your transactions.

However, we have received a report that your eBay auctions regarding
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx are currently infringing upon the
intellectual property of Luna Info Services.

PayPals Acceptable Use Policy prohibits the use of PayPal for
unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material. The complete
Acceptable Use Policy addressing Unauthorized Copies can be found at
the
following URL:


http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/use/index_frame-outsid
e&ed=unauthor_copies

In order to comply with the Acceptable Use Policy and avoid the
limitation or closure of your account, you will need to:

1. Complete the Objection to Request for Account Termination form. The
completed form should be faxed to the attention of the Acceptable Use
Policy Department at 1-402-537-5774.

Once this requirement has been met we will review your account and the
Objection to Request for Account Termination form to determine if
further action is necessary.

For more information about the status of your account, please log in to
your PayPal account.

We encourage you to comply with the above requirements as soon as
possible. Failure to respond by 3/15/07 will result in the further
escalation of this issue.

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter. Please understand that
this is a security measure meant to help protect you and your account.
We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any questions, please
contact the Acceptable Use Policy Department at aup@paypal.com.

Sincerely,
Acceptable Use Policy Department
PayPal, an eBay Company

Copyright ) 1999-2007 PayPal. All rights reserved. PayPal (Europe) Ltd.
is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the
United Kingdom as an electronic money institution. PayPal FSA Register
Number: 226056

---

Attached to this email was a PDF file: ORAcT_With_New_Fax_Number_.pdf. I just hve to fill in my name and address on the form and fax it.

They then sent a further mail:

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Please Return Your Account to Regular Standing

To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: "service@paypal.co.uk" <service@paypal.co.uk> Add to Address Book

Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the
PayPal system. We recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your
account. We requested information from you for the following reason:

We have recently reviewed your account and have noticed that you are
selling items on your website that violate our Acceptable Use Policy. We
value you as a member of our community and wish to continue our
relationship, so we ask that you remove all items from your website that
violate our Acceptable Use Policy. Please note that subsequent violations
will result in the closure of your account.

Reference Number: xxxxxxxxxxx



Please log in to your PayPal account as soon as possible to respond to
our request. Be sure to log in securely by opening a new browser window
and typing the PayPal URL. Once you log in, you will be asked to
provide information to secure your account.

If we do not receive a response, we may have to limit access to your
account. Limited access protects your account until additional security
measures can be completed.

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please
understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your
account. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Yours sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

---

Copyright © 1999-2006 PayPal. All rights reserved. PayPal (Europe)
Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in
the United Kingdom as an electronic money institution. PayPal FSA
Register Number: 226056.

PayPal Email xxxxxxxxxx

Has anyone heard of this request before? When I log into my Paypal account it says that I should update my account, but there is no specific mention of the intellectual property violation.

soolin

Please log in to your PayPal account as soon as possible to respond to
our request. Be sure to log in securely by opening a new browser window
and typing the PayPal URL. Once you log in, you will be asked to
provide information to secure your account.

That rather suggests this is a real paypal request and not a phish. When you log in asking you to update also suggests that some sort of bar has been placed on your account. Are you selling something that could be deemed to have intellectual rights assigned to someone else?

StaffsSW

Have you had any listings removed by eBay recently?

If not, I suspect this email is a bit "Phishy"

pennylane99

there are some very convincing phishing mails going around....some recent ones on site below

http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/index.php

if you press reply on the mail you received you should see more info of where the mail came from, and IP addresses etc....check the IP is from Paypal

powerbase

forward it to spoof@paypal.com and they will tell you if it is real or not. If in doubt just forward it. Also log into your account (not by clicking on any links) and if there are any problems with your account they will be displayed.

pennylane99

powerbase wrote:

forward it to spoof@paypal.com and they will tell you if it is real or not. If in doubt just forward it. Also log into your account (not by clicking on any links) and if there are any problems with your account they will be displayed.

anything you send to the paypal spoof email address automatically sends a message back saying it is spoof even when its not

soolin

powerbase wrote:

forward it to spoof@paypal.com and they will tell you if it is real or not. If in doubt just forward it. Also log into your account (not by clicking on any links) and if there are any problems with your account they will be displayed.

Paypal return everything sent to them as a spoof. Since this specifically asked the OP to log in securely through a new browser window I rather suspect it is real. The fact that on logging in securely shows as info is required on the account also supports that view.

By all means be cautious, never provide info through a link embedded in an email etc, but it is worth knowing which emails are real in case you need to act on them. if this is a clever spoof with no links to follow to provide log in info then simply doing everything through a secure log in will keep the OP safe.

MyUserNamesTaken

I can't find anything on Google about Luna Info Services. Can I ask what this actually relates to? (What have you been selling?)

pennylane99

MyUserNamesTaken wrote:

I can't find anything on Google about Luna Info Services. Can I ask what this actually relates to? (What have you been selling?)

I know, I couldnt see anything on google for them either.

wigglebeena

I don't understand why these questions keep coming up. And that's as someone who is sympathetic to 'stupid' questions. Because all my questions are stupid, just like me.

If I get any dubious mail related to Ebay or Paypal, then I'll send an email DIRECTLY to Ebay or Paypal, to see if it's legit. Why would anybody do anything else? Just the same as if someone calls up, claiming to be from my bank and wanting verification/confidential info before they share info with me, I'd want their department then tell them sure! I'll call their department, ask to be put through to them then continue the discussion. Why would anybody do anything else?

Does anybody else get the feeling that some of these enquiries are intended to worry us, complicate the whole issue and make us feel it's more complex than REFUSING TO SHARE CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION WITH SOMEONE WHO HASN'T PROVIDED PROOF OF WHO THEY ARE.

Moglex

Why would paypal be concerned with IP issues?

That's got FA to do with them.

IP issues are purely a matter for fleabay.

It's rather like your bank telling you it will close your account because it thinks you've downloaded something you shouldn't have.