WARNING ebay and paypal spoof emails

soolin

thifty wrote: »

My friend has just started selling things on ebay and has been scammed by someone in Nigeria to the tune of £250 for some jewellery. the emails from paypal and ebay both looked very convincing but didn't have the padlock symbol at the bottom which she didn't know about. "Paypal" sent her an email saying that she had to pay a £100 customs charge and that payment from the buyer had been received but would only be released to her once she, the seller had paid the charge. Unfortunately she paid this and sent the jewellery off. They then asked for more money (not sure what for) and she realised it was a scam at this point. Her paypal account is also now suspended while the fraud investigation is taking place which means she can't do any returns or refunds so might lose customers who think she is a scammer. Be warned!

Unfortunately it is the case that some people are always going to be scammed, no matter how obvious the scam is. To most regulars on here and I suspect 99.9% of ebay selllers generally we don't need threads like this, we would see a scam with our eyes closed and one hand tied behind our back. We get threads where it is almost impossible to see why someone fell for something so obvious but we do forget that there are a few who would not see a scam even if 'this is a scam' was written all over it.
The trick is how to get those more naive sellers to understand the risks, I don't have the answers and I suspect that they are the ones least likely to even open this thread.

I have never come across a way of informing people who do not want to be informed, about scams. How do we reach them, how do we get them forcibly to read the warnings? I wish there was an answer to this rhetorical post, but I certainly do not have one. If people could protect themselves and have even a basic level of understanding about scams then these scumbag scammers would all have to give up and get a proper job.

owitemisermusa

Hello, this message os for the board admin people.

The phishing and other spoof emails being detailed on this thread all contain LIVE links! I mean people are sending in their scam/spam/spoof/phishes, but surely there should be a way to de-activate them so that folks don't accidentally click them.

I'm not being paranoid (I hope).

frivolous_fay

I found this page in Martin's blog the other day
http://www.thinkjessica.com/
It's amazing how organised scammers are over the world, and how hard it is to help someone being scammed who doesn't want to believe it.

Here's quite a good guide:
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/watch_out/Scams/

alex-wakefield

i tend to just hover over links in outlook, and if the link is not to ebay.co.uk or similar. I assume it's hooky.

is this a bad way to check? I just look out for things like... s/ebay.co.uk things that look similar. You know?

littlegirllost

though im normally spot a email from scams a mile away my oh received
a email from ukrswebhelp@ebay.com advising that his ebay
account had been hacked into,
I have to admit it looks genuine and the fact i am the only person
who ebays it what my oh put warning bells on to.
But what i dont get is, what is the purpose of this email. Its not
asking to respond to it, so how can it hack in to your details?

littlegirllost

oops just re read the email and its asks you to reply to the email doh.

Can I just suggest to everybody to be careful of these emails

TurkishDelight

This one nearly got me, it came from paypal@email.paypal.co.uk, and the square brackets are mine, every personal detail was correct.

Why your PayPal transaction was declined - PayPal If this email is not displayed correctly, please click here.
To ensure that your PayPal emails get to your inbox, please add [EMAIL="paypal@email.co.uk"]paypal@email.co.uk[/EMAIL] to your email Address Book or Safe List
Dear

,
Unfortunately, your recent PayPal transaction was declined because you do not have a valid payment method attached to your PayPal account.
If you have used PayPal to make a payment before, it may be that the credit or debit card you had attached to your account has now expired.
Add a payment method to PayPal
1. Log in to your PayPal account at www.paypal.co.uk
2. Go to Profile and select from the list, to add a debit or credit card.
3. Follow the instructions to add your chosen payment method to your PayPal account.

Once you have added a valid debit or credit card to your PayPal account, you will be able to complete safer, faster transactions with PayPal.
We also recommend adding your bank account to PayPal. Unlike cards, your bank account does not have an expiry date which means it will not need updating on PayPal. You will need to complete our bank confirmation process to pay with your bank account via PayPal.
Yours sincerely,
PayPal



How to get Verified Essential security tools Don't fall for a
fake email See how you are
protected with PayPal How do I know this is not a Spoof email? Spoof or 'phishing' emails tend to have generic greetings such as "Dear PayPal member". Emails from PayPal will always address you by your first and last name. Find out more.
PayPal Demo Help Your Security Contact Us Go Shopping This email was sent to

because your email preferences are set to receive the PayPal Periodical newsletter and Product Updates. Click here to unsubscribe.

Copyright © 1999-2009 PayPal. All rights reserved. PayPal S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., Soci!t! en Commandite par Actions. Registered office: 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449, Luxembourg, R.C.S. Luxembourg B 118 349.

eyelinerprincess

[COLOR=#666666 ! important][COLOR=#333333 ! important]Dear PayPal member,[/COLOR]

You sent a payment of 100.00 GBP to Play and Connect Ltd ([EMAIL="fairyland@playandconnect.com"]fairyland@playandconnect.com[/EMAIL])

Merchant
Play and Connect Ltd
[EMAIL="fairyland@playandconnect.com"]fairyland@playandconnect.com[/EMAIL] Instructions to merchant
You haven't entered any instructions.

Description Unit price Qty Amount 750 Gold
Item Number 103 , uid: 1400473058 , uid2: 100.00 GBP 1 100.00 GBP Subtotal 100.00 GBP [COLOR=#333333 ! important]Total[/COLOR] 100.00 GBP [COLOR=#333333 ! important]Payment[/COLOR] 100.00 GBP Charge will appear on your credit card statement as 'PAYPAL *MYFAIRYLAND'
Payment sent to [EMAIL="fairyland@playandconnect.com"]fairyland@playandconnect.com[/EMAIL]
Issues with this transaction?
You have 5 days from the date of the transaction to cancel it.

If you haven't authorized this charge ,click the link below to cancel transaction:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1fa798f5a5f5ae42e77

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 click Help in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

To receive email notifications in plain text instead of HTML, log in to your PayPal account, go to your P Copyright c1999-2009 PayPal. All rights reserved.

PayPal (Europe) S.a r.l. & Cie, S.C.A.
Societe en Commandite par Actions
Registered Office: 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg
RCS Luxembourg B 118 349

PayPal Email ID PP120[/COLOR]

eyelinerprincess

Above email details:

From: <img id="P___2031965724" webimdisplaystyle="inline" style="display: none;"> PayPal (service@paypal.co.uk) Sent: 28 May 2009 23:00:38 To: customer@paypal.co.uk
Came into my non paypal email account though (I have one email specially dedicated to Paypal/ebay), which is so obscure no one has emailed it with junk yet.

Cool_Mint

I'm not sure wjhere to post this question (Paypal almost deserves it's own section) so I'll stick it here and see if I get any replies..

Is there a way to set a daily withdrawal limit on my Paypal account? Bizarrely there is an option to set a maximum annual limit but I can't see any way to stop someone clearing out my entire account!

Every cash-machine has a daily limit to prevent exactly this kind of theft so how do I set up my Paypal account the same way?