“You sent a payment of…” Have you received this email from PayPal for an eBay purchase you didn’t make? I did. And it stopped me for a few minutes because I don’t shop on Ebay. And I typically don’t send money via PayPal. Normally, I would mark the PayPal eBay email as spam and trash it immediately. But, there were enough things about this one to make me curious.
A close look at the PayPal eBay email
- The email had the correct PayPal logo and a generally professional appearance. However, the real tipoff was the spelling in the salutation—Dear Costumer. Unless I’m mistaken, this isn’t Halloween and I’m not attending a masquerade ball.
- The return address was faked perfectly. On the email I received, it was impossible to tell it wasn’t from PayPal without looking at the message source.
- Supposedly, I purchased an Officiel Samsung Gear VR Oculus something-or-other for $185.00. The sender should have checked his math because the total was listed at $152.00.
Why the PayPal eBay email is dangerous
The email includes an invoice number along with a link to cancel the payment. Instinctively, many people might be tempted to click the “cancel payment” link. Taking this action, however, is exactly what the scammers want recipients to do. The website for the link in the email I received is now blacklisted, but it has likely already been replaced by a new URL.
Two lessons to take away
Phishing emails all follow the same pattern, provide some sort of bait, entice the recipient to click a link, then steal information on a bogus website. So, while the spammers’ tactics change, the intent does not. It also means the same two solutions will not fail you.
- Be skeptical of all email you’re not expecting. Whether it’s from PayPal, eBay, or a good friend, if you weren’t expecting the email, check it out very closely before you trust.
- Never click a link in an email you can’t trust completely.
The rules are simple, but they will keep you safe from these kinds of scams.
Your PayPal warning is well done. I keep getting mailings from various banks (none of which I use) that there is a problem with my account…It all looks very official.
Recently I’m having a problem with Facebook. They are frequently blocking my access saying I may have malware and I should use their removal scan. The major challenge is the scan–It doesn’t download, just sits and spins in time out. On the rare occasion that it will scan, I can then go back into FB.
I have no idea what this is all about, but it is a royal pain. Especially since early this week my computer died, possible related to this. Fortunately my son is a computer person and managed to resurrect it, but I lost things like bookmarks.
Hi Elizabeth, thanks for the comment. It does sound like malware on your computer. You should definitely have a full scan done to see what’s going on. Thanks for following and I wish you luck with your computer!