Paypal users - Be very careful
 

I *almost* fell for a Paypal scam today. I caught it just in time...

I got an email that looked legit enough to me. Said that I needed to log in to my Paypal account to verify some irregular things going on with my account. Now, I figured something might be up because my credit card expires this month and I needed up update the new expiration date anyway so I clicked on the link and ended up on this page:

http://www.paypcl.com/login.htm

DO NOT enter any information on this page. Note that it's "paypcl.com".

Tricky... and very illegal I presume.

Thanks for the heads-up Chris.

That could be nasty!

When an experienced webmaster almost gets tricked by this kind of scam you've really got to wonder just how many regular surfers fell for it.

Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking.

The best way to avoid falling for PayPal scams is to STOP USING PAYPAL. PayPal sucks anyway.

B

I must be lucky then, because I've never had a problem with them.

I have heard the horror stories though. Sometimes people inflict this upon themselves.

Thanks for the heads up

They probably send out a few million emails. If they get just a couple dozen replies they can still steal a lot of money.

B

The same goes with Ebay and other well-known online services.

However I've never encountered the misspelling domains so far but I normally get stuff like that:

http://www.paypal.com@123.53.34.83/somedir

The IP above indicated does not reflect a real one...

the frontend looks then like the normal login section to the according service.

To report such spoof emails write to: spoof@paypal.com

Edit: I posted the same warning some time ago on GFY... I just wonder why I didn't post it here also...

I haven't had any problems with it really. But I understand a lot of people have. Then again, I only use it once in awhile for small transfers for this or that. Usually software purchases.

i've had decent luck with paypal (knock on wood). but there really isn't much of an alternative, most of the people i deal with only use paypal.

if epass or something would gain a little more momentum, i'd be fairly happy.

Thanks Evil Chris, that is some eye.

There is now a message on that link that says he has been hacked.

I'm receiving even more scam emails today. pcypal.com is today's scam site.

Yeah thks for the heads up... :)

I got that same email many times now Chris. I also almost fell for it also. In fact, I had to ask Kre8t0r about it, and he almost fell for it... I wonder exactly how many people have fallen for it, since we are experienced in spam and we almost fell for it......

Exactly my thoughts Bratt...
If you and I can almost fall for it... how many actually did. I hate stuff like this.

Damn that's crazy! At first glance it's hard to catch it.

Thanks for the notice. That is crazy.

I have had pretty good luck with PayPal, but they did something really weird to a friend of mine. They froze her account for using it to sell and adult video. The catch is that she sold the video BEFORE they changed their TOS and stopped allowing the sale of adult products. They have never explained themselved or given her her money to this day.

hmm.....

That site is down now, but when I first went in..looked just like the paypal login screen. You gotta be careful with all these scammers out there.

Yea, I get those emails all the time as well. One thing I always look for is the greeting.

Pay Pal will ALWAYS address you by your name in emails.

The scam emails always say Dear Pay Pal Member,

That is one quick and easy way to tell.

One of girls in accounting almost fell for one of the emails and was going to "update" our cc #, but luckily she asked me about it and I was like, uh we don't have a credit card set up on Pay Pal ! So, we got wise on that REAL fast !

Thanks for the heads up Chris!!! :xthumbs:

Take care,

Bruno Dickman

Thanks for the info Chris

I got the same email

but I went to my bookmark for payapl and checked it out.
I always do it this way, that way I am sure I am on the real paypal site.

No way I am going to get ripped off.

I clicked that link, and now it's set up to look like yahoo mail!

What's an alternative to paypal?

What's an alternative to paypal?

I got an email a couple of weeks ago that was similar to this but wasn't the paypcl. It actually went to a paypal.com but I guess there was some facet of the url that was hidden. It was discussing a recent phone conversation I had with them and a need to follow up. I didn't do anything with it but went to the paypal site and there is an email addy you can report anything suspicious to and that's what I did and sure enough it was a scam so at least I didn't give any info up.

Derek, the only names i've heard thrown out as alternatives to paypal are moneybookers, stormpay and epasseporte. I don't personally use any of these but a lot of webmasters do.

The thing I find so convenient about my paypal account is the fact that I have a mastercard tied to it and can use that anywhere without having to find an atm. For me that's a huge convenience.

I've just gotten in a habit of going straight to paypal.com when I get something like this....even some of my recent auctions, I go straight to the site and verify everything.