Paypal Phishing email

I had a suspected phishing email this morning saying account had been locked and I needed to send documents to confirm my identity due to suspicious activity on my card.

Apart from recently sending some money to two individuals organising some gifts on behalf of a group of us last week, and a Qobuz purchase yesterday I’ve not used it for ages.

The font was odd which raised my suspicion immediately, but the email was pretty free of the usual errors we see, these things are getting more sophisticated.

Went to the normal Paypal site and managed to log in as normal rather than following the iffy link in the email. Have forwarded the email to their phishing team.

Just a heads up I suppose as it looked fairly genuine. I find it a little disconcerting it arrived a few hours after a Qobuz purchase.

3 Likes

You can usually tell if you look at the actual email address (not the display name) it came from and also if you look at where it is trying to redirect you to.

1 Like

The word “sophisticated” made me laugh. Amazing really that sophisticated here only needs to be spelt correctly and well presented with good English. Quite easy you would have thought :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

1 Like

I had a scam PayPal a while ago, the one I received was a poor attempt at looking genuine.
The best I’ve seen in recent times was a BT, all the usual & correct page art work, header & footer details, the only things missing were my partial * * * account number & my e-mail address.

1 Like

Yes thanks, I checked earlier, the link does not go to Paypal at all.

As noted a little disconcerting as I’d used Qo@@@ a few hours before.

Investigating my pp account I seem to have 2 pre-approved payments enabled - I honestly don’t recall consenting to these/setting them up.

The Q…. one has been there for years and is used for annual subscription purposes. It also helps when making download purchases but I’m tempted to disable.

The P… one seems new, I can’t identify the transaction beyond it being made in August, suspect a software purchase handled by them, but I can see no email receipts at around that date.

Screen Shot 2021-12-30 at 13.04.40

The ‘alarm bells ringing’ of course relies on the recipient actually realising the English/grammar is poor in the first place.

Isn’t that the point of these ‘poorly’ written emails. Those smart enough to spot the errors don’t bother responding. Scammers don’t want to waste their time dealing with those people. It’s a deliberate filtering process.

2 Likes

That’s an interesting thought, even more devious social engineering!

1 Like

I recently had one of those texts to my phone about a parcel that needed collection, “just click on this link”. I was deeply suspicious, in part because I wasn’t expecting a delivery, but also because the grammar and wording were very poor. Two days later I found out it was genuine. So even “proper” delivery services can use bad grammar and spelling. Confusing huh?

2 Likes

Obviously illiterate parcel delivery services undermine my argument a bit

1 Like

I wonder if it was ‘Whistl’ they can’t seem to spell their own name correctly :wink:

2 Likes

I had an Apple one recently, that looked pretty real on first reading. It was an invoice for the sale of an iPhone I had not purchased. No typos. Laid out properly. The e-mail address had some Apple connection - maybe it was mac-[something]. Two things gave it away: poor syntax in one sentence and the fact that the invoice did not charge me sales tax.

I still checked my credit card accounts carefully for the next several days.

1 Like

I use additional authentication with Microsoft Authenticator on every transaction.

Best not to click links these days.

Phil

1 Like

If you want a giggle watch this TED Talk from way back in 2015.
This is what happens when you reply to spam email | James Veitch

1 Like

I’ve seen that before, but not for some time.

I seem to recall a scam where someone only agreed to send money if the scammer joined their ‘religion’ which insisted on members painting lipstick around their nipples and sending a photo to confirm they’d joined the order - this identified the scammer who included their face in the photo!

We’re currently being bombarded with emails and texts from couriers, most are obviously fake however every now and then one is what I’d call sophisticated. Generally the link is the give away, the address has nothing to do with the company the notifications are from.

You need to be careful with any unusual emails or texts.

1 Like

The best one I’ve seen is when they infiltrated a genuine email trail

1 Like

My rule if I get such emails or texts is to go to the official websites to check. Never click a link.

There are many scams out there, the latest is someone pretending to be a family member who requires money urgently.

Listening to the ones who have responded they are sucked in because of concerns for their loved one. Logic would say call the family member but the immediate concern takes over.

These scams can trick us all.

1 Like

I do the same for unsolicited calls purporting to be from banks etc who ask you to confirm your securirty details - you have no idea who’s calling.

Although calls from your bank ask the same. Which has always seemed odd to me.

“Can you answer some security questions?”

“Can you?”

1 Like