Last week I received what looked like, at first glance, an e-mail message
from PayPal informing me of a problem with my account. It had the PayPal
logo, etc. It asked me to click on a link to correct some problems with my
account. I was then expected to fill out a form of personal information
containing among other things, SSN, credit card number, PIN, which I did not
do.
This was obviously an identity theft attempt. It was also obviously sent by
a person(s) whose first language was not English. I immediately went to
PayPal and found no evidence of problems whatsoever. A PayPal link also
indicated they always use a member's first or last name in e-mails (of
little comfort).
Text of the message read (including misspacing and grammatical errors):
Dear valued customer
We regret to inform you that your PayPal account could be suspended if you
don?t resolve your problems. To resolve this problems please click here and
login to your account in order resolve your account problems. If your
problems could not be resolved your account will be suspended for a period
of 3-4 days, after that it will be terminated.
For the User Agreement, Section 9, we may immediately issue a warning,
temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate your membership and
refuse to provide our services to you if we believe that your actions may
cause financial loss or legal liability for you, our users, or us. We may
also take these actions if we are unable to verify or authenticate any
information you provide to us.
Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are prohibited
from using PayPal in any way. This includes the registering of a new
account.Please note that this suspension does not relieve you of your
agreed-upon obligation to pay any fees you may owe to PayPal.
Regards,Safeharbor Department PayPal, Inc
The PayPal team.
This is an automatic message. Please do not reply.
Tom C.
