{"id":704,"date":"2008-12-03T14:21:28","date_gmt":"2008-12-03T06:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whoisandrewwee.com\/?p=704"},"modified":"2008-12-03T14:23:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-03T06:23:00","slug":"paypal-account-phishing-scam-takes-a-new-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/internet-marketing\/paypal-account-phishing-scam-takes-a-new-twist\/","title":{"rendered":"Paypal Account Phishing Scam Takes A New Twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’re probably already familiar with the old phishing scams where someone has passed away\/fled a third world country\/discovered some long-forgotten funds and needs your “help” to wire the money. For just a small “administrative” fee, the person will share the $15 million amount with you.<\/p>\n

Though this online fraud has been exposed some time ago, people are still falling for it.<\/p>\n

The latest scam has an interesting twist.<\/p>\n

Here’s an email I received:<\/p>\n

Dear User,\r\n\r\nWe recently noticed that a transaction may have been made without your\r\nknowledge or consent. We are currently investigating the following\r\ntransaction: \r\n\r\n-----------------------------------\r\nDetails of Disputed Transaction\r\n-----------------------------------\r\n\r\nSeller's name: Hagio-Host\r\nSeller's email: yawvaar@gmail.com\r\nSeller's transaction ID: 7YW39066PT6017814\r\n\r\nTransaction date: Nov 25, 2008\r\nTransaction amount: -$80.94 USD\r\nYour transaction ID: 30L88064FF065545B\r\nCase number: PP-587-442-704\r\n\r\nTo see the details of this case, log in to your PayPal account by following the link below and go to\r\nthe Resolution Center.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.paypal[dot]com\/login?secure=ssl32?caseid=7YW39066PT6017814?=disputeTRANSACTION<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe seller has been asked to provide information about this transaction.\r\nDuring this time the funds are not available in your account<\/strong>, but if the\r\nunauthorized activity claim is decided in your favor, we will fully refund\r\nyou for the amount of the transaction.\r\n\r\nSincerely,\r\n\r\nAccount Review Department\r\n\r\nPlease do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you\r\nwill not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account\r\nand click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.\r\n\r\nBC:PP-587-442-704:R1:USD80.94:11\/25\/2008:30L88064FF065545B<\/em><\/pre>\n
—<\/p>\n
This looks pretty legitimate, however, checking on the hyperlinked address to “fix” this problem, it goes to “http:\/\/paypal.update-user-info[dot]com\/index.htm&#8221<\/a>;
\nWhich is obviously intended to harvest your paypal login and password.<\/p>\n
They probably won’t catch too many people with this trick, but still it pays to be careful.
\nAlways check the originating domain and you’re unsure, go to the Paypal website and drop them an email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You’re probably already familiar with the old phishing scams where someone has passed away\/fled a third world country\/discovered some long-forgotten funds and needs your “help” to wire the money. For just a small “administrative” fee, the person will share the $15 million amount with you. Though this online fraud has been exposed some time ago, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[1521,1519,1788,1517,1518,1520],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whoisandrewwee.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}