As the popularity of doing business online grows so, unfortunately, do instances of online fraud. PayPal is widely recognised as a safe way of transferring funds and making payments online, making fraudulent PayPal activity very attractive to scammers. After all, millions of us trust PayPal and this trust is the main thing which makes online fraud possible.
As with any other email, be careful about clicking links on emails claiming to have come from PayPal, particularly if you do not recognise the transaction mentioned in the mail. If you suspect that an email is fake just from reading the subject line, do not even open it. Instead, forward it immediately to spoof@paypal.com and delete it.
If you have opened the email, clicked on a link or downloaded an attachment before realising that the email was not genuine, report the spoof site to PayPal as soon as possible to enable them to protect both your account and those belonging to other customers. The same email address, spoof@paypal.com should be used for forwarding the suspicious email.
Protecting yourself from phishing:
- Never click on a link or open an attachment from a potentially suspicious email. If an email asks you to visit the PayPal website, type the address manually into your browser, rather than clicking on the link provided.
- If an email asks you to call PayPal, again visit the website by typing the URL in manually and locating the genuine customer services number. The one provided in the email may be a fake, designed to trick you into providing personal information.
- Remember that genuine PayPal emails will always address you using both your first and surnames, or your business name.
- Remember that PayPal will never request information such as your bank account details, card numbers, passwords or email addresses via email.
- If an email claiming to be from PayPal asks for personal information, do not click on any links, regardless of how genuine the email appears to be.
Spotting spoof emails:
The following traits can easily give away spoof emails; bear them in mind when deciding whether or not an email is genuine:
- A generic email greeting such as “Dear Customer” or “Dear User”. PayPal will always use your full name or your business name, as applicable.
- A sense of urgency, demanding that you log into your account immediately is also a sure-fire giveaway.
- Requests for personal information via email or by clicking a link.
- Requests to open or download an attachment.
Remember:
- Sender’s email address can be faked so don’t be lulled into a false sense of security just because the sender seems legit.
- If you are asked to visit the PayPal website, open a new browser window and type www.paypal.com manually; do not click links in the email.
- Avoid downloading or opening attachments.
Spotting spoof websites:
- Spoof websites tend to use URLs which are close to the genuine website address to give visitors a sense of security. Examples of spoof PayPal URLS include www.secure-paypal.com and www.signin-paypal.com.
- All genuine PayPal pages start with https:// rather than just http://. The s signifies that the page is secure.
- Make sure that the lock icon is in the status bar at the bottom of the browser window. Many spoof phishing sites put a lock just inside the browser window to trick visitors into believing they are genuine.
If in any doubt, access PayPal by typing the address manually into a new browser window and forward any suspicious emails to spoof@paypal.com. PayPal will reply to let you know whether the email was genuine or not.
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