Beware of scam using PayPal!

I like to fill these out with as much information as I can. Usually I use the information of Senators, congressmen, government officals (obviously I make up a pin, credit card number, ssn, etc). But the phone, address, and contact info I give as the business office of whatever govornment official I can. I figure if they actually try to contact the person it'd be pretty funny (and bad for the bad guy) if he's trying to get info out of a senator. Plus, it will take a senator getting hit before lawmakers actually take this stuff seriously.

Ryan,

Wow, that sucks to hear they got you with that email. Best of luck getting the funds back. I almost feel for it also a while back, but I noticed a few things that gave it away as being a scam before I even clicked on the link.

1.) It ended up in my spam folder. However some do still make it to the Inbox as well.

2.) This is how I pick out a scam link. Put your mouse over the link they want you to click on that might say www.paypal.com in blue/link text. While your mouse is over that link look at the status bar on your monitor. If the link isn't a direct link to paypal(ie www.paypal.com) or whatever the blue test link says, then it's probably a scam. A scam link in the status bar will usually have an IP address proceeding the word paypal. The scam link in the status bar might look like http://10.60.178.156?www.paypal.com. If you see something like that in the status bar, don't click the link cause it is taking you to the IP address/fake website, not paypal. Hope this helps someone.

Justin

....Oops I guess I should have read the whole thread first, LOL. I feel like an idiot now. I see that my information is no new secret, as it's already posted on the first page in the post that has the paypal screenshot. Oh well, now you heard it twice and are more likely to remember Hopefully they won't get you next time(...and there will be a next time. I get at least one of those emails a week). Later!


Justin

Ways they'll get you:

• You've Just Won A Gift Certificate -- Click Here to Claim
• You've Just Paid $Zillion to Joe Nobody (Links included if this is a phony transaction)
• You're Account has been broken into -- Click here to change your password
• Email Account Fake@Isp.Com has been added to your account (links included if this is a phony email address)
• Security Update -- Click here to update your account.
• Fraud report filed against you. -- Click here to refute fraud claims

If you get an email... go to a NEW browser window. Type in www.paypal.com and then if there is anything you need to attend to, they'll have a notice for you once you log in.

NEVER believe any email you get. EVER.

I had someone pay me THREE times for the same purchase. After the second purchase I refunded her and sent her an email. AFter the third payment I told her I would only refund her if she contacted me. She never did. Rather than get scammed somehow, I kept the money. Wrong? Perhaps. But too many scammers and ways to be scammed for me to mess around with fishy transactions and no verification.

from PayPal Staff, with this heading: Account Review Department-Unauthorized access . They never give up.

They caught me at the perfect time. I have never seen or heard of these scams before. I get the ones from Nigeria, the UK etc. all the time and always just respond with a F@%& Off or something similar. But I had no knowledge of these. The first one I get and for whatever reason, I wasn't thinking about ANYTHING. I went in, did it real quick and sent it. I sent some dick in India my credit card number and PIN. Actually typed it and sent it to him. I am dead broke for a week until I get paid again and the bank is saying I might not get my $300 that was in my account back because I supplied them with the information. I totally see why people don't trust banks too. Aren't they supposed to protect your money? Why were they even able to overdraw my account $700 in one day before I caught it? I caught it, not them. The checks for my bills are bouncing. At least the bank is taking off the fees for that. This is gonna be a total mess to fix. But whatever. It's my own fault for being a dumbass for 3 minutes. Lesson learned. In a month it'll be all better and on to the next problem. I saw this was back at the top so figured I'd take the opporunity to whine for a minute. Thanks.

oh I love those.

I always click on the link.

Then I watch it take me to a site other than paypal (look at the address bar)

Then I fill out all the information they ask for with "valualbe" information

F@x Uou
Bend U over
and so forth and so on.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune and sure hope you can recover your money.

Good luck.

I had put the word out that this was starting a little while (A week?) ago on this site, see the general business section. If you had looked at the address bar when you clicked on the link that would have given you all the information you would have needed to keep from being scammed. I emailed the admin at the website my spoof email originated from with a nice little attachment...go trojans! I hope they opened it & it screwed their computer up! I doubt paypal will be of any help, they're not really costomer friendly, just really greedy...they made money off your fraudulant transactions.

Ro Hill

They certainly do their best to make them look as legitimate ads. It’s understandable that every now and then someone who has never received or heard from one of those will fall for them. That’s the very reason why we keep receiving them, they send out mass mailings to thousands of people. If they would have to send them to one person at a time it would not be cost effective! That’s why reptile dealers known to have scammed people in the past still thrive, the potential market of the internet is huge. There’s a lot we can learn from nature. Just like the alligator snapper wiggles its worm-looking appendix at the end of its tongue jaws wide open until an unsuspected fish falls for it, so do these unscrupulous dealers “wiggle” their merchandise. The more they “wiggle it” (flashy names, non-existent genetics, to good to pass prices, etc.) the greater the chances an unsuspected individual will fall for it. It doesn’t matter if one fish escapes, there will always be plenty on which to thrive on.

Although some might feel annoying to hear repeated e-mails of Nigerian scams, and of these PayPal/Ebay/Banks impersonators it seems there’s a need to post a reminder every now and then. If by doing so one person in a thousand is spared from falling for these, it was very well worth the effort.

Best regards.