PayPal wants you to update your financial information-Fiction!

PayPal Wants You to Verify Your Personal Information-Fiction!

Summary of the eRumor
There are a couple of versions of this eRumor and some versions have them combined.
One says it's from PayPal, the online payment system, and that your account will be closed in 5 days unless you verify your account information with them.
The other says that because of routine security precautions, you are to go to PayPal to verify your account information and it includes a link that is allegedly to PayPal.

The Truth
Both of these emails are designed to trick you into revealing personal financial information..

One comes with a message that says your PayPal account is going to be closed in 5 days if you don't respond.
It urges you to update your credit card information through the "secure application" attached.
When you click the attachment, a window opens with a PayPal logo and you are asked to fill in your credit card and other financial information.
Instead of going to PayPal, however, it is sent to four email addresses owned by the scammers.

Earlier versions of Mimail merely looked for email address and sent them to the originator of the virus.

The other vesion says that PayPal is doing an routine online verification of information for security purposes and asks you to click a link to update your information.
Most of the scam links have been taken down, but PayPal warns you not to respond to any such emails.
If you have questions about your PayPal account, go directly to the PayPal website at www.paypal.com.

CLICK HERE for information on other similar schemes.

Last updated 11/17/03

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Subject:
YOUR PAYPAL.COM ACCOUNT EXPIRES

From:
"PayPal.com" donotreply@paypal.com

Body:
Dear PayPal member,
PayPal would like to inform you about some important information regarding your PayPal account. This account, which is associated with the email address will be expiring within five business days. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause, but this is occurring because all of our customers are required to update their account settings with their personal information. We are taking these actions because we are implementing a new security policy on our website to insure everyone's absolute privacy. To avoid any interruption in PayPal services then you will need to run the application that we have sent with this email (see attachment) and follow the instructions. Please do not send your personal information through email, as it will not be as secure. IMPORTANT! If you do not update your information with our secure application within the next five business days then we will be forced to deactivate your account and you will not be able to use your PayPal account any longer. It is strongly recommended that you take a few minutes out of your busy day and complete this now. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE VIA EMAIL! This mail is sent by an automated message system and the reply will not be received. Thank you for using PayPal.