PayPal Wants You to Verify Your Personal Information–Fiction!
Summary of 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