Alert: Fake PayPal Phishing Scam Email

There is a fake email getting through some spam filters this week, claiming to be from PayPal. The subject of the email reads: “Reminder: Your account will be limited until we hear from you.” The email is from  jecilj@billing.com. Below we have included the body of the email. Pay particular attention to the link they provide:

We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your PayPal account may have been
accessed by an unauthorized third party. Protecting the security of your account and of the PayPal
network is our primary concern. Therefore, as a prevention measure, we have temporarely limited
access to sensitive PayPal account features. Please click on the link below to confirm your information: 

https://www.paypal.com 

For more information about how to protect your account, please visit PayPal’s Security Center,
accessible via the “Security Center” link located at the bottom of each page of the PayPal website. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your assistance in helping us
maintain the integrity of the entire PayPal system. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Thank you for using PayPal!

Sincerely,
PayPal Customer Service

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Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. 
For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

Copyright © 1999-2012 PayPal. All rights reserved.

Rather than clicking on links in an email claiming to be from PayPal, go to the site directly to look for any alerts.

The link they provide will display as “https://www.paypal.com” but in fact will send you to “http://almost.from-ak.com/web/index.php” which will no doubt attempt to gain your login information.

Just because an email says it’s from PayPal and include a link that says “PayPal” and goes to a site that looks like PayPal doesn’t mean it’s from PayPal. If you receive an email from PayPal that says there is an issue with your account, don’t click on any links. Open up a web browser and go to PayPal directly and log into your account. That’s what I did today, and as expected – there were no alerts or notifications.

6/29/2012 Update:
We’ve spotted another variety. This email attempts to sound less urgent, but merely that you need to update your info with them. The email reads:

Dear Costumer,

We are currently performing regular maintenance of our security measures.
It has come to our attention that your PayPal billing information are out of date
and your account was temporary locked.

Continue and complete the renew form with your current information.

If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to temporaly suspend your account.
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

Hopefully the horrendous spelling alone is a red flag for most people. And the problem is with that “Continue” link, which actually goes to http://tartunoored.ee/media/a.php – and not Paypal. Be careful!