PayPal Suspicious Emails

[EduTech]

Afternoon,

Over the past few months i have been getting alot of this appear, on eBay when i have sold something someone telling me they have sent the payment and it is awaiting for me to send them a couriour number before the money will go into my account etc

I also had someone want to purchase something from me via PayPal last night, but as the email they sent was pretty obvious it wasn't paypal and the email was @yahoo.co.uk i reported it.

And weirdly looking back when this happend on eBay, They were going to suspend my account because i re-listed the Item without sending it to the person that brought the item, the reason being because they emailed me with one of those emails saying that the funds were secure blah blah. looking at this email eBay should have known better in that aspect as it does not happen.

Anyway, i thought i would just post up the email i received from PayPal today as it might help other people.. I'm pretty aware with the guidelines and look out for most of the stuff but there are many people who dont or dont know what they are looking for.

Dear {MyName},

Thank you for contacting PayPal regarding your concern. I understand that
you are suspicious about an email that you received. I appreciate that you
feel the need to be cautious. At PayPal, we take your account security very
seriously. Rest assured I will investigate this thoroughly.

{My Name}, I appreciate your time in bringing this matter to our attention.
I do hope that with the help of this email, we can have it clarified for
you.

I have thoroughly checked your account and I have seen that your account is
in perfect shape. Actually, {My Name}, the email address to where this
fraudulent email came from was quite strange. We normally make us of an
email address under 'service@paypal.co.uk' and as far as PayPal is
concerned, we deal with instant payments so if you happen to receive a
payment then it should automatically reflect on your account. Moreover, we
always advise sellers like you to make sure that a payment must reflect
first on your account before sending any item. Good enough that you were
not able to provide any of the items that you are in question of. Please do
not send any item for I believe that the transaction is fraudulent.

I can confirm that the email notification that you received advising that
you had received a payment was not sent by PayPal.
PayPal will never ask you to provide the tracking number of a posted item
before receiving payment into your PayPal account.

If you have recently sent the item, please contact your postal company to
stop the delivery. If this is not possible, you have the option to file a
police report regarding possible fraud.

If you have not yet sent the item, please don't send it. If your item was
listed on eBay, please contact eBay's Customer Service to cancel the
auction in question.
If you believe you've received a spoof email, please forward the entire
email, including the header information to spoof@paypal.com and then delete
the email from your mailbox. Never click any links or attachments in a
suspicious email.

I've listed some security tips below to help you stay protected online:

• Never give your PayPal password to anyone
• PayPal will never ask you for financial information via email.
• When using the PayPal service, always ensure that the URL address listed
at the top of the browser displays as https://www.paypal.com The 's'
ensures that the website is secure. Even if the URL contains the word
'PayPal', it may not be a PayPal webpage.

Also, look for the 'lock' symbol that appears in the lower right hand
corner of the browser. This symbol indicates that the site you are visiting
is secure.

If you'd like to see more information on spoof emails and security tips,
please follow these steps:

1. Log in to your PayPal account at Welcome - PayPal
2. Click 'Security Centre' at the bottom of any PayPal webpage.
3. Click 'Safety Tools'.

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,
Sallie
PayPal

Hope it helps,

James.

[elsiegee40]

We do a lot of buying and selling on eBay and get a fair number of rubbish emails.

I have to admit that I largely ignore all the emails I get from both Paypal and eBay. If I want to check something out, I log onto eBay or PayPal as appropriate. eBay won't send you an email without putting it in your My eBay message centre and similarly, if PayPal really need to get in touch things will appear on the PayPal console.

If a payment is waiting for authorisation (and it's only happened to us when we've been buying from eBay newbies) in PayPal it does show as waiting on the console!

In a nutshell, check out your buying and selling activitiy in the website and ignore the emails. Only post to the address you find in PayPal for the transaction buyer, never anywhere else, even if apparently requested by the buyer. If it isn't in either PayPal or eBay, it hasn't happened.