These Guys Aren’t Even Trying Hard To Fool People

Posted by Ken

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These PayPal phishing emails are becoming more and more popular it seems, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the people behind them are getting any smarter.

This last message I received was still dripping with urgency, but they must have missed the class that explained how to hide the true destination of a link. Check it out:

Your account has been flagged!
PayPal Security Measures.

Dear PayPal Member,

Your account has been randomly flagged in our system as a part of our routine security measures. This is a must to ensure that only you have access and use of your Paypal account and to ensure a safe PayPal experience. We require all flagged accounts to verify their information on file with us. To verify your information at this time, please visit our secure server webform by clicking the hyperlink below:

[linked snipped]

If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to temporarily suspend your account.

Thank you for your patience as we work together to protect your account.

I removed the link for obvious reasons. Just know that it was an IP address with nothing to do with PayPal. Both the displayed text of the link and the actual code behind it were the same.

What to take away from this message?

As always, someone like PayPal would surely use your name if they were really contacting you.
The part about “…you leave us no choice…” Come on — neither PayPal nor any self-respecting business would ever speak to their members that way. It’s merely to scare people into taking an action.
Even though it’s not shown here, I can tell you that the message didn’t even show my email address. I had to dig deeper to find out what they did use, and true, it’s a real address of mine, but again, PayPal would have no reason to be so secretive about that.

Surf safely!