How do you tell if an email from Ebay or Paypal is Fraud?

[jhongs]

Hello,
as topic states, i receive a lot of fraudulent ebay emails, most of them are easily identifiable since the link points to a geocities webpage.
But, I would still like to hear from everyone how to tell them apart in case the email is a real one from ebay.
Jeff

[muminlaw]

x-modz ...... thanks for clarifying that, but I think, not mutually exclusive??!!!!


Glenda

[amberwoodottawa]

I had 2 people perhaps 5 months ago email me and ask if the email address was the correct one.

As far as sorting incoming emails, you can set up your folders to have whatever dropped into any folder you want. You can have any emails containing "PayPal" in the title go straight to a PayPal folder, all those with "eBay" in the title go straight to an eBay folder.

While I dont do the volume of sales because of what I sell as many of you do, I still get alot of email traffic per day with a dialy minimum of 50 and going up to 200 or more.

By segregating all emails into different folders (say those with attachments I have automatically go to a virus folder to be reviewed later) I have a fairly organized and priorized email system.

Malcolm

[acurael]

xmod - the code word idea is clever and would work very well.

I've never had anyone attempt to spoof a payment notice, but it had crossed my mind that someone would.

Now we send a PayPal packing slip with all orders, so you have to login and find the payment to print the slip.

[atticmania]

I agree that having a Paypal code word displayed on the subject line is a great idea.
It would enable seller's to instantly spot a fake a payment notice.

[x-modz]

Ok, so my simple code-word idea seems straightforward enough, and seems to have garnered some positive responses.

However, will PayPal actually act upon something that would both simplify things for high volume sellers (like alot of us here), while also adding a very easy, yet positively effective level of extra security?

I doubt it.

In the meantime, I'm still stuck switching back and forth between PayPal's browser window, and my email client to actually verify the legitimacy of payment emails.

Since my eBay clientelle is usually highly computer literate 19 to 30 year olds, that makes me a prime candidate for spoofing. I've nearly become victim to the PayPal spoof payment email on more then one occasion.

Without catching it, it's entirely possible that once or twice in the past I *have* fallen for it, and shipped product that was never legitimately paid for.

When time is short, and I'm trying to play catch up on a whole days worth of emails (payments, and otherwise), It could be quite easy.

This seems to be a fairly large gap in PayPal's systems that could be plugged with a very simple, yet effective code-word system like we all seem to agree on.