eBay

amberwoodottawa · ‎11-15-2003

I fired up my computer this morning and had 3 emails with attachments and 1 crank email (same guy emailing me for the last 7 months, totally untracelable).

One of the emails purportedly comes from PayPay.com with instructions that my PayPal account is about to be cancelled unless I download the attached program (Duh, what sort of dummy do they think I am).

I have special security measures that I took so I knew that this was bogus from the outset and not sent by PayPal however it sounds real enough to fish some people in.

Here is the body of the email:

Dear PayPal member,

PayPal would like to inform you about some important information regarding your PayPal account. This account, which is associated with the email address

sales@shopline.ca

will be expiring within five business days. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause, but this is occurring because all of our customers are required to update their account settings with their personal information.

We are taking these actions because we are implementing a new security policy on our website to insure everyone's absolute privacy. To avoid any interruption in PayPal services then you will need to run the application that we have sent with this email (see attachment) and follow the instructions. Please do not send your personal information through email, as it will not be as secure.

IMPORTANT! If you do not update your information with our secure application within the next five business days then we will be forced to deactivate your account and you will not be able to use your PayPal account any longer. It is strongly recommended that you take a few minutes out of your busy day and complete this now.

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE VIA EMAIL! This mail is sent by an automated message system and the reply will not be received.

Thank you for using PayPal.

aevaklik

As I pointed out, worded real enough to fool some people. The remitting email was from "donotreply@paypal.com".

I provided PayPal with the information so lets see how fast they react to this situation. I received their typical automated response "Thanks for bringin this Spam to our attention... blah blah blah"

Malcolm

deltone · ‎11-15-2003

Thanks for the heads up Malcolm!!!

randall@ebay.com · ‎11-18-2003

Yes Malcolm, thanks for the heads up.

I would encourage all users to not only post information like this (as a warning to others) but also forward them to spoof@paypal.com (if it is eBay related spoof@ebay.com).

Keep in mind that PayPal does not send notices instructing users to "do this" or "download this" to avoid your account being suspended.

PayPal will not ask for any sensitive information (credit card number, bank account number, password, etc) in an email.

PayPal will always address you by the first and last name registered to your PayPal account (this is very difficult for spammers to duplicate).

In the rare case that PayPal ask you to click on a link within an email, you should check that the page you arrive at has a URL starting with https://www.paypal.com

Regards,
Randall
PayPal Consumer Relations

amberwoodottawa · ‎11-18-2003

Randall
I have been extremely pleased with PayPal.

When I first started listing and using PayPal, there were many US sellers that said it was a disaster and suggested that I do not use it however I kept it as my primary payment option for US and International customers.

I have not experienced any diffciulties to date and if I see someone attempting to harm the services that I use, either directly or indirectly (as in this case) I do not hesitate to bring it to your attention.

PS (Have I earned a PayPal T Shirt yet?)
Malcolm

randall@ebay.com · ‎11-18-2003

Malcolm,

Speaking of T-Shirts, I'm about to post a thread about that. You'll get the first one!

Drop me a line with your shirt size and a physical address.

Regards,
Randall
PayPal Consumer Relations

amberwoodottawa · ‎12-09-2003

The PayPal virus spam continues. This morning I had 11 all at once and received another 5 or 6 throughout the day.

I had been trying to send each one to spoof@paypal.com however it is hard to keep up with the increasing volume.

I would like to know that something is being done to try to catch the punk.

Malcolm

randall@ebay.com · ‎12-09-2003

Malcolm,

It is actually MANY 'punks'. Spoof is a very high priority on both the eBay and PayPal side. I assure you it is being worked on.

Cheers,
Randall
PayPal Consumer Relations

amberwoodottawa · ‎12-10-2003

Randall
Speaking of Spoof, have you received my email regarding the PayPal T-Shirt. I have sent them from 2 different servers and keep getting notices they are being rejected. I dont know if my last one sent last week reached you or not.

Malcolm

randall@ebay.com · ‎12-10-2003

Malcolm,

Are you sending it directly to my email address or through my eBay ID? Whichever one you tried, try the other instead. I'm not sure why it wouldn't get through.

Regards,
Randall
PayPal Consumer Relations

amberwoodottawa · ‎12-13-2003

Update on the PayPal Virus / Spam

HEADS UP
The punks who originally sent notices purportedly from PayPal stating your account was about to be suspended have now moved on to STAGE TWO of their campaign to infect as many computers as possible.

Their lastest ploy is sending an email that appears to be a return of your forwarding their original email to PayPal.

In their email, they make the assumption that you forwarded their earlier emails to PayPal for them to investigate and are now sending you an email that suggests your emails received at "wcid.paypal@wholesalesecurity.com" have been returned as it could not be delivered to the proper party.

It encourages you to open the attachment to "delete your own text" from the message.

I wonder what Stage Three will be? I hope that PayPal will be able to put an end to this before Stage 3. I am getting approximately 40 of these a day now.

Malcolm