Wow! The weather has gotten warmer and the phishing has exploded!
Don’t Get Caught!
In the last few weeks, I have reported 5 or 6 fake sites to PayPal. I seem to be a big target.
Today I got this one in my email –
Attention!
This is alert for your company that your office address was filled mistakenly while processing the last tax form for 2014 year. In order to avoid extensive fine fees in next time please contact our tax inspector as soon as you review the statement in attachment.
Regards
Tucker Acosta
Tax Officer
And there is a big phone scam going on right now too. They call and say that if you don’t pay a fine within like half an hour the police will be at your door to arrest you.
I guess they can fake the caller ID now too, so you can’t go by that either.
I just don’t answer calls if I don’t know who it is. They can leave a message and I will call back if its something legit.
You have to use a lot of Common Sense!
There is not a law enforcement agency anywhere that will call and offer to not arrest you.
I like using PayPal because they are so secure, and they have fraud people working around the clock, around the world.
If there is anything suspicious about an email supposedly from PayPal, I simply send it to spoof@paypal.com. If for some reason it was a real email from them, they would tell me and I could fix the problem. To date, every single one I have questioned has been fake.
Another Tip –
The fake emails almost always have spelling errors.
There is one that almost got me –
I had just made a purchase. I got the normal receipt, but I also got something about a subscription and recurring payments. I panicked. I didn’t think I had mistakenly signed up for recurring payments, but you know, some of these sites are sneaky about that.
I know better than to click on any link in a email stating its from PayPal. PayPal will never direct link to your account. This time I almost did. They almost got me.
I went in to my account through the normal paypal.com link and signed in like you are supposed to. No sign of any recurring payments. I sent the email to PayPal and sure enough, it was fake.
That one kind of shook me up because I had just made a purchase. Could these hackers tell that? Or was it just a coincidence?
I ran all the security scans on my computer which turned up nothing.
What you can do to help –
If you get an email from PayPal that you have decided is fake, don’t just delete it. Forward it to spoof@paypal.com so they can shut it down – then delete it.
You can’t be too careful. I’m tempted to go back to using checks when I shop in a store.
Have you gotten any weird emails?
Photo credit – Wikipedia
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