Paypal.

[Bullbasket]

I've just had an email, allegedly from Paypal, telling me that I have just made a payment to some bunch called Xoom. Believe me, it looked like the real thing, apart from when you hover over the email address. I went straight to my Paypal account, via the proper way, and obviously, there had been no payment made.

Anyone else received one like this?

 

John.

[HK-500]

Almost one every day , and on my phone as well... Either telling me my bank data need to be updated, that a parcel is waiting to be delivered , and so on ... Data leaks or theft is occuring thousand of times every day around the world and even hospitals or governmental  outlets are hit by that.

There's also the "phantom call" : your phone rings once or twice, leading you to call back the number and check who is it , and ,bam ! They charge you an "extra fee".

Edited May 10 by HK-500

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

32 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

I've just had an email, allegedly from Paypal, telling me that I have just made a payment to some bunch called Xoom. Believe me, it looked like the real thing, apart from when you hover over the email address. I went straight to my Paypal account, via the proper way, and obviously, there had been no payment made.

Anyone else received one like this?

 

John.

Yes my wife gets these about once a month from various places. We’ve actually changed her account 3-4 times in the last year because someone actually tried to get money from us. The worst one was well over a thousand dollars for a number of electronic devices including TV’s, X-box, and stereo equipment.  

[Duncan B]

1 hour ago, Bullbasket said:

I've just had an email, allegedly from Paypal, telling me that I have just made a payment to some bunch called Xoom. Believe me, it looked like the real thing, apart from when you hover over the email address. I went straight to my Paypal account, via the proper way, and obviously, there had been no payment made.

Anyone else received one like this?

 

John.

John, you did exactly the right thing in checking the email address and then going to your account directly and not using the link provided in the suspicious email.

In the heat of the moment it is all too easy to be distracted and forget to do these simple things that will save you a lot of grief. The scammers are hoping that the recipient will panic and immediately respond via the link, or in the case of phone scams, respond over the phone. In reality the best thing to do is step away from the keyboard or hang up the phone and take 5 minutes to think rationally, then to take the action you did and contact the real institution directly. 99 times out of 100 it will turn out to be a scam and in the 100th case the real institution will understand the reasons for the slight delay in responding.

Stay safe out there folks, the scammers are devious but still have to rely on their targets doing something daft to give them access.

 

Duncan B

[Bullbasket]

25 minutes ago, Duncan B said:

John, you did exactly the right thing in checking the email address and then going to your account directly and not using the link provided in the suspicious email.

It was the most realistic one that I've ever received, and like most people, I've had my fair share. You could see how they would draw the unsuspecting into their web; "If this wasn't you click here".  The only click that I did was on the delete button.

I have to be doubly careful when going through these scam emails as I have an unfortunate habit of having an involuntary twitchy index finger. I've lost count of the number of emails that I've deleted when I needed to keep them. I really have to make a physical effort to take my finger off of the mouse.

 

John.

[PattheCat]

These e-mails are becoming more and more llooking like the real thing. Scams allegedly from tax inspectorate, social security, banks ..... a real plague.

Anything with a link to have me "check something", I close it and go to login to the official site.

 

Some years ago I had a good laugh with a phone call pretending they were from Microsoft, about a virus that would wipe everything from my computer.

I let the woman believe that I followed her instructions until the end, which clearly where intended to give her remote access to the PC.

Then I finally told her "Worked in IT you know, you scammer and now I have your IP" in the most sadistic tone I could.

Just before she hurriedly hung up I could hear "Oh, nooo".