Paypal phishing email

I got a ‘Paypal’ phishing email. Hopefully most everyone is familiar with these, but just in case, I’m posting here.

They send you a random email saying there has been suspicious account activity, and helpfully suggest you click the link provided to login and verify your account.

Not always, but often the emails look very official. This one came to the address I actually use for Paypal, but I have also received them at almost every active email account I have ever had.

First of all, notice that nowhere does the email have my account name on it, which official emails do. Also, look at that little yellow box. In Opera, when you move your mouse pointer over a link, a box like that will pop up and tell you where the link actually is going to send you. In other browsers, this link will show up at the bottom of the page.

That link doesn’t look anything like any official Paypal url you have ever seen.

If you were to actually click the link, it would probably take you to an official-looking login page. Were you to login, whoever sent you this would not only have control of your Paypal account, but they would probably also be installing all kinds of malware and viruses on your computer.

If you ever have any question as to your account status at Paypal, Ebay, or anywhere else, type the url into your address bar and go there normally.

Update 02-27-08:
Here’s another Paypal phishing email I just got today. This email said my account had been suspended for endangering all of Paypal. Look where this link would take you!