Confirm PayPal account details now

Confirm PayPal account details now

“You must confirm your account information!” is the strident declaration of the latest PayPal phishing email. Apparently the recipient’s PayPal account needs updating within 72 hours, or else their PayPal account will be limited. It’s yet another PayPal phishing scam, in a long list of PayPal phishing campaigns.

The full email is reproduced in Figure A. It uses a facsimile of the PayPal logo in the top left hand corner of the email. A case ID number is located on the top right hand corner. These are designed to lend an air of authenticity to the email. To further add to the illusion a PayPal email identifier is fixed to the bottom of the email, just below the standard help and opt-out statements.

The greeting used is “Dear Customer”. The sender is listed as “PayPal” with a subject line of “Dear user you must confirm your account information!” Two links are present in the email. One is inscribed with the text “Click here” and is located in the body of the email. The second link is a link to the PayPal site. Again, this is to make the email look like a genuine PayPal email.

As mentioned, the purpose of the email is to (apparently) let the customer know that their account requires updating. The email threatens the user with account limiting if the information s not updated. This is designed to elicit action from the user. A further impetus is provided by locating the link under a heading in bold. The heading is “What do i need to do?”

This email is a fake. A big aspect of this email that could trick people is the use of a genuine link. However, there are two signs that the email is not from PayPal. The main sign comes from checking the link in the body of the email. Mousing over it reveals that it leads to a copy of the PayPal site. It does not lead to the genuine PayPal site. A second sign is the greeting used; it is a generic greeting. PayPal will use the name an account is held in. Check out the PayPal site on identifying phishing emails.

Delete this email if you receive it.

Scott Reeves
MailShark
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