I received an email from PayPal yesterday once again asking me to verify my account. The first time I was flagged I went ahead and did it. The second time I just got pissed. I had to even re-verify my bank account; I never bothered, so I am used to getting these emails. It was late and I figured what the heck, let's try again. I planned on closing it and opening another since it keeps getting flagged. So I clicked the link on the email and I tried to log in and it took me to a page that asked me to verify my credit card. It said to give them the number, the expiration date, the 3 digit number on the back and my PIN. What? RED FLAG goes up, but I am very tired. So I try to get the help page or the contact us page and it keeps redirecting me to the login page. The mainpage shouldn't have all those numbers and letters (and not having figured out yet what was going on) I thought it was just the cookies or something, so I typed in paypal.com and went to the (real) site and sent them a nasty email about trying to take my damn PIN and I was going to cancel my account, etc.
Then this morning I awoke and realized that it was a scam. Duh! Paypal wasn't asking for my PIN at all. I never thought to try to login again once I typed in the address myself. (I just logged in without a problem, btw).) I got to the site by clicking on the link in the email and the page looks exactly like paypals, only the address isn't the same at all. I tried to "log in" and guess what? I doesn't work anymore.
So please people, be careful. I don't care who they say they are or how late they send an email to you- NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR PIN. There is no reason that they need it- especially if they never asked for it before. That is a secret between you and your bank or credit card company. Tired as I was I knew something was wrong- the procedure was nothing like it was before, but I'll tell you what. I almost did it. I didn't have the card down here and I don't know the 3 digit number off hand. I would have given them that much had they not asked for the damn PIN. With those numbers alone they could have used it to purchase things online. It's a cash and check card, not much money in it, but it would have screwed up my month BAD. I can't imagine what I would have to concoct for meals if we ran out of money!
Boy do I feel silly now. I can't wait to hear what kind of smarta@# remark Susie is going to leave as a comment. Should we take bets?
8 comments:
I've been getting a lot of "pay pal" stuff which is interesting because I've never done pay pal.
It goes into google spam and I delete.
A bunch from chase manhattan bank as well. No account there either.
Basic rule - go to the actual web site or call them.
I have an "Ann is gullible" story about Yahoo back in my archives. It happens.
I called paypal and the first thing I heard was a message saying they don't request personal info thru email (which they didn't) and don't click on any of the links. Any email should be forwarded to spoof@paypal.com. check the address, too. The fake one was email.paypal.com. There is a real one from paypal in my inbox, to be honest it didn't read it. It was very long. The fake was short. The real one said to open a new window and type in the URL. *sigh* I guess I should pay more attention.
Susie can bite me so there!! HA!!
R58- It is creeepy!
I get that PayPal stuff all the time. I was almost taken by it the first time.
Now it seems I get those stupid warnings every day, from "PayPal" or "Ebay." They are getting more tricky. Now they send a message that says something like, "$3,000 is charged to your PayPal account for the computer you just purchased. Please click here to verify."
This is the first one I have ever received- in my inbox anyway. I've probably gotten them in the spam folder, but I just empty that with out looking.
I have several paypal email addies, two ebay accounts, so I get everything in multipicate. I just ignore it all, unless I know it's from someone I'm doing business with. I can't even remember when I've gotten a "legitimate" paypal email that's not a receipt of payment or notification of payment rec'd, as they do it so rarely, probably not to confuse their customers.
I can safely say, just ignore it all. If there is a legitimate change of terms of service, just go to the paypal (or whatever) site, log in, and there'll be a notification there.
Hope no one got your vital info before you realized it was a scam!
That really bites! I've been getting lots of scam emails from my bank. They want me to verify some information or another I just forward them to my bank so they can try to track the freaks down.
Sorry about your scam!
Ann.. I have been getting real emails from paypao because there was a real problem with my account, and this fake one pretty much said the same thing, just shorter. I didn't submit anything. When it asked for the PIN I got the hell out of there!
Oh great one- it does bite. Thaks!
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