Avoid these PayPal phishing emails

-

For the last few weeks, there’s been a solid stream of fake PayPal emails in circulation, twisting FOMO (fear of missing out) into DO THIS OR BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. It’s one of the most common tools in the scammer’s arsenal, and a little pressure applied in the right way often brings results for them.

Claim people are going to lose something, or incur charges, or miss out on a valuable service, and they’ll come running. Below is an outline of who these emails claim to be from, what they look like, and the kind of panic-clicking that they’re pushing. These are just a few examples; there are many, many others.

Common factors

Most of the mails we’ve seen claim to be sent from

Secure(AT)intl-limited(DOT)com

Or variations thereof, although the actual email being used is frequently just a mishmash of random letters / words / numbers. They also mostly make claims that your account is limited, or restricted in some way, or there’s been some unusual activity on your account and now you must  prove you were the one making (non-existent) transactions.

It’s very similar to this batch of missives from 2015, where scammers were after credit card / payment  details. Here’s some of the mails, to give you an idea of what to look out for. They are typically awash with typos, and we’ve not corrected any of their mistakes.

Click to Enlarge

Scam mails

Re: [Important] – Your account was temporary limited

We would like to inform you of certain modifications to our user contracts which concern you.

No action is required on your part. However, if you would like to know more, we invite you to consult our Policy Updates page where you will find the details of these modifications, in which cases they apply and how to refuse them, if applicable.

After a recent review of your account activity. we’ve determined you are in violation of PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy. Your account has been limited until we hear from you. While your account is limited, some options in your account won’t be available.

Re: [Renewal of the Order Receipt] Sign Up for Bank Statement Updates use Google Chrome from Marshall Islands

Dear Customer Service

Your paypal account has been limited because we’ve noticed significanyt changes in your account activity. As your payment ptocessor, we need to understand these changes better. This account limitation will affectr your ability to:

Send or receive money

Withdraw money from your account

Add or remove a card & bank account

Dispute a transaction

Close your account

What to do next?

Please logi in to your paypal account and proviude the requested information thought {SIC} the resolution center

Re: Submitted : Statement update login with Google Chrome From Taiwan, Province of China

Your PayPal account has been limited

Dear Customer,

Our service is improving the security system for all PayPal account. The reason, many accounts have been hacked by someone to order an item using a credit / debit / bank card in account associated.

For the convenience and security of PayPal, we have limited all accounts registered.

PayPal is the safer, faster way to pay. To recovery your account, you can click the link button below and proceed with identity verification to prove that it is your account.

Re: Reminder: [Daily Report] [Update News] [System known] Update-informatie zie factuur van – Statement Update New Login

Your paypal account is temporarily limited

Hello client,

We noticed that you’ve been using your Paypal account in a questionable manner. To understand this better, we just need more information from you.

To ensure that your account remains secure, we need you to take action on your account. We’ve also temporarily limited certain features in your account

Currently, You won’t be able to:

• Send Payments

• Withdraw Funds

What should you do?

Log in to your Paypal account follow the steps and perform the required tasks.

RE: Reminder: [Daily Report] [Statement Agreement] We have sent notifications. Automatic updates 

Your account has been limited.

Hello, Customer

We’ve limited your account

After a recent review of your account activity, we’ve determined you are in violation of PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy. Please log in to confirm your identity and review all your recent activity

You can find the complete PayPal Acceptable Use Policy by clicking Legal at the bottom of any PayPal page.

Help and advice for avoiding scams

PayPal has expanded its security resources in recent years. They now have a portal for multiple forms of suspicious activity, a section for reporting phish scams, and protection for buyers and sellers.

You can also check out part 1 of our 3-part Phishing 101 guide.

These emails won’t be drying up anytime soon, so please be on your guard and, as always, visit the PayPal website directly from your browser should you receive any messages claiming you’ve been limited or locked out. If it’s genuine, then customer service will be able to assist. If it isn’t, help both PayPal and everyone else by reporting the phish. It’s a win-win scenario.

The post Avoid these PayPal phishing emails appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

https://ift.tt/3k1rzqP

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Takeaways from the outcry over Dior’s Johnny Depp perfume ad: Tuesday Wake-Up Call

-
Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. You can sign up to get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device. Dior pulls a perfume ad starring Johnny Depp Yet another luxury brand just had to backtrack after a culturally insensitive move. Dior on Friday pulled an ad for its “Sauvage” perfume, as Business of Fashion reports ; the spot starred Johnny Depp playing guitar in the desert while a Native American dancer, Canku One Star, performed in traditional dress. The company portrayed the spot as “an authentic journey deep into the Native American soul.” But the brand was quickly accused of cultural appropriation. Critics seemed most troubled by the juxtaposition of Native American imagery with the word "Sauvage"—which means “wild” in French, but which also evokes the history of labeling indigenous groups as “savages.”  LVMH-owned Parfums Christian Dior had apparently tried to proceed cautiously. It coo
Read more

When the coronavirus infodemic strikes

-
Image
Social media sites are stepping up their efforts in the war against misinformation… specifically, the coronavirus/COVID-19 infodemic . There’s a seemingly endless stream of potentially dangerous misinformation flying around online related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that could have fatal results. It’s boomtown in fake-news land riding high on the wave of people being left with their tech devices 24/7. I myself regularly see everything posted online from “hand gel is an immunizer” (nope) and “children can’t be affected” (not true) to “UK rules mean domestic abuse survivors have to stay with their abusive spouse” (absolutely not true at all and hugely dangerous to claim).  We even have engineers being spat on thanks to 5G conspiracy theories potentially resulting in transmission of coronavirus . Turns out a global pandemic is a lightning rod for pushing people to conspiracy theories galore, to the extent that some folks have to go hunting for guides to wean their family members a
Read more

Patch, Or Your Solid State Drives Roll Over And Die

-
Image
Expiration dates for computer drives? That’s what a line of HP solid-state drives are facing as the variable for their uptime counter is running out. When it does, the drive “expires” and, well, no more data storage for you! There are a series of stages in the evolution of a software developer as they master their art, and one of those stages comes in understanding that while they may have a handle on the abstracted world presented by their development environment they perhaps haven’t considered the moments in which the real computer that lives behind it intrudes. Think of the first time you saw an SQL injection attack on a website, for example, or the moment you realised that a variable type is linked to the physical constraints of the number of memory locations it has reserved for it. So people who write software surround themselves with an armoury of things they watch out for as they code, and thus endeavour to produce software less likely to break. Firmly in that arena is the size
Read more