Tag Archives: email

Yet another PayPal Phishing Scam

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This one tells you to confirm your email address.

Did you get an email message from PayPal today? One asking you to confirm your email address?

I did. In fact, I got two — to two different email addresses, neither of which have ever been used for PayPal.

But that’s not what tipped me off to this being a scam. It was simple: I looked at the links before clicking them and saw that they led to a site that wasn’t PayPal.

Another PayPal Scam
In Mac OS, you can point to a link to see its URL. Also note the sender email address — clearly not PayPal.

I admit that this one looks pretty convincing. They got the graphics all right and there’s no obvious typos. But there is one clue in the body of the message that should raise red flags: they didn’t use my name anywhere in the message. PayPal (and my bank and other organizations in which I hold accounts) have my name and should use it on all communications, automated or not.

But of course I’d never click a link in an email message from an organization in which I have an account, would I? Would you? I hope not!

If you get an email message like this, purportedly from PayPal, that asks you to “Confirm your new email address,” either mark it as spam or just throw it out. Don’t click any links in it. In fact, if at all possible, don’t even open it at all.

American Express Transfer Email Message Scam

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Yet another email scam — this one supposedly from American Express.

I don’t even think the bits had even finished uploading on yesterday’s scam report when this one popped into my email inbox for the same email address (which I’m probably going to turn off very shortly):

Amex Scam

Once again, it’s easy for me to recognize this as a scam:

  • Bad email address. My Amex account uses another one.
  • I don’t have an American Express Open account at all.
  • I didn’t do any Amex transfers.

The message was from a noreply address at Bebo Services. All the links point to the same page on the kingspssq.org.uk domain. Again, I haven’t tried the links and have no plans to do so.

At this point, if you’re blindly clicking links in any email message you get that looks the least bit suspicious, you probably deserve whatever results.

Be smart. Think before you click.

Verizon Acknowledgement Message Scam

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Another email scam, this one purportedly from Verizon Wireless.

Got this message in my email inbox today:

Verizon Scam Message

This is obviously a scam. Several things tipped me off:

  • I did not recently do any new transactions with Verizon Wireless. In other words, there was no real reason to contact me.
  • The message was addressed to an email address Verizon does not have for me.
  • Pointing to any of the links in the message reveals the same destination URL on the domain jsslcctv.com — which has nothing to do with Verizon.
  • I didn’t check the account number, but I’m pretty sure mine is my phone number and it doesn’t end with 8281.
  • Poor grammar/wording indicates the person who wrote this message was not a native English speaker.

I don’t know what clicking these links does and I don’t want to know. I just want to warn others that this is yet another scam that could easily suck you in if you’re not paying attention. Think before you click!