Aside from the obvious spelling errors, the obvious fact that this was sent to multiple addresses, and the poorly hidden link re-direction, note that the alleged "problem" will not occur until next week!
This reminds me of a recent incident in which a would be thief locked himself into the trunk of the car that he was ransacking.
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PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of customers. To protect the security of your account, PayPal employs some of the most advanced security systems in the world and our anti-fraud teams regularly screen the PayPal system for unusual activity.
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I watched a recent TV expose of the "Nigerian" letter, and it was amazing how many thousands of educated people fell for it.
The thing with these paypal ones is that there are so many people doing the same thing, its pretty obvious. I must have received a thousand attempts, with about 12 variations, within the last six months. The ones for Banks that I have never done business with are worse.
James
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Agreed. Still, it struck me that, given the shear volume ...
of PayPal scams from which to copy, the wide press coverage re. the common tell-tale signs of phishing, easy access to spell-checkers, etc., that even the rank amateur would have done a better job than this.
Clearly the originator was in such a hurry to hit as many targets as possible, in the least amount of time, that he gave little thought to measures that might have greatly increased his return with but a minimal extra effort.
I have sept email for paypal only, which spammers don't have, makes it easy to spot the fakes.
To help them I immed fwd email to them either abuse@paypal.com or spoof@paypal.com, is on their website, and mention to not send me anti-phishing info as I didn't reply.
Rememeber out in our day-to-day world a great percentage are only marginally literate, most are horrible spellers, and very few have even the most rudimentary knowledge of how computers and the internet work. Mix these ingredients together with poorly protected computers, online banking and buying, and some at least marginally plausible phishing attempts and voila.....We've got real problems.
Most of the poor schmucks out there surfing the net have little idea of which addresses are "real" or forged to resemble the real McCoy. They probably don't know that they're being redirected at all when they click on a link. It's not their fault, it's just outside of their sphere of knowledge. Unfortunately, we sell people computers, encourage them to surf the web, buy things online, and to bank online, but they are never given even the most basic training in how to operate their computer in a safe manner and to lock it down from online predators.
Until we get better training for the masses, this kind of misfortune will perpetuate.
I see these types of scams as technical comic relief. Sadly... waaaaay to many people fall for it. You can even fall for it by sheer accident.. I was sitting with an employee of mine who was showing me that their computer was locked... clicking around the screen... when the process that locked his system freed up.... it clicked right into a scam... We both bursted out in some freakish laugh... he still gets hammered with spam from that one.
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Random mouse clicks, etc. reminds me of favorite definition of insanity.
If you're asking for technical help, please be sure to include all your system info, including operating system, model number, and any other specifics related to the problem. Also please exercise your best judgment when posting in the forums--revealing personal information such as your e-mail address, telephone number, and address is not recommended.
With phishers this dumb, need we really worry?
This reminds me of a recent incident in which a would be thief locked himself into the trunk of the car that he was ransacking.
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PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of customers. To protect the security of your account, PayPal employs some of the most advanced security systems in the world and our anti-fraud teams regularly screen the PayPal system for unusual activity.
We are contacting you to remind you that on 20 June 2005 our Account Review Team identified some unusual activity in your account. In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement and to ensure that your account has not been compromised, access to your account was limited. Your account access will remain limited until this issue has been resolved.
To secure your account and quickly restore full access, we may require some additional information from you for the following reason:
We have been notified that a card associated with your account has been reported as lost or stolen, or that there were additional problems with your card.
This process is mandatory, and if not completed within the nearest time your account or credit card may be subject for temporary suspension.
To securely confirm your PayPal information please click on the link bellow:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run
( The real link is [v]http://www.welcomehereinnew.com/[/v] )
We encourage you to log in and perform the steps necessary to restore your account access as soon as possible. Allowing your account access to remain limited for an extended period of time may result in further limitations on the use of your account and possible account closure.
For more information about how to protect your account please visit PayPal Security Center. We apologize for any incovenience this may cause, and we apriciate your assistance in helping us to maintain the integrity of the entire PayPal system.
Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
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