Customers warned of fake PayPal scam

Posted

By Randi Pierce

Staff Writer

PayPal customers beware.

A new scam is targeting PayPal customers in the form of notifications of refunds that then require customers to login to a fake PayPal page, according to a press release from the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office.

In the scam, an e-mail is sent to a PayPal customer notifying them of a refund and prompting them to follow a link to log in to their account to receive the refund.

That link takes users to a page that appears to be PayPal’s login page, and all information submitted to the site is sent to scammers, who then use the login information to hack the victim’s PayPal account and, potentially, other online accounts.

The refund notification is bogus, however, according to the press release, and the linked website simply mimic’s PayPal’s login screen.

“PayPal is a target of phishers, because PayPal does conduct much of its business via e-mail.

“PayPal will never send an unsolicited email that asks to verify or update an account by clicking a link or by opening an attachment as in some variants of these phishing scams. And PayPal will never send a message that includes a generic greeting such as ‘Dear Customer.’ Official PayPal e-mails will always address by name,” the report states.

Local authorities had not received any reports of the scam as of Wednesday, but Det. Scott Maxwell of the Pagosa Springs Police Department said many similar scams exist.

randi@pagosasun.com