Well it’s been a while since I posted. Between customers, teaching, the elections, deer season, etc, finding time to post has been challenging!
Over the last couple of days, I’ve received 2 email that almost appeared legitimate for a PayPal Dispute Resolution. To give you some background, I’ve used PayPal since 2001 and rarely had any issues. Of course, I have a simple rule that I follow since PayPal is not a bank nor FDIC insured:
I don’t keep any more money in PayPal than I can afford to lose.
Naturally, PayPal is a large target for scams since they are pretty much the only game in town other than Google Checkout. In the course of using PayPal, I’ve only had 2 disputes so I am familiar with the dispute resolution process and what the notification emails look like. That is why I did a double-take on these emails.
Of course, I checked out the emails thoroughly, figured out the scam, and decided to blog about them. For good measure, I also logged into my PayPal account just to check, but the important is that I went to www.paypal.com and logged in – not relied on a link in an email!
I’ve posted on phishing schemes and scams before, but I wanted to caution everyone again. Please be cautious whenever you receive one of these. If you receive one from a bank and you bank online (which you should for safety), then simply go directly to your bank site and login. Call your bank. Don’t click links in emails that you don’t trust absolutely!
Also, use FireFox and OpenDNS on your computer and home (or business) network. These 2 things will greatly enhance your security.
