There is no denying PayPal's popularity when it comes to its online monetary transaction services. It's also popular with criminals looking for anything in the service they can exploit. Cautious Paypal users have to be more careful than ever before.
A fresh new PayPal phishing scam that has been circulating online was found by security experts at ESET, an IT security company based in Bratislava, Slovakia. The scam works by having legitimate looking emails sent to users which can trick them into going to a fake website. The site will then convince the unsuspecting user to provide private login details and personal information.
The faux emails cleverly use the PayPal logo and a fine print located at the bottom. The emails will then say that PayPal has an issue related to your account while saying that the account will have a few restrictions until the matter is settled. A login button will be available but it will send users to a convincing page that will ask for details including date of birth, address, contact number, mother's maiden name and social security number.
To prevent oneself from becoming a victim of this phishing scheme, users need to take the time to watch out for mistakes like grammar errors. The fake email has small mistakes like "secured and certificate by", "use for fraud alert" and "for security reason." Users should also check if they could log in their actual PayPal account to verify for themselves. Even if PayPal exerts a tremendous effort to provide a secure way for users to do their business, the users also need to be alert.
Cautiousness should apply to all online accounts, not just PayPal. Gmail users were recently reported to be the targets of a cyber phishing attack where a convincing sign-in page encourages users to give their credentials.
