PayPal Phishing Account Access Limited
A PayPal phishing email has been caught by MailShark spam filters claiming that your account is limited until you log in and submit further information. PayPal is an American online payment system which is used worldwide and is considered as one of the safest methods for paying over the internet. Keep reading to find out more about this phishing scam attempt and remember to delete it from your inbox if received.
Figure A shows the email in question. It is well branded to suit a PayPal email and even includes things such as “help centre” and a copyright tagline at the bottom. Please note that all the links within this email will lead you to a malicious website and, entering your details into that malicious website, will lead to your information being shared and used by criminals.
The subject line reads “Your account access has been limited !”, which works by first scaring and then interesting the reader. The sender is shown as “PayPal”, however the email address is in no way associated with the official PayPal website and is clearly spam – this is a clear indication of the emails true intentions. There is no personal greeting and the email’s contents is pushing you to click through, which is something PayPal would never do. Again, delete this email if it reaches your inbox to avoid confusion.
Figure B is a safely captured screenshot of the phishing website you will land on if any links within the email are clicked. It is again, well branded to appear as an official PayPal website and even includes relevant information and a case ID to further trick you. This page asks you to continue, however doing so will either result in a malware infection or lead to you logging into a fake PayPal website and losing your log in data to a network of scammers. We strongly suggest deleting this email and contacting PayPal straight away if you may have fallen for this email.
PayPal takes online safety very seriously so if you are ever in doubt, contact them first before clicking through or proceeding to a website, especially if the website was linked from your emails. Additionally, you can also log in through the official PayPal website by typing the domain in manually.
Steph Kent
MailShark
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