PayPal transaction declined says phishing email
This is an interesting phishing email. It warns the recipient that a PayPal transaction has been declined. Of course, the email also provides a resolution. Click on the link and the issue will be resolved, more or less. This is another PayPal phishing email.
We have extracted a sample and displayed it as Figure A. It is a convincing phishing email. There is a PayPal logo, and the email has the “look and feel” of a genuine PayPal email. The email’s subject line is “Your Account Has Ben Limited”. “Been” is misspelt. The sender of the email is ”paypal support”. The email domain is not a PayPal domain.
The entire body of the email links to one site. The email uses the greeting “Dear PayPal Customer”. The email commences with the heading “Why your PayPal Transaction was declined and what to do next”.
Although the email is convincing on a first glance, digging deeper shows inconsistencies. The email informs the user they have had a transaction declined because the user account needs updating. The email does ask you to “take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience”. The email goes further. If you find the link does not work, then you are advised to try again. The link may be “affected by the speed of the internet or the site”.
As we mentioned, this email looks good at first glance. A comprehensive examination of the email reveals several flaws. It also shows that the email is a fake. The big sign is the greeting. As mentioned many times before, PayPal don’t use generic greetings. The second sign is the language. The written expression is poor.
Finally, mousing over the link shows that it leads not to PayPal, but to a malicious site. This is another PayPal phishing email and can be deleted.
Scott Reeves
MailShark
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