I've just opened an email allegedly from PayPal saying that my account access has been limited because a third party may have accessed my account. It then invites me to click on a link within 24 hrs to remove my limitation. How can I tell if it is genuine?
Go to your paypal account directly, don't click the link, and see if you can access it normally. If you can then ignore and delete the email. If there is some problem with your account then contact Paypal for an explanation. The time limit on this email can be suspicious. It is a typical ruse by scammers to introduce a little panic.
If you hover your mouse over the link - don't click, just hover - it will show you the address clicking it would take you to. Scammers are getting more sophisticated and it's likely to include paypal somewhere in it but it won't be the address of the genuine PayPal site.
Hi Mick, too late I'm afraid but I'll try to remember that for next time. It appeared to be exactly what one might expect the PayPal site to look like, with an address in Luxembourg.
Hmm....5 minutes later I've just looked at my emails and there's another one! Hovering over the link does nothing but hovering over the PayPal logo at the top shows: [undisclosed email]
The only way to find out is to see if they suspend me; its their loss!
Some are now so sophisticated that they've stopped the hover working but you see what I meant by scammers including paypal in the address. But they wouldn't use a free email service like gmx (or indeed Gmail) and it's not likely to be sent from The Philippines (the dot ph)
Aha! You must have a book somewhere that tells you what all the dot thingies mean! Makes me wonder whether PayPal is registered in Luxembourg too, but that could be genuine as its a tax haven featured in Private Eye.
Eric Jervis 