unauthorized charge to my Pay-Pal

[JW Day]

I just recieved A notice that my account had been charged A $96.00 from an overseas. Can someone give me a telephone number for Pay Pal. Thanks, JW day

[Jim Cohen]

JW, most of these are scammers trying to get you to click a link in their email that will take you to someplace dangerous for your computer (or your financial health!) You should NOT click anything in that email. Close it right up. THEN, go directly to www.PayPal.com (by typing it in YOURSELF) and sign onto your account. If there really was a charge for $96, you'll see it there. And you'll find contact info for PayPal at their website. If there was no $96 charge, then it was just another scammer trying to steal your money (or your identity!) and you'll know for the future to just delete these things, since more are undoubtedly on the way.

[JW Day]

Thanks Jim, Having never used this service,Your advice was very helpful. And it is now taking care of. Thanks again, JW

[Laurie Ayres]

We got the same email & it is a scam! I just delete those things and NEVER click on their sites. You have to be so careful these days. Laurie

[Doug Beaumier]

You can also Forward any suspicious emails to spoof@paypal.com and they will let you know if it's phony.

PayPal says they investigate all such emails. CLICK

[Tony Prior]

This is probably one of the most common schemes.

Please remember that all communication from Internet financial accounts and EBAY will address you by name, if it does not it is fake.

If you are ever in doubt, nerver open the emails but go to your account and you will see all is well.

I get a few of these every week as does everone else I suspect.

tp

[Ken Mizell]

I get 'em too. I also get those from some dude in Nigeria that wants me to hold money for him.

It's also strange when you get inquiries "allegedly" from a financial institution that you don't do business with.

I often wonder how many people fall prey to those things when they are sent out. Surely a bunch of people do, or they wouldn't be sent.

One thing to ask yourself if you get one of these - Have I provided that company with my e-mail address? Probably not.

This is scam is called "Phishing." Major fraud problem.

Ken

[Lee Baucum]

I get those emails about once per week...and I don't even have a Pay Pal account!

[Al Collinsworth]

edit

[Tony Palmer]

There must be thousands of new computer users, new email users and new paypal users that get scammed by these "phishers" every day. I wonder how it will ever stop or will it become commonplace to constantly change email addresses and account numbers?

[Jeremy Drawbaugh]

WE JUST GOT ONE FOR $196 FOR A LAPTOP AND THEY WERE ASKING FOR SOME PERSONAL ACCOUNT INFO OF COURSE WE DIDNT GIVE IT. I KNEW THEN IT HAD TO BE A SCAMMER. I ALREADY HAVE A LAPTOP AND DONT NEED ANOTHER ONE SO I KNOW WE DIDNT ORDER IT.

SOME GOOD ADVICE FROM EVERYBODY, WOW WHO KNEW YOU COULD LEARN ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE BESIDES STEEL GUITAR ON HERE.

[Wiz Feinberg]

Jeremy, why are you shouting (ALL CAPS)?

Yes, this forum is a great place to learn about many facets of computers and Internet security, from pros and peers.

[Joe Rouse]

I received the same e-mail just a week after reopening a PayPal account. I called PayPal and did finally get to a person from this continent and was told not to open the e-mail and continue using my PayPal account. I tried using my account again and my purchase could not be completed. Now I have changed my password and it works. Too bad we have so many thieves in our society, instead of getting a job and working for a living they will work at taking advantage of people who do work and earn their living.I still feel and always will that a thief is one step above a child molester and they are still lower than whale dung.
I think I just heard my soapbox crack, now its in pieces.Gotta go find another soapbox, a heavy duty type...Joe Rouse

[b0b]

Too bad we have so many thieves in our society, instead of getting a job and working for a living they will work at taking advantage of people who do work and earn their living.

Actually, most of them are not a part of "our society". They are computer programmers in third world countries where there is no real market for their skills. They do consider this sort of thing "work", as it's not a trivial task to set up these scams. There is no penalty in their culture for stealing from people in rich countries - it's perfectly acceptable in their society.

The best we can do is to be aware, and not take the bait.

[Roger Light]

I just received a similar email stating I had a negative balance in my pay pal acct. It said to transfer funds imediatly to correct or my acct would be disabled. Let them disable it! I've never had a pay pal acct!! Just makes you distrust "society" even more!

[Wiz Feinberg]

I urge you all to help shut down Phishing scams like this by forwarding such emails to the proper abuse department, at the Phished website. For PayPal scams please Forward to spoof@paypal.com . For eBay scams, Forward them to spoof@ebay.com . For most others, like banks, forward to abuse@example.com, where you replace "example.com" with the phished institution's domain.

Most major companies keep security people on staff, fulltime, to pursue the registrars and hosts of these websites and have them taken offline, ASAP. The sooner people notify the targeted companies, the fewer the people who will be tricked into giving up their logins. You will get a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, every time you submit a phishing report. It might even be a fellow Forumite you save, with your timely reports.

Additionally, I recommend that those of you who want to do something more about scams and spams should consider joining SpamCop (www.spamcop.net) as reporting members. It's free and your reports will be forwarded to all parties involved in the spam, scam or phishing messages you report.

[Stuart Legg]

Hey b0b
Maybe send them some new hardware for their computers like a NUKE BOMB.