Bogus PayPal Message

[RichD]

Today I got this message from PayPal

We've made some changes to the way customers can keep funds in PayPal. To continue to keep a balance you'll now need a linked account called PayPal Cash. Complete two easy steps and we'll set it up for you. Your balance information, all the benefits of PayPal and your log-in will remain the same.

I did not want to click on anything until I checked it out. I ran the IP address and it did not seem to go back to PayPal, instead the address was for Epsilon Data Management LLC. When I went directly to my PayPal account PayPalCash was not an option, there was no mention of it at all on the PayPal site.
I sent a fraud alert to PayPal, hopefully they will get back to me.

[Czar]

Thank you for he heads up, Rich.

[RichD]

I got an automated response from PayPal, but no definitive answer as yet. I also tried calling, but they are on west coast time. I will try again later. For now it would be best to delete the message. If the message is genuine and someone sent some money where would it go if you had not signed up for PayPalCash?

[Wobble]

When I was with Hotmail I got quite a few bogus messages from 'representatives' from PayPal advising me that my account would be closed if I did not act on the instructions in the message. I ignored them and reported them to Paypal but one of my cobbers thought one he received was for real and ended up getting scammed. Since going to Gmail I've not received any.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

This kind of crap cycles around again and again. I first saw the one Wobble mentioned over 7 years ago, and I have seen it several times since then. We are still hearing about the Nigerian Prince nonsense.

[Pappy]

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Oh No! You mean I passed up on it?

[Wobble]

And my aunty wanted to marry a Nigerian prince but she couldn't afford it. Could it be the same guy?

[RichD]

I tried calling PayPal again but I was not able to talk to a human being. Perhaps PayPal will respond to my fraud alert. If the message is genuine I may be stuck. Sharing my credit card number with PayPal is one thing since there is a limit to my liability due to a fraudulent charge. I am not willing to share any type of bank account number with PayPal, anyone that was able to get into their database could clean out my account in a flash. Look what happened with Equifax, 150 million people had their credit information compromised. I started to get rejection notices for credit cards that I did not apply for. I had to put freezes on my credit reports, in the case of Equifax I had to jump through a lot of extra hoops to do that.

[model murdering]

[4424ever]

I use a separate bank account at an entirely different bank connected to nothing to conduct my PayPal transactions If anyone gets into that the payoff won’t be worth the effort :laughing-rolling:

[RichD]

That would certainly minimize your risk. Some banks charge a service fee for accounts with a small balance. In addition if the account is free they may impose a fee at any time and if there is a minimum balance to have a free account they may increase the minimum balance at any time. That means that you will have one more thing to keep an eye on.

[BARC 1]

Paypal is a good tool. Separate it from any bank account in case they ever get hacked. Much sooner trust paypal with my Visa and know where the problem started, if ever there should be one than to be giving out my visa number to multiple places that probably have little traction on the security front.

That is my opinion anyway.

[RichD]

I am not a dealer and I have only had money sent to me via PayPal one time, so having a small balance account just for that has a very low priority. I mentioned having to keep an eye on your accounts. Years back one of my banks sent me a notice that my account now had to have a minimum balance, that was before the era of electronic funds transfers, so I had to go to the bank in person to make a deposit. Perhaps a year later they pulled the same trick again, but that time I got nabbed for the fee because the notice arrived after the deadline for adding money to the account. I did complain to the teller and I was told that I was not the only one that got caught out.
Lately all three of the banks that I do business with all upped their minimums within a short period of time. Did that happen by chance?

[dreinecke]

Ah, cyber security. I know a few things:

1) NEVER click any link. A good bank, etc. will never ask for credentials via a link in an email to you.
2) ALWAYS go direct to the bank's or shopping website to ensure you're connecting to who you think you are.
3) ALWAYS monitor your bank accounts. If you can't do it daily, do it weekly at a minimum.
4) SIGN UP for monitoring of your accounts if your bank/CC does it. They often will put a threshold max that they will alert you on. The downside is that a smart thief will only do things in small amounts. Sure, that $36.99 at Walmart sounds like a quick grocery run the wife made or a possible gas-up on the car. $5000...a little harder to hide.
5) NEVER use the same passwords across all of your accounts. DO get a password vault like Keeper so you can keep track of them easily, not have to type them in, and not even know what they are!

It isn't a matter of if you are going to have your stuff compromised, it is when. Try to limit your footprint.