Paypal - Notification of Limited Account Access‏

[jaybo1973]

Hi guys

Got an email from From: Paypal Accounts (ID6425141@paypal.com) with the title Notification of Limited Account Access;. It claims that a 3rd party has been logged into my paypal account. It reads:

Notification of Limited Account Access

Dear PayPal Member,

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. During a recent screening, we noticed an issue regarding your account.

We have reason to believe that your account was accessed by a third party. Because protecting the security of your account is our primary concern, we have limited access to sensitive PayPal account features. We understand that this may be an inconvenience but please understand that this temporary limitation is for your protection.

Case ID Number: PP-810-906-009

In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement, your account access will remain limited until the issue has been resolved. Unfortunately, if access to your account remains limited for an extended period of time, it may result in further limitations or eventual account closure. We encourage you to follow our verification procedure as soon as possible to help avoid this.

Click here to login and restore your account access

Once you log in, you will be provided with steps to restore your account access. We appreciate your understanding as we work to ehance account safety.

This is a final reminder to log in to your PayPal account as soon as possible.

We thank you for your prompt attention in this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

Case ID Number PP-810-906-009
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Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the "Help" link in the footer of any page.

PayPal Email ID PU887

I believe this to be a scam and I logged into paypal (not via the link) My account was not limited!

[Madeline]

I think you're right that this is a scam, not only that but also an attempt to get your personal details. The main clue is that the e-mail addresses you by saying "Dear PayPal Member". PayPal will always say your name, such as "Dear John Smith", so that you can be sure that the e-mail is from them.

You did exactly the right thing by logging into your account separately to check it out. I think perhaps you should notify PayPal about this. A lot of financial institutions like to know about such things.

[AndrewGC]

We get several of these every month. Also ones for Lloyds, Nat West and various other banks we do not deal with.

PayPal Help Link on this here:

Phishing

You just FORWARD the email on to them BUT there are a few doing the rounds that simply will not let you - not sure of the technical bit, but they actually block you from from FORWARDing.

In that case copy the header (that is the FULL header of the email) and the text and paste into a new email to spoof@paypal.com

As you have already stated NEVER EVER click the links and fill in your details.

Other variations include someone asking you confirm payment or again telling you your account will be shut in 24 hours. All rubbish - but as you did it pays to log into PayPal to check.

Be aware at the moment PayPal are having a few technical issues on site but you should be able to access your account without issues.

[bricat]

Also by opening this email, the scammers will get a "read receipt" which tells them that yours is a "live" email address. i would consider changing the email address i used for paypal.

[AndrewGC]

One problem with changing your PayPal email, unless you really have a security issue, is these emails are sent to email addresses sometimes even without PayPal accounts attached - like I said, I get 'bank' emails from banks I do not deal with so I just delete them.

Whereas it might give the spammers evidence that the email is live, the problem is from the title they LOOK just like a PayPal email and PayPal do send out legitimate emails sometimes up to two or three times a month - currently they are offering a competiton where they refund your purchase. You can only tell they are fake by looking (or maybe turning off the emails in Preferences on PayPal's site).

You can have more than one email address on PayPal to accept funds. The best thing is to have one that you log in with (a Master account), but use others to accept funds. If these then get spam there isn't really much a spammer or phisher can do other than send more spam.

The other issue is one I encounter a lot on eBay. People sometimes set up an email on PayPal they pay with, that they then use for no other purpose - they do not even access it for messages. As we put tracking info on PayPal for buyers, PayPal email them the info to an address they do not read. Ditto with refunds.

Consquently every once in a while we get buyers giving us grief about lack of communication and not refunding postage when we have been diligently doing both, they just haven't accessed the 'PayPal' email (or even their account to check the balance!). The one email set up to 'avoid' being phished is actually not even being monitored which is possibly a bigger security risk than using your normal email account.

As said: Use one email address to log in. Create another for taking payments. Otherwise changing the email means in a few months that new one might get hit and you start changing again, perhaps totally unnecessarily, and this can leave payments in limbo if they were to an old account. Even that can be fallible as it is the 'master' email that appears when sending payments, so if you have someone who is 'collecting' emails even then you cannot avoid it.

Both Paypal and eBay have introduced checks within the last 12 months that mean if your accounts are accessed from another computer (ie. not your normal locations at home or work) you will be called or contacted. You can also upgrade security on PayPal (for a fee) where they send you a gizmo that produces a random code when you log in.

And if you use PayPal a lot you should check it alot and make sure that you keep minimum amounts in there - anything over £6 can be withdrawn free of charge.

Make sure you have a decent password and don't do anything stupid like clicking links or updating your info anywhere but on the PayPal site itself.

[bricat]

I agree with what HE said,

[jaybo1973]

Thanks for the input guys. Although I opened the email, I would never click on a link, even though they know the the account is live now, I bet they send them out by the shed load.

As the good advice recommends, I will forward this on to paypal.

Thanks again

[AndrewGC]

Weirdly enough that will trigger a genuine PayPal email telling you, yes, it is spoof.

[Madeline]

At least you'll know it's genuine because they'll address you by name. This sort of thing's a nightmare and you have to be on your guard all the time.

[AndrewGC]

Weirdly enough Part 2: I had another one today. Standard gumph. Forwarded it on. Interesting that it is getting picked up by my Spam settings but the real ones are not - so that is something to be thankful for.

The ones to watch out for are the ones that have an attachment - my email shows them with a paperclip to the side. I just delete those - as per Bricat's advice, they REALLY would be the ones to do you over on opening.

PayPal will NEVER send you an email with an attachment.