Beware of scams like this...(pretending to be Paypal)
I just received an email like this:
Title: Notification Case #(Some random numbers)
Sender: (Non-Paypal logo)service@paypal.com.(My PayPal account location) <(Non-PayPal email used by the real scammers)>
Recipients: (My email), (The email of an innocent straw man used by the real scammers)
Contents(With UI styles copying those in real PayPal emails):
Someone has logged into your account
We noticed a new login with your PayPal account associated with (The email of an innocent straw man used by the real scammers) from a device we don't recognize. Because of that we've temporarily limited your account until you renew and verify your identity.
Please click the button below to login into your account for verify your account.
(Login button copying that in real Paypal emails)
If this was you, please disregard this email.
(Footers copying those in real PayPal emails)
I admit that I'm incredibly stupid, because I almost believed that it's a real PayPal email, and I only realized that it's a scam right after I've clicked the login button, because it links to a URL that's completely different from the login page of the real PayPal(so fortunately I didn't input anything there).
While I've faced many old-schooled phishing emails and can figure them all out right from the start, I've never seen phishing emails like this, and what makes me feel even more dumb is that I already have 2FA applied to my PayPal account before receiving this scam email, meaning that my phone would've a PayPal verification SMS out of nowhere if there was really an unauthorized login to my account.
Of course, that straw man email owner is completely innocent, and I believe that owner already received the same scam email with me being the straw man, so that owner might think that I really performed unauthorized login into his/her PayPal account, if he/she didn't realize that the whole email's just a scam.
Before I realized that it's just a scam, I thought he/she really done what the email claims as well, so I just focused on logging into my PayPal accounts to assess the damages done and evaluate countermeasures to be taken, and if I didn't realize that it's just a scam, I'd already have given the password of my PayPal account to the scammers in their fake PayPal login page.
I suspect that many more PayPal users might have already received/are going to receive such scam emails, and I think this way of phishing can work for many other online payment gateways as well, so I think I can do some good by sharing my case, to hope that only I'll be this dumb(even though I didn't give the scammers my Paypal password at the end).
Title: Notification Case #(Some random numbers)
Sender: (Non-Paypal logo)service@paypal.com.(My PayPal account location) <(Non-PayPal email used by the real scammers)>
Recipients: (My email), (The email of an innocent straw man used by the real scammers)
Contents(With UI styles copying those in real PayPal emails):
Someone has logged into your account
We noticed a new login with your PayPal account associated with (The email of an innocent straw man used by the real scammers) from a device we don't recognize. Because of that we've temporarily limited your account until you renew and verify your identity.
Please click the button below to login into your account for verify your account.
(Login button copying that in real Paypal emails)
If this was you, please disregard this email.
(Footers copying those in real PayPal emails)
I admit that I'm incredibly stupid, because I almost believed that it's a real PayPal email, and I only realized that it's a scam right after I've clicked the login button, because it links to a URL that's completely different from the login page of the real PayPal(so fortunately I didn't input anything there).
While I've faced many old-schooled phishing emails and can figure them all out right from the start, I've never seen phishing emails like this, and what makes me feel even more dumb is that I already have 2FA applied to my PayPal account before receiving this scam email, meaning that my phone would've a PayPal verification SMS out of nowhere if there was really an unauthorized login to my account.
Of course, that straw man email owner is completely innocent, and I believe that owner already received the same scam email with me being the straw man, so that owner might think that I really performed unauthorized login into his/her PayPal account, if he/she didn't realize that the whole email's just a scam.
Before I realized that it's just a scam, I thought he/she really done what the email claims as well, so I just focused on logging into my PayPal accounts to assess the damages done and evaluate countermeasures to be taken, and if I didn't realize that it's just a scam, I'd already have given the password of my PayPal account to the scammers in their fake PayPal login page.
I suspect that many more PayPal users might have already received/are going to receive such scam emails, and I think this way of phishing can work for many other online payment gateways as well, so I think I can do some good by sharing my case, to hope that only I'll be this dumb(even though I didn't give the scammers my Paypal password at the end).
