Is this a con

[denis567]

I don't know if others have had the same problem, but I received an e-mail today asking me to send someone �140 using Paypal.
I opened the link to see what it was for, but it directed me to my Paypal signing in page.
I was very suspicious, as I have not bought anything recently over the internet, so I went to Ebay and accessed my Paypal account from there. There was no mention of this payment there, so I have sent a copy of the e-mail to [email protected] asking them to investigate it.
I have received a standard reply from them saying they will investigate the matter, and let me know the outcome.
Have others received a similar email?

[ACtheTROLL]

of course it's perfectly legit ... I send people I've never heard of before money every day
as do many of my friends ... occasionally I have bought things ... but most of the time I do it just to be nice.

incidentally - I could do with a couple of thousand ... could you oblige?

I seem do be sending more and more these days ... a little help would be gratefully received

[VHG]

>I opened the link to see what it was for, but it directed
>me to my Paypal signing in page.

I am afraid this was probably NOT the genuine Paypal signing in page, but a spoof website made to look lie the PayPal web site.

Because it is probably a false site, all it does when you loging is "capture" your paypal userid and password.

Now these people have your paypal userid and password they can log on to the genuine Paypal site as you and can do all sorts of things they want to do (like pay other people money).

If I was you I would change my PayPal password VERY quickly (but it may be too late)

NEVER NEVER NEVER select on a link on a suspicious email (from banks, ebay etc). These emails always direct you to a fake site which has been set up just to steal your userid and password.

Always go to a site via your favourites, or type the PROPER site name directly into the browser window, that way you know you are at the genuine site.

[VHG]

This type of attempt to get your userid and password is called Phishing. You can read about it here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

People send emails out on a random basis saying they are from a bank, or organization like ebay, paypal or whatever.

Because it is random some people who get them do not even use that bank, or ebay and so on, but because they are random some people (like you) happen to be users of the service (in this case PayPal).

I get 2 or 3 emails every day from banks that I do not have accounts with.

I hope for your case it was NOT a phishing scam because if it was they may have cleared out your PayPal account by now (not sure how PayPal works so I dont know if they can do that or not).

Good luck.

[Jacko439]

The short answer to your question was It was a scam and as already stated one should never open an attachment received in an email from an unknown source. I had to learn this the hard way and it cost me the price of a new hard drive. So never never never open

[WhiteBear]

next time dont click on the link, hover the mouse over the link, at the bottom of the webpage, it will tell you the full web address of where it will direct you. if you dont recognise the web address dont click on to it.

another good thing is, when ever you are on a website to log in your id & password, make sure you check it is secured.

The web address would start with https:// remember theres a letter 'S' after the p.
Also you would get a padlock icon either at the top of the webaddress or bottom right hand side/ This means it is a secured website.

[denis567]

Thank you all for your answers. Luckily, when I clicked the link and it showed the spoof Paypal sign in page, I did not enter my password. I then went onto my Paypal account through ebay, so hopefully I have got away with it this time, but to be on the safe side, I am going to alter my Paypal password.
Ebay have confirmed it was a spoof email