PayPal Users hit with ‘Payment Made without Permission’ Phishing Scam Email

Another day — Another PayPal Phishing scam! There’s an email claiming that PayPal is considering a payment reversal. Allegedly, a payment was made without the account holder’s consent that seems like a transaction error.

What happens is that in order to respond to PayPal’s request for information, user are asked to click a login link to access their PayPal Resolution Center within 24 hours. But, the email is not genuinely from PayPal but, in fact, is a phishing scam intended to steal users’ personal and financial information.

If you click the ‘Resolution Center’ link, you will be redirected to a dummy website faking a PayPal login page. After you ‘login’ on the phony site, you will be shown a ‘Dispute Resolution’ form that demands your name and contact details, credit card numbers, and other ID information.

Example Email: 

Upon clicking the ‘Submit’ button on the fake form, the user then receives a message stating that the issue has now been fixed. In the meantime, all of the user’s personal information can easily be retrieved by cyber criminals and misused to hijack your PayPal account and commit fraudulent PayPal and credit card transactions and identity theft.

Be warned and always remember that PayPal will never send you an uncalled-for email demanding that you click a login link to deal with a supposed account issue. And, authentic PayPal addresses will always address you directly by your username. They will never use nonspecific greeting such as ‘Dear Customer’. Nor will they use your email address in place of your name as has been done in this case. Because PayPal, through principal, conducts almost all of its business via email and the web, PayPal customers are a leading target for phishing scammers.

It is safe and advisable to login your PayPal account by entering the web address into your browser’s address bar or via an official PayPal app. The PayPal website has a verified green signature as shown in the screenshot below: 

Using PayPal App for secure transaction: 

PayPal offers apps for almost all platforms including Android, iOS, and Windows. So download these apps and enjoy secure transactions with just a swipe.

The PayPal website has information about phishing and how to report scam emails.

Browse safe and stay tuned with HackRead for more ;)