Ebay genuine or a trick?

[expat]

I was in the process of buying some car parts when this email came in. Do you think this is genuine?



Dear PayPal member,
At PayPal, we value the trust you have placed in us by using our service to conduct your transactions
online. Because our relationship with you is financial in nature, the protection of your privacy is particularly
important to us.

We are sending this verification notice to provide you with information about how PayPal safeguards
your privacy, as well as to comply with U.S. federal privacy guidelines that apply to financial institutions
such as PayPal. The full terms of PayPal's privacy policy are available on the PayPal website, which you
are welcome to review at any time.

Please verify your account and financial information by clicking on the link below:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=verify

*** DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL ***



Copyright© 2003 PayPal, Inc. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property
of their respective owners.

[Adam]

I'd beware. I think it's a scam that circulates. I've never received an email like that and I use PayPal/eBay all the time.

[Typical Fish]

NO online merchant, credit card or otherwise, will EVER ask you to verify online your financial information. Ever. They may hit you up for contact info or something along those lines, but that's it.

[expat]

Hmmm...thats what I thought. Thanks!

[jbripps]

Scam for sure. Stay away from that message.

[Paul Franssen]

I received it, too - about 2 weeks ago. I have never ever used penpal in my life... so, I thought about it and, just to solve the matter, deleted it. End of story, till I read this thread. Must be a scam... !

[jluetjen]

Never "Click through" on an address that was sent to you via email, especially if they want you to verify information. If you need to verify anything, you should do it be going directly to paypal as you normally would (by typing in the address) and then logging on to your account from there.

While the link on the original email (not on the copy above) appears to say " https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=verify", if you rest (DON'T CLICK) the curser on the link and look at the bottom of the screen (at least in Netscape) you will see that in fact the link is taking you to someplace completely different.

If I were you I'd forward the original email to Paypal's websecurity contact and then delete it. If you really want to do what the email says -- stop! -- I've got an African Money Laundering scheme that I'd like to introduce you to!

[steve911]

this may in fact be genuine, since it is directing you to an httpS (secure) website. I would log onto paypal directly and go to their verification section.

However, caution is always warranted; there was a scam going around recently that had all sorts of typos and the url was redirecting somewhere else.

[vesnyder]

Here is one I received from "eBay Billing Department". Scam ??

Dear eBay member:
It has come to our attention that your eBay Billing information's records are out of date.
This requires an update of your billing information. Please take several minutes out of your online experience and update your billing records. You will not run into future problems with our online services.
However, failure to update your records will result in your account termination. Please update your records right now.
Once you have updated your account records your eBay session will not be interrupted. Please click here to update your billing records.

Thank you for your time.

eBay Billing Dept team.

All the discussion here about eBay and PayPal scams I am ignoring it?

[onewhippedpuppy]

The Ebay and Paypal are both scams, they use them to get your credit card information, I read about both of these a while back, so don't do it! Somehow they even simulate the secure site, but just like Typical Fish said, no one will ever ask you to verify your financial information online.

[trader220]

Paypal says when you sign up that anything you recieve from that will be addressed to you usieng your full name. Such as Dear Mr. Firstname Lastname. Both full names.

[targa911S]

it IS a scam. Ebay has info on their site about it. It is called a "spoof" email. They request you forward the email to them in it's entirety. I got one about two weeks ago. I would, as ebay does, suggest you change all of you passwords to sensitive sites ASAP. No vendor would ever ask for the info they are requesting, especially on a unsecured site. I would suspect Paypal would want to be notified as well.

[RickM]

The only time they'll solict info from you is when you log into your account in Paypal.

[niner11]

I think that paypal says that they will never ask for password info. ever.

[Schuey]

the link is from paypal though...

[targa911S]

not if you look closely. Any info they would want would come on a https site. meaning secure. the site you are receiving most likely is just an http site. That is the giveaway. It is very easy to just copy and paste anyones site.

[jluetjen]

the link is from paypal though...

No it's not. Check out the following examples to see what they are doing. The following links both look like they should take you to my car on the 911E registry:

http://www.911eregistry.org/119220051.html

And

http://www.911eregistry.org/119220051.html

Look at the bottom of your screen when you rest (NOT CLICK) your pointer on the link.

Just because the text that you read says doesn't mean that it really is.

Beware

[Tim Walsh]

AHH and it looks legit here b/c when you copy/pasted here you lost the html info in the transfer. Look in the email itself and I'll bet they're directing you to a different server than https://www.paypal.com

[stomachmonkey]

All emails of this type are scams. I have received the ebay, paypal and believe it or not one from Citibank. I followed the Citibank link just for kicks and it was a site somewhere in Korea.

Checked with Citibank and they verified it was a scam.

This stuff has me paranoid.

I recently received a form via snailmail from United Healthcare asking me to update my info.

Started to fill it out and when I got to a section asking for SS#, mother's maiden name and a few other things that could be used to establish credit in my name I crumpled the form up and threw it away.

It was probably legit but you never know.
If it's legit and they need the info they can contact my employer.

Scott

[no substitute]

We discussed this on another forum. As has already been said it is a scam by low lifes trying to steal your financial information. It is meant to look legit to draw you in.