Regarding Yesterday's Article on a Phishing Message from an AC Producer

Yesterday I copied and pasted a scam message that I (and later I learned several other CP's) had received from an AC producer, in which he was hoping to get his hands on our money and steal our identity. Since the message claimed to be from PayPal, I forwarded it to their "spoof" site as they request.

On his message, PayPal was written so the "l" was actually a "one." In the font used here on the editing page, the "l" and the "one" look the same. But in his, the difference was obvious if you looked closely enough. I always wondered how scammers used PayPal's name and got away with it. My husband, who is much more computer literate than I, showed me how to put my mouse pointer on a supposed link and see where a reply would actually go if I should try to do as the message writer instructed. The address was nothing like PayPal's.

Here is my reply from the real PayPal. I just thought, should others receive this message, you might like to know what has been done. I removed some identifying text from the bottom of the reply from PayPal, because I didn't want the scammer to copy it onto his scam letters. I don't think it's too likely that he'll be reporting a scam and receive the same type message from PayPal.

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Dear Pat Burroughs,

Thanks for taking an active role by reporting suspicious-looking emails.
The email you forwarded to us is a phishing email, and our security team
is working to disable it.

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What is a phishing email?
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Phishing emails attempt to steal your identity and will often ask you to
reveal your password or other personal or financial information. PayPal
will never ask for your password over the phone or in an email and will
always address you by your first and last name.

Take our Fight Phishing Challenge at
https://www.paypal.com/fightphishing to learn 5 things you should know
about phishing. You'll also see what we're doing to help fight fraud
every day.

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You've made a difference.
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Every email counts. By forwarding a suspicious-looking email to
spoof@paypal.com, you've helped keep yourself and others safe from
identity theft.

Thanks,

The PayPal Team
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