A number of our campaign website clients use PayPal as a way to take online donations. Recently, we’ve been getting a number of scam emails attempting to trick users into putting their PayPal login information into fake websites.
For anyone who uses PayPal, here are some tip-offs to help tell legitimate emails from the scammers.
Here’s a sample email. Click on the image to view a larger version.
PayPal Scam Email
1) PayPal isn’t going to ask you to log into your account. And they certianly aren’t going to send an email with a link asking you to log in.
2) The subject line of “Need PayPal Account Information” is just a bit forward, no?
3) Check the sender in the From line. In this case, you can see that it’s not even from the PayPal domain. (Though a sender’s email address can be spoofed.)
4) If you hold your mouse over an email link, the actual URL that the link goes to is revealed. Here, it looks like the ‘PayPal’ link actually goes to a French website.
5) The header image is about ‘Getting Started with PayPal’. It doesn’t even fit the message.
When in doubt, don’t click on the links. If you are really unsure, contact PayPal (or the bank or financial institution) for confirmation. As a general rule, these companies will NOT send you messages asking you to log in to your account.
Be safe!
Check out our Local Campaign products.
Related Articles:
Tags: paypal, political donations
If you like what you found, subscribe to our RSS Feed, Facebook Page, and follow us on Twitter!