I’ve been getting a bunch of these emails which appear very sophisticated. It’s a PayPal phishing scam which is currently being spread through e-mail. This scam is more sophisticated than previous scams in that it accesses PayPal cookies on your local system and uses your PayPal username or e-mail, making it look more official. As a general practice, reputable companies will not ask you in an e-mail to enter personal information on a web site. See the ITS Help Desk Security Center Phishing page for more information about phishing scams and how to protect yourself.
Text of the PayPal Scam E-mail
——
From: PayPal [mailto:service@paypal.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 1, 2006 11:52 PM
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Notification of Limited Account Access
Dear PayPal Member,
As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the
PayPal system.
We recently noticed the following issue on your account:
We would like to ensure that your account was not accessed by an
unauthorized third party. Because protecting the security of your account
is our primary concern, we have limited access to sensitive PayPal account
features. We understand that this may be an inconvenience but please
understand that this temporary limitation is for your protection.
For your protection, we have limited access to your account until
additional security measures can be completed. We apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause.
To review your account and restore your access, please visit PayPal as soon
as possible:
https: //www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run
[Note: link actually accesses the following site:http: //www.paypal.com%20cgi-bin%20webscr%20cmd–secure-amp-sh-u%20%20https.hurric
ane.xycum.com/https/www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr_cmd=_login-run/”
target=_blank>https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run]
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand
that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your
account. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department