Just accessed my e-mails and there was a message saying I'd 'gifted a Brian Munch with £51 via my e-mail account.' I hadn't! N.B. The message said if I queried the message I should click on this icon. This brought up a page asking for my full name - date of birth - bank details etc etc Contacted Paypal who blocked the payment and was told that I had done the right thing in NOT giving bank details on this form. I very rarely use Paypal - the last transaction was towards the Patrick Cryne flag - could that account have been hacked others on this site have used it.
It isn't linked to the Patrick cryne flag or any other purchase, it's just a phishing email sent out randomly pretending that you had gifted Brian munch something when really you hadn't. The scam isn't to get the £51 it's to get you to log in on a fake site and give them all your details so they can steal as much from your PayPal as they want. Not sure why PayPal are telling you they have blocked the payment because there was never a payment in the first place, the 'brian Munch's Email has been going round for a while.
Was it a real payment? Very unlikely. Normally emails like these are easy to spot, firstly they are addressed to something like "PayPal user" and secondly if you hover the mouse over the link, you should see the URL at the bottom of the screen and it will be nothing like a pucker PayPal URL.
If you have actually put your details into that site you opened the I would quickly try to access PayPal through the proper site via google or entering address direct in browser and change your details. Paypal will always address you in email by your name e.g. Dear Andy never dear customer etc
My top tip is if ever you get an email from anything asking you to log into their site, always go directly to the site and log in (not through clicking on a link). Even if you are 99.9% certain that it is from them I still wouldn't click a link on an email, it only takes 2 seconds to type the url in the address bar at the top and then you can be 100% certain every time.
It looked very genuine and the form asking for details looked o.k. - I agree the whole point of the e-mail was probably to get my bank details etc. The e-mail address I use for e-bay and paypal is only used with e-bay/paypal. The last time I used this particular e-mail address was to donate towards the flag. So, hopefully wrongly, I thought there may be link between my flag donation and my account being phished.
As ST says there was no payment and nothing has been hacked. It is just to get you to part with your personal details and bank details.
I once had a similar situation with bank fraud. The bank sent me a text asking me to call them on a certain number to discuss potential fraud on my account. To be on the safe side I called the standard number for my bank and asked THEM to transfer me to their fraud department. Much safer even if it takes a few extra seconds
Absolutely correct. The same principle applies to telephone numbers; always use a number from an trusted and official source.
I normally hover the mouse over the link to show up the actual address, that's usually a good give away that it's fake. I treat every email as spam anyway, and go directly to the main site and log in to see if there's owt there anyway.
I would not touch PAYPAL with a bargepole... biggest scam base ever there are so many scams done under the PAYPALl banner its so unreal... I have used it in the past and been fortunate not to have been scammed/hacked... but I totally locked them out when my friend got taken down for just over £7K yes SEVEN THOUSAND POUNDS... in one hit. He was ok 'cos his credit card was insured ... but it was the aftermath that hurt him the most for inconvenience and stress.. he had to change his all of his bank account details, his work pay details both for him and his wife, the direct debits were a pain to transfer also... and they even advised hiom to get his building society changed too and his internet. He also went down the line of changing his E-Mail accounts which meant all his contacts had to be renewed. PAYPAL have a dreadful reputation when it comes to the world of Scam/Hackers. But here's a tip for people online , get yourselves a cardcash account. Most banks/building society's have them.... basically its a top up card like a PAYG phone... basically you can put any amount you want on to it but it will not let you go above that. So if you go on amazon/E-Bay for instance and see a few things you want and they come to for example £100 then you load the Cardcash with £100 and then buy online... if its hacked they can only get £100 or whatever balance is left on. A simple yet a freedom of mind method. Another thing is to get a security suite that allows you a virtual keyboard... this then stops keyhackers too.
Funnily enough I was discussing this the other day. It seems that my phone makes outgoing calls, receives incoming calls and sends and receives text messages which is apparently quite different to a lot of phones these days. It doesn't stop some from royally ripping the pi55 out of it though. Strange times we live in.
I use FaceTime and send texts. Couldn't tell you the last time I actually made or received a phone call!
