PayPal ‘Unknown Device or Location’ Phishing Email
The original site is no longer online; links go to the Internet Archive copy.
The claim
Subject: Unknown device or location #PP738491096 – View your recent activity
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Your Pa y pal account was recently logged into from a computer, mobile device or other location you’ve never used before.
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It’s usually pretty easy to take care of things like this. Most of the time, we just need a little more information about your account or latest transactions.
View your recent activity.
Yours sincerely,
Paypal Customer Service Centre
What the fact-checkers found
Because PayPal conducts almost all of its activities online, phishing scammers constantly target the company’s customers.
The cover stories used in these scam campaigns vary considerably.
In this version, the fake PayPal email claims that your PayPal account was recently accessed from ‘a computer, mobile device or other location you’ve never used before’. But, claims the email, you can take care of the problem by clicking a link and viewing your recent activity.
If you do click the link, you will be taken to a fake PayPal webpage and asked to log in. After you log in on the fake site, you will be automatically redirected to the genuine PayPal website.
Meanwhile, the scammers can collect your login details and use them to hijack your real PayPal account.
Remember that genuine PayPal emails will ALWAYS address you by name. If you receive an email claiming to be from PayPal that asks you to click a link to rectify a supposed account problem, do not click.
Instead, log in to your PayPal account by entering the address into your browser’s address field. If there really is a problem, you should be alerted when you log in to your account.
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