Two phishing emails - same alleged transaction

[WobblyHand]

Weird. Today was the day to receive two suspicious emails. One wasn't apparently good enough. You know, the kind of email where there's some purchase that you wouldn't buy that you supposedly bought that morning, from eBay. Coming from a suspicious person, labeled "PayPal_Team<somename1@gmail.com>". Like a PayPal employee would use gmail, come on. Using a vaguely PayPal-like logo in the email. And of course a bogus PayPal customer service phone number. (PayPal likes to hide their number.) A cursory internet search revealed a totally different phone number. And a official admonition, near the bottom of the page that I have 24 hours from the date of the transaction to open a dispute. This is a typical attempt to inject some urgency, so the victim will act hastily.

Nonetheless, a little baffled. Did I inadvertently buy something? Never have before, but hey, maybe there's a first time. You know, CRS and all that. So looked up my PayPal and eBay activity, which showed nothing, my bank card activity, which also showed nothing. Happy to have found nothing, but really don't like this. These emails are just another version of a con job, attempting to take advantage of people. It's really low, low behavior.

So, I reported emails to spoof@paypal.com. Reported the gmail violations of terms of service to Google of the 2 usernames. Don't know if I should bother reporting it to eBay. Not expecting any action by any of these companies, but it did make me feel a little better.

This scam/phishing attempt must work sometimes. Really sad and disappointing to see folks stooping this low.

On the good side, I got to watch a video of my grandson being tickled and laughing his head off. He's two and a ball of fire. That helped lift the mood.

 

[Just for fun]

It's bad sometime, you really need to be cautious. I have had a few phishing emails lately myself.

Glad you had a good time watching your grandson.

 

[markba633csi]

Emails? Heck I've had phone calls from scammers who make up stories about fraudulent purchases on my Amazon account and wanting information so they can "straighten it out"
Yeah right- I just say thanks for notifying me and hang up after checking my account and finding nothing
-M

 

[matthewsx]

I deal with these every day. See if you can report it to your email provider.

John

 

[WobblyHand]

Emails? Heck I've had phone calls from scammers who make up stories about fraudulent purchases on my Amazon account and wanting information so they can "straighten it out"
Yeah right- I just say thanks for notifying me and hang up after checking my account and finding nothing
-M

Oh, I get those too, but I have my phone screen those calls. Nowadays, very few get through.

 

[WobblyHand]

I deal with these every day. See if you can report it to your email provider.

John

Good idea. Looking at the source of the email shows the X-Spam-Flag = NO, but the X-CTCH-Spam flag = Suspect. Probably should not have made it through my ISP.

 

[Winegrower]

I got a phone call from some random area code from what sounded like "somebody at someplace". Noisy, bad accent, I just hung up. Next day, same call, same "somebody at someplace". Hung up again. Next day "somebody at someplace" called again. I said "why do you keep calling"? He said "I'm your insurance agent, time to renew". Oh.

 

[savarin]

I use google translate to translate a really obscene offensive statement into Hindi.
I practice it to get the accent right and get it memorised.
All our scam calls come on the landline so I'm primed every time that rings.
I always answer sounding like a doddering old fart (which I am) show alarm and worry in my voice.
When they get to the bit about asking for details I ask in a quavering voice if I can ask something.
You can feel the elation as they think they've got me I then come out with my memorised statement.
They go absolutely ballistic its fantastic.
I dont get to do it much these days as a lot of the calls are a recorded message so its just a hang up job.

 

[matthewsx]

I led one of these email scammers along way back in the mid 2000's. They got all the way to sending me a bogus cashiers check which was intercepted by the USPS Postal Inspector.

I was contacted some time later and informed that the scammer was being prosecuted, they were in Chicago, made me feel real good....

John

 

[aliva]

I received a few texts about a compromised Amazon account and I should log in with the address they provided .I just block the number.

I've also receive phone calls that the RCMP has issued and arrest warrant for me and that I should press 1 to speak to a rep. I did this with full intentions to screw with them. I told them to send the RCMP over soon because I'm leaving shortly with my plane to the Bahamas to check on my secret bank account. So far no visits from the RCMP, I'm still waiting.