Just had a classic virus attachment email:
We recently have determined that different computers have logged into your account, and multiple password failures were present before the login. Therefore your account has been limited.
Please download the form attached to this email and open it in a web browser.
Once opened, you will be provided with steps to restore your access.
We appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure account safety.
Copyright © 1999-2010 PayPal, Inc. All rights reserved.
PayPal Pty Limited ABN 93 111 195 389 (AFSL 304962). Any general financial product advice provided in this site has not taken into account your objectives, financial situations or needs.
[Attached of course, is a file “Profile Update – PayPal.mht (144KB)”, and an html email, likely infected too]
So how do I know so quickly it’s not real?
- This is a classic threat of ‘act now or you’ll loose access to your account’, under the guise of your safety.
- PayPal would not send attachments via email.
- If there was an issue, at most, they’d ask me to visit the genuine PayPal.com website by going there directly, (ie not using a hidden link on the email) and then view something from there.
- PayPal would not send programs to help your computer. That’s down to Microsoft, Apple, Linux, etc.
- The email address this was sent to, was harvested from one of my websites, not the email address I use for PayPal.
- The ‘To:’ field was empty within the message body (it should have my PayPal email only)
- They did not use my full name, or my PayPal name in their message
- The message layout doesn’t even contain the normal things PayPal send (although having them, does not make it genuine either, but at least not having them flags up more warnings)
For more information about greater safety with PayPal, please view the mail PayPal website:
https://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk/safetyadvice/safetytools.htm
And of course, don’t open anything or forward on anything, that is sent to you via email, apparently for ‘security’ or ‘safety’. Virtually 100% of the time it’s a complete fake and will do more harm than good.