PayPal Account Has Been Limited

It’s called “phishing”. And what that translates to is: casting a net (or “a baited hook”) out to catch suckers, rubes, and victimize them.

In this example, Hotmail did a good job, and caught this particular “bait” email, and moved it to the Junk folder for me, but I cannot rely on that happening – I have to learn to spot a “phish”.

This one has several clues: one, it’s scary/alarming. Emails saying there is something wrong with your banking, or email, or such, and you NEED TO ACT NOW BY CLICKING THIS LINK are 99.9999% fake, frauds, cons, criminal attacks on you.

Another clue is the  “!”s. Just about any email that has !!! in the subject line is garbage at best. (Usually, it is a scam, like this one.)

Now.. it so happens that I do have a PayPal account. And it also so happens that I do not want it to be “limited” in any way.. but I know better than to even open this email.
If I was really worried that there might be some truth in it, or just might be valid, what I would do would be to open a new browser tab, and go directly to PayPal, login, and check my status there. Or call them on the phone.

I know.. I know.. this is old stuff. Why am I talking about it in 2012? Trust me, there are plenty of people who opened this, even though most webmail mark it as Junk — the fear and curiosity it evokes is too much for them to resist..

Let’s be safe online people – exercise some good healthy “paranoid common sense”. Just viewing an email such as this can have bad consequences.. so I remind you of the old, old watchwords – if you do not know and recognize the Sender > Don’t open it.

Too funny: This just came in..

Today’s quote: “Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” ~ William Shakespeare

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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