I Might Be Dumb But I’m Not Stupid Enough To Believe THAT!
I somehow think that a lot of email scammers are a few crumbs short of a sandwich, or a sandwich short of a picnic, or something, but you get the drift!
It may be a worry that they think that I am just as dumb!
Over the past few days I have been receiving emails supposedly from Paypal, but with an email address that uses the domain of a Mexican University.
And of course the link to correct the “problem” with my account goes nowhere near PayPal.
Now I am sure that if there was a problem with any account with a financial institution, that they would send an email to the address that they have on record.
(Not to an address that I don’t use much these days.)
The link in the email would lead back to that company’s website, not to who the heck knows where!
(And they wouldn’t send it from a university!)
Notice the images below and to the right.
What’s Paypal doing at a university in Mexico?
That is not the logo that Paypal uses.
They would also use more professional language in their correspondence.
I doubt that they would email a customer up to five times a day…
For three days in a row now…
What to do when you receive emails like this:
Always check where emails are from. Note that the address in the “from” field is probably not where it came from, even if it looks real.
Here’s a quick explanation of how it is done from Wikipedia
Never click the link in these emails.
Rather than clicking a link in an email, hover over the link to see where it actually leads to.
All pretty basic stuff I guess, but with all the scams around, it’s better to show a bit of horse sense and check, rather than feeling like a donkey later!
If you can’t decide whether the email is for real or not, contact the company or institution that you have an account with and ask them
It is in their interest to know what’s happening, and chances are that they will already know about the current batch.
Your own peace of mind is a good reason for contacting them and finding out. And you can help others by letting them know.
I must admit that the first time I received one it gave me a bit of a jolt, and I raced straight of to the bank’s website to check.
Of course, when I went to check, I did not follow the link in the email, but rather, opened my browser and went from there.
Never follow the link in the email and log in!
They’re “phishing” for your information, and if you log in from their link, you are handing it to them on a platter!
Phishing is the attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. For more on Phishing go to Wikipedia!
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