Today was the first time ever I received a fraudulent paypal email. The scammer masked his fake email to show it as “accounts@paypal.com” but actually his email was “akstcabinmobiliariamnsdgs@abinmobiliaria.com”. Apparently, the person thought that I was stupid enough to fall into his trick. He should go and try his tricks with some new internet users or some stupid people.

So, I decided to tell all of you and include the tips on how to find out if the email you got is fake or not and also a few safety measures.

Fake Alert 1 : - Don’t forget that whenever paypal will email you, it will address you as “Dear ‘Name’ “. any phishing emails will say something like ‘paypal customer’, ‘paypal member’, ‘paypal user’. It’s the very moment you should be sure that this email is fake.

Fake Alert 2 : - They will send some links in your email where you have to click to check out. Make sure that you see the url in your browser before you login or do anything on that site. URL must contain “http://www.paypal.com”, usually scammers use urls like “paypal-theirwebsite.com” or other such stupid urls. And mostly they ask you to login, after you login you get re-directed to paypal.com just normally. But actually your ID and pass has already been sent to the criminals. Don’t panic because you are still not in danger till the person sees your account details. Make sure that you change your password immediately and you will be safe.

Fake Alert 3 : - As paypal says that they will never send any attachments ever in any of their official emails. So if any fake email sends attachments, delete those immediately. They may contain virus or other harmful materials which should not be opened. It is not a big problem if you have anti virus but it is still not worth taking the risk.

Safety Tip 1 : - Always remember that whenever you want to log into paypal account, open a new page in the browser and type in “www.paypal.com” and only then login. For more safety, avoid logging into paypal accounts from public computers or internet cafes. I have noticed some cafes using key loggers that keeps record of every letter typed into the computer. If it is urgent then make sure that there are no such programs switched on at the computer and only then login.

Safety Tip 2 : - If any email from paypal asks you for your personal informations, don’t reply back immediately with the details. It may not be paypal.com’s official email but some phishing attempt to get your private details. If paypal requires information from you, they will notify you in an email and request that you enter the information only after you have safely and securely logged in to your PayPal account.

Hope my tips and alerts will be helpful for you all