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Don't Fall For This Sophisticated New PayPal Phishing Scam
Don't Fall For This Sophisticated New PayPal Phishing Scam
Lee Mathews
,
CONTRIBUTOR
Observing, pondering, and writing about tech. Generally in that order.
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Around 200 million people have a PayPal account. It's been one of the most popular online payment services for years, which is why it's such a popular target for phishing scams. Since they're tied to your credit card or bank account, they're particularly prized by cybercriminals.
Image: PayPal
Security experts at ESET recently discovered
a new PayPal phishing scam
that they say is particularly sophisticated. The emails these fraudsters are sending out are convincingly written and feature the PayPal logo and there's even a bit of fine print at the bottom for added effect.
According to the message, there's a problem with your PayPal account and you need to log in immediately to correct it. Click the "log in" button in the message, and you'll be taken to a website where you can "fix" the problem. It's not PayPal's website, of course. But if all you're looking for is the lock icon that accompanies a secure site, you'll see that -- ESET notes that that the phishing form is transmitted over an HTTPS link.
Keen-eyed users will spot the suspicious domain name right away in their browser's address bar. It's not hard to see how less savvy folks could be fooled by the form, though. The color scheme follows
PayPal's
, their official logo on the page, and it's "stamped" 100% secure and verified by Symantec.
Image: ESET
How To Avoid Being Scammed
The scammers behind this
PayPal
phishing attack have put in a lot of effort, but they've also made plenty of mistakes. Spotting those slip-ups is the key to staying safe.
Paypal warns users about latest phishing attempt
Paypal warns users about latest phishing attempt
An exterior view of eBay/PayPal offices in San Jose, Calif., is seen, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011.
Paul Sakuma — The Associated Press file
By
Tim Simko
, The Morning Journal & The News-Herald
POSTED:
01/31/17, 4:21 PM EST
|
UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO
0
This March 10, 2015, file photo, shows signage outside PayPal’s headquarters in San Jose, Calif.
Jeff Chiu — The Associated Press file
Paypal explains how to identify phishing
An official email from Paypal will never ask a user to do the following through email:
1. Send an email to: “Undisclosed Recipients” or more than one email address.
2. Ask a user to download a form or file to resolve an issue.
3. Ask to verify an account using personal information such as name, date of birth, or address.
4. Ask to verify an account using bank account information such as bank name, routing number, or PIN number.
5. Ask to verify an account using credit card information such as credit card number or type, expiration date, or ATM PIN number.
6. Ask a user for security question answers without displaying each security question that was created
7. Ask a user to ship an item, pay a shipping fee, send a Western Union Money Transfer, or provide a tracking number before the payment received is available in the transaction history
— Courtesy
spoof@paypal.com
Fraudulent emails are showing up in Paypal users’ email inboxes in an attempt to gain a users information, according to Paypal.
How to report suspicious activity to Paypal
Paypal recommends the following for reporting suspicious activity:
1. Open a new browser or tab and type in “
www.paypal.com”
;
2. Log in to the PayPal account in question.
3. Click “Activity” near the top of the webpage.
4. Click on the suspicious transaction to expand the details.
5. Click “Report this as unauthorized”
6. Complete the report process on the next screen.
— Courtesy
spoof@paypal.com
The email is designed to look like an official Paypal email and says that it is confirming that a new email address has been added to the user’s Paypal account and that if the user didn’t add the new email to let Paypal know.
The email also contains links to what looks like an official Paypal website. Once on the website, an unsuspecting user is expected to enter their account information immediately to try and access their account.
According to an email from Paypal’s security experts at
spoof@paypal.com,
90 percent of all email worldwide falls into the spam or phishing category.
Advertisement
“By submitting reports of suspicious email to us you are helping to address this problem,” Paypal said in a statement.
If an email seems suspicious, the security team recommends opening a new tab or window in a web browser and typing
paypal.com
to ensure that a user is on the legitimate website.
“Any time you receive an email about activity to your Paypal account, the safest way to confirm validity is to login directly to the Paypal website and review the relevant section,” Paypal said.
The company said it will never directly ask for personal banking information through an email or ask for answers to security questions without displaying each security question that was created, according to the statement.
The company will also never ask a user to ship an item or send a Western Union money transfer.
If a user believes an email may be suspicious, it can be reported at the
Paypal Security Center
or the email can be forwarded to
spoof@paypal.com
and the Paypal Security Team can help determine the validity of the email and try to deter the fraud.
“We take reports of suspicious email very seriously,” Paypal said.
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PayPal users targeted in sophisticated new phishing campaign
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PayPal users targeted in sophisticated new phishing campaign
BY
CAMERON CAMP
POSTED
27 JAN 2017 - 10:30AM
PHISHING
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in
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Recent phishing scams targeted both Gmail and Yahoo, and now attackers have their sights set on PayPal with some very convincing bait. With fake websites and email campaigns that look real, it’s easy to be fooled, and potentially have your identity and money stolen by scammers. Here’s how it happens.
First, there’s an email with logos and verbiage that sounds great (that is, “look and sound authentic”). Notice, however, errors in grammar and syntax that suggest the author isn’t a native English speaker. That’s one of the clues.
When unsuspecting users click the
Log In
button, the victims-to-be aren’t taken to PayPal properties, but through a shortened link like this:
That, in turn, leads to a landing page here:
… where they are presented with a real-looking fake login screen that even has an SSL certificate to suggest it’s authentic. But don’t be fooled.
Notice the domain has nothing to do with PayPal sites, but rather are scam URLs. As with other campaigns, scammers typically use a myriad of dynamically generated domain names — sometimes slight variations on the real name — which is another clue that something isn’t right.
Once you enter your information, you are presented with another message with fake information appearing to corroborate the text of the email:
Here they present a sense of urgency along with more frightening scare to try to coerce you into giving the attackers more information. If you click “Continue”, you are taken another page asking for even more targeted information, which could aid the scammers in their attempts to steal your identity:
Notice they are even asking for your Social Security Number, which would only apply in the US, but then ask you what country you’re in. Also, they continue the sense of urgency stating you will be unable to interact with PayPal until you give them the information requested.
It’s easy to see how users could be fooled by such a campaign, but we hope this information can be used to raise awareness, should someone you know encounter campaigns like this in their inbox.
If you’re concerned about PayPal security, you should log directly into PayPal.com itself and update your security settings, and if you know someone who has fallen victim, the first step should be to change their PayPal password before more damage occurs.
Whether you’re a PayPal user or not, keep in mind that cybercriminals are spending more and more effort to make their phishing websites look exactly like the real vendors’. As has been heavily reported recently,
Gmail users were recently hit
with a sophisticated phishing scam that fooled even savvy users due to its ability to mimic a legitimate Gmail login prompt. We are likely to see more phishing campaigns targeting users of well-known sites.
How to protect yourself
First, do not click links or open attachments in unsolicited email—if email supposedly from e.g., PayPal, says you have a problem, open a new browser tab or window and log directly onto PayPal by typing in the web address.
Second, if you get such an alert while you are browsing, verify that the URL in the address bar looks as you would expect—if the alert appears to come from PayPal, be very suspicious if the address bar doesn’t start out http://www․paypal․com/ or https://www․paypal․com/. Instead, go directly to the website by typing in its address.
Third, since phishing becomes more of a problem when the same password is utilized across multiple sites and services, consider deploying two-factor authentication (2FA). By requiring a one-time password generated by a user’s smartphone as a second form of authentication, 2FA helps block unauthorized access. Our blog WeLiveSecurity covers what two-factor authentication is and why you need it
here
.
To learn more about social engineering techniques such as phishing and how to protect your business, download ESET’s tech brief,
Social Engineering and Why It Happened to You
.
You might also be interested in:
Phish Allergy – Recognizing Phishing Messages
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