• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Bnpositive's Blog

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
  • FREE Local SEO Audit
You are here: Home / Technology / Can You See the Red Flags in This PayPal Account Phishing Attempt

01/29/2020 By Jason Bean 3 Comments

Can You See the Red Flags in This PayPal Account Phishing Attempt

PayPal Phishing Email Screenshot
Click Image to Enlarge

It still surprises me the number of people that get taken by these types of spam emails, normally leading to malware installs, identity theft or other annoyances of life in the digital age. For me I hardly ever click on links in an email if I'm not expecting the email from someone already in advance. Even then I take a few quick seconds to scan the email and look for anything that seems fishy to me. Or should that be "phishy"?

Can you spot all the issues with this email I recently received:

  1. Misspelled the name of the company in the sender's name "Paypl service"
  2. Spammy looking email address! - this isn't always a reliable tell-tell sign to watch out, but more often than not it should give you a heads up. In this case the account name (prior to the @ symbol) seems odd, and in this case the server the email is coming from is also pretty sketchy looking
  3. Not always a red-flag (sadly) but there's numerous instances of letters being capitalized in the body of the message that shouldn't be if following standard grammatical rules
  4. Although not an alert all by itself, anything I see a link that's formatted as a button, I know there's opportunity for the things to be hidden, in this case we look at where the link is going to go by hovering over the link with our mouse in the browser and our browser telling us where in the bottom-left-hand corner
  5. Look at that link! //cat.jp.as.criteo.com/ now I'm going to stop right there because it's interesting to note that "Criteo" is a legitimate advertising platform, so these spammers appear to be either absolutely tracking their efforts of success or potentially spoofing this further to obscure their ploy. Taking a further look at the remaining part of the URL you'll see another website address being include after the "?r=" query string. That leads me to believe that link is being redirected even further to help cover their tracks

Here's another quick Public Service Announcement for you, don't just go clicking on links in emails even when they look like they're coming from legitimate sources. 

In this case, if you did indeed have a PayPal account and you were worried about it. Go to their website directly by opening your browser and typing in the URL of the company directly and visiting the site that way. Login to your account and see if there are any warnings or alerts posted there. If the company has a chat feature for support, send them a chat and have them verify if there are or are not any issues with your account that need to be addressed.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: Criteo, email, identity theft, malware, PayPal, phishing, scams, spam, URL

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Robert says

    02/28/2020 at 1:47 PM

    It’s messages like these that enforce the importance of mindfulness on the internet. Fortunately, despite how advanced phishing has become, there are ways to avoid becoming a victim. Simply looking at the language of the email, such as in the images provided here, will help determine whether a message is legitimate or doctored.

    Reply
  2. Avinash says

    05/15/2020 at 11:10 AM

    Thank you pretty much for sharing the massive information to us.It is very useful and informative.
    Please keep blogging new updates.

    Thanks
    DedicatedHosting4u.com

    Reply
  3. Varun Sharma says

    07/28/2020 at 3:02 AM

    Amazing blog!!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

Person Studying at Laptop

Why Studying Is The Best Thing You Can Do While Unemployed

Covid-19 increased unemployment in many countries. The United States suffered from business … [Read More...] about Why Studying Is The Best Thing You Can Do While Unemployed

Laptop Credit Card - Online Shopping

5 Smart Tips for Safe Online Shopping in 2021

Online shopping is fast becoming the new norm. Thanks to the freedom, convenience, and ease it … [Read More...] about 5 Smart Tips for Safe Online Shopping in 2021

Setting a Budget at Christmastime

There are two types of people in the world: Savers and spenders. At Christmas, it is much easier to … [Read More...] about Setting a Budget at Christmastime

RSS Positively Indy

  • Video Multimedia Salute to Veterans on Indianapolis Monument Circle
  • Money Tasks to Remember for the Summer

RSS Mission Notes | Faith & Culture

  • Review: “Take Back Your Life” Devotional from Levi Lusko
  • How to Live Stream Your Church Service or Sermon This Weekend

RSS Homeschool Daddy

  • Listening and Understanding on a Budget: Helping Teens Make Healthy Decisions
  • Tips and Resources for Being the Best Parent You Can Be

Premium WordPress Themes from InkThemes.com
The Bouqs - Premium Farm Direct Flowers

Footer

  • Clients
  • Archives
  • Advertising Disclosure
  • Domain For Sale
  • Comment Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Executive Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in