The return address was paypal.com so it went to my inbox instead of junk mail.
I gotta tell ya it looked authentic it told me someone from a different ip address was trying to access my account and if it was me on a different computer that was ok if not I needed to go into my acct. and change my password.
But it greeted me by my email address not my name.
It had the logo even the little PayPal Email ID number on the bottom to prove it was paypal.
But the link was to paypal.com\cgi-bin etc.
I felt kind of stupid but I sent it to spoof@paypal.com and yep it was fake.
When paypal wrote back sure enough I was greeted by my name at the top of the paypal response.
So I learned two things today the link or address is paypal.com\us nothing after that and official paypal email will always use your name and never call you Dear member or email address.

Mike,

You should have read the information I posted at http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/009888.html which pretty much spelled everything out. Lots of nasty bast*&#@(s out there these days, and they're al just trying to steal from you.

Cheers,

Gary

Actually I did read you post and that is probably why this caught my eye and why I checked it out first.
But my comment is how real it looked even right next to paypals reply this was dead on perfect except for the little things I mentioned.
But like I said your post is probably what saved me from myself.
and I would like to thank you for that. I hope more people read it and take it seriously

Glad to be of service Mike. I keep getting online banking scams in my emails, which I find incredible since I do not bank online at all. Every one of the scams had an official logo, one they likely copied from the bank's web page. The most frequent ones that arrived during the past few weeks have been from Citi-Bank, which in my immediate area doesn't even exist. The closet branch is about 30 miles away.

Cheers,

Gary

I've had many of the same phishing expeditions. I like to answer the phishers and give them BOGUS information.

I can just see them "Hey we caught another sucker! We're in the money!" I'd like to see their expressions when the bogus info doesn't give them access to my accounts.

It's time to fight back!

Tom

They actually ran this story about these bogus paypal emails on Good Morning America not too long ago. The Internet has opened up so many good things to us, but has made it so easy now for those dirty SOB's out there to scam you and steal your money. They think of something new every day. Here's a really good one not related to Ebay though, but was watching TV the other day and these teenage punks were caught ripping off (change) machines at car washes. Some brain child figured out how to apply tape to a five dollar bill in a way that you can place it in the machine, it reads it as five bucks, and you can yank it back out. They cleaned up on several places and netted over $5,000 in one week.

Squeak

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 01-13-2005).]

Squeak: better be careful using 'acronyms' which seem to offend some people here.

Scott

Scottyee.... W T .... awwww never mind we get yer point