Paypal & ACH Scams

This week brought a couple of scams, neither of which are new.
The first was supposedly from Paypal and had the message of “Your account has been limited until we hear from you” .  Here is a screen shot of the email:

Paypal problem email

Doing a web search turned up several web sites with information on similar emails.  Checking with Paypal, they requested that the entire email be forwarded to them at:  spoof@paypal.com. The email had a link that was titled “Resolution Center” but actually goes to a domain name ending in “-office.com” and thus was not even part of Paypal. The web sites are:

from Digitalspy
from fraudwatchinternational

Another email I received this week had a subject of  “ACH Payment Canceled”.  It had an attachment named “report_082211-65.pdf.zip”, but most people probably would not see the “.zip” added on the end and only see that it is supposed to be a pdf file.   A screen shot of the email is:

ACH Payment Canceled email

A web search for this also showed several others had received similar emails. These web sites are:

from NACHA
from SunTrust
from hoax-slayer
from scamtrends

The first is for National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), which is who the email is supposed to be from. They request that any fraudulent emails be sent to them at: abuse@nacha.org. The address at the bottom of the email is theirs. The second is from SunTrust, which requests that any emails be sent to them at: emailabuse@suntrust.com. (I sent the one I received to both.)

All of the above to ask that everyone be cautious when receiving emails that look like they are from any financial institution. Most, if not all, banks and credit unions will not ask you for personal or account information by email. Especially be cautious in clicking on any links or opening any email attachments, even from someone you know. Normally, if you hold your mouse over a link, you will see the actual web link displayed below the email. If it isn’t what you expect, don’t click on it.

Thanks for stopping by…

About Mike

Mike Walker is the owner of M D Computer Works.
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