Pay Pal says I have to get 'verified' - scam?

E

El_Guapo

500+ Posts
What does that mean?

I buy a lot of golf crap off e-bay. Pay Pal has sent me a couple of e-mails that says I am about to meet my spending limit and that I have to get "verified" to continue. As best as I can tell, they want access to my bank account. Why do they need that if I pay for everything I buy through Pay Pal with my credit card.

Is this a scam?
 
No, its not a scam. I have a verified Pay-Pal account that is linked to my checking account. I have never used a credit card through Pay-Pal so Im not sure about what the rules for that are. Sounds like they have a cap on the amount of purchases you can use with a credit card. All they do is put a minimul amount of money in your account, then take it back out, or vice-versa.
 
I believe it is a scam. I get similar emails at work, and of course, I would never use my work account for Ebay.
 
The verified account deal is not a scam. But it's not a good idea to do anything like this through email. It's too easy to spoof addresses, and eBay is one that's used a lot.

If they want you to change to a verified account, they'll tell you when you log onto eBay or PayPal, and you can do it then.
 
Does the email have an embedded link? The phishers send a bogus embedded link; Paypal won't.

I've been getting about four bogus paypal "verify you account" emails a week lately, btw.
 
The way PayPal verified my account three or more years ago was to send me a letter by postal mail. I then had a limited amount of time to log in and enter something they sent me.

In other words, they just verified my mailing address was valid.

What PayPal says about verification: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/verification-faq-outside
 
It looked like this. I've started getting these things about a month ago every time I bought something. If it's a scam, they're tied into exactly how much I'm spending and when because they've been counting down the dollars:


******************************************************
Get Verified and Remove Your Sending Limit

Dear El Guapo,

Did you know that Unverified PayPal members have a Sending Limit? Our records indicate that you are only $24.72 USD away from reaching yours.

You can send unlimited payments when you become Verified. It's easy! Just add and confirm a bank account. Click the link below to get started.

Get Verified!

As a security measure, PayPal asks members to add and confirm ownership of a bank account. When you confirm your bank account, you become Verified. This process is a secure and easy way to confirm a member's identity and leads to safer transactions between buyers and sellers.

Become Verified and help increase the security of your PayPal transactions for yourself and for everyone with whom you do business. You can also:

Fund purchases directly from your checking or savings account, in addition to using credit cards
Enjoy peace of mind with 100% protection against unauthorized use
Shop without interruption because Verified users have no Sending Limit
Improve your reputation by letting others know you're a confirmed, Verified member of the PayPal community
Send money to friends, family, and PayPal Personal Account holders
Get Verified Now!


If you have questions concerning Verification or your Sending Limit, please contact us.

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the Help link located in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

To receive email notifications in plain text instead of HTML, update your preferences here.


PayPal Email ID PP247
******************************

When I go to the link, it looks legit but man, they want me to enter my bank account number?? I mean, come on - this is my bank account, for gosh sakes. Even if it's legit, I really don't feel comfortable doing that, and besides, I'm puttting all these purchases on my Discover card so why the hell do they need my bank account?

But, a lot of e-bay sellers only accept Pay Pal so I guess screw 'em, huh?
 
That's legit.

2lq01.jpg
 
Verification is legit, but I'm sure phishers are onto it as well, so you just can't be sure without going to PayPal directly and logging on. If you avoid following an embedded link you should be okay.

Ebay wants you to use your bank account instead of a credit card. One of their dirty little secrets is the level of fraud that goes on; the credit card companies provide a layer of security that Ebay does not want to tangle with, so they'd rather remove them from the process. Additionally, they want to keep the fees that go to the credit card companies.
 
I got verified when I setup my paypal account. I was kind of leary so I went to paypal.com found the phone contact number and called them directly. In my case it was legit. I would recommend doing that if you are the least bit suspicious of the notices that you are getting.
 
i just got one of those the other day, right after i used paypal for something, so this thread was pretty timely for me. i still don't really see the point of verifying my paypal account if i don't want it linked to my checking account.
 
Personally, I don't trust Paypal enough to give them unfettered access to my checking account. They don't want my business, then I won't give it to them. Pretty soon Google Wallet will be another option, and that's a company I trust a hell of a lot more than Paypal.
 
just make sure it's "paypal.com" and not something that looks like paypal.com but is actually "phisher.tw"
 
I get emails that claim to be from paypal all the time. The only problem is that I don't have an account with paypal.
 
i got a paypal email for verification and i clicked on the link to get to the login page and you could see that they were somehow putting the fake url ont he address bar.

it didnt line up on my browser cuz i didnt use ie. if i was using ie, the fake URL would've covered up the real url.
 
You should never click on a link like that if you're not viewing the raw text; in other words, depending on what you're using as a mail reader, you may not be able to tell where you're being directed.

Eudora will actually throw up a warning if you put your mouse over a link which says one thing, but has an underlying link which is different.
 
I got that too and I justhave Paypal send me a real check. No one, I mean No One gets electronic access to my checking account if I have anything to say about it.
 
Screw it. Even if it's legit, I'm not giving them access to my checking account. They have my credit card, they don't need my damn bank account.

Guess I won't be buying crap off e-bay anymore. At least my wife will be happy.
 
Even if you do think the mail is from paypal,don't click on the link; OPEN THE WEBSITE IN A BROWSER YOURSELF: https://www.paypal.com/

If there's some sort of action you need to take on your account, it should prompt you after you log in.

This is a good practice to follow for banks, credit cards, etc. as well.
 
I am verified with Paypal, however it was e-mail address only, not my checking account. Of course, I have been verified for a couple of years so they may have changed their policy.
 
one way to confirm is to forward it to [email protected]. Let Paypal confirm whether it is legit or not. If you get something similar for ebay, its the same thing, only [email protected]. You'll get a very quick response from either paypal or ebay confirming the legitimacy of the email. G'day.
 
I got this one today. It's one of the poorest quality scams I've ever gotten. You would think that they would at least use spellcheck.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear valued PayPal® member,

Due to recent fraudulent transactions, we have issued the following security requirements.

It has come to our attion that 95% of all fraudulent transactions are caused by members using stolen credit cards to purchase or sell non existant items. Thus we require our members to add a Debit/Check card to their billing records as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud on our website. Your Debit/Check card will only be used to identify you. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and renew your records you will not run into any future problems with the PayPal® service. However, failure to confirm your records will result in your account suspension.

Once you have updated your account records your pending PayPal® account transactions will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

To update your billing records please login to your account by clicking here.

Thank you for your time,
PayPal® Billing Department.
 
But they put the Registered mark by the name!! It's gots to be real.

Seriously, anything with an embedded link like that is bad news. That is a particularly ****** one, however.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Weekly Prediction Contest

* Predict HORNS-AGGIES *
Sat, Nov 30 • 6:30 PM on ABC

Recent Threads

Prediction Results Threads

2024 Schedules

Back
Top