Ever received an email from eBay asking you to verify your account? Or from Gmail warning you to login otherwise your account will be suspended? How many times have you gotten a supposed Paypal email asking reactivation because your account has been hacked?
Tips from BPI: How not to be a Victim of Fake Emails and Phishing Scams
The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has constantly been issuing a warning to users of BPI ExpressOnline (BPI EOL), its online banking facility, against phishing emails. Phishing — pronounced “fishing” as in “fishing for information” — is a type of deception designed to steal one’s personal data such as credit card numbers, passwords, and account login information.
Fake email: ‘Your eBay Account Has Been Suspended’
A few minutes ago, I cleaned up my inbox and found the following warning email from “eBay” threatening me that my “eBay account has been suspended.”
New scam using fake Paypal email
A Pinoy Money Talk (PMT) member emailed me yesterday to ask whether a Paypal transaction she is planning to enter into is a scam or not.
Apparently, some guy supposedly from the UK contacted her asking help to transfer Paypal funds. The guy claims he plans to visit the Philippines and needs help moving funds to the country.
This should already raise a red flag. Never, ever agree to such transactions because you may unwittingly be a conspirator to money laundering. A suspiciously large amount being withdrawn to a Philippine bank account raises the bank’s alarm and if you could not properly explain how you got the amount and why you are transferring money, you may be charged under the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Law.
How to protect yourself from Identity Theft
Here are some useful tips provided by Banco de Oro to help you prevent identity theft when doing online banking.
Electronic Banking Consumer Protection Tips
Don’t be fooled by spoof PayPal mails
Forwarded this PayPal phishing email to spoof@paypal.com and got a reply several hours later: Thank you for contacting PayPal about a fraudulent (spoof) email or … Read More
Fake PayPal email
Now that you have a PayPal account, you should be wary of emails you receive supposedly from PayPal. Although the email might have a header and logo similar to that of PayPal, most of these are actually phishing mails intent on stealing your personal information.
More information about phishing, how to check if an email is fake, and ways to protect yourself from phishing can be found in the What is Phishing? article. A sample phishing website is explained in the “Beware of the fake egold website!” article.
Yesterday we received an email purportedly from PayPal asking us to login to the site to update our personal records. Failure to do so, the email says, will result in account suspension. Here’s a screenshot of the email.