Public Service Announcement

Scammers get better all the time. Everybody knows not to answer an email with their account information. But many might think it’s safe to visit PayPal’s website in response to an apparent email from PayPal. In any event, in the latest scam, the actual link is to pcypal.com, but the text is colored blue and underlined (to appear like a link to PayPal) and says https://www.paypal.com/us/wf/f=ra_default, which actually is a PayPal URL. If you click it, however, you go to the fake site, PoyPal.

Once there, all of the front page, including the links, is an exact duplicate of PayPal’s front page — except the login button. If you use that button to log in, the scam operators will have the information they need to clean out your PayPal account.

My advice: never use an email link to visit a sensitive site. Use your bookmarks or type the site name (carefully!). And if in doubt, call, assuming you can find a phone number.

AB