Real paypal mails with fake invoice

On August 22, 2022By Garmin Philip

Hacked business accounts

E-mails originating from the Paypal servers are currently causing concern. Cyber criminals send out alleged invoices. An objection may result in loss of data.

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Security researcher Brian Krebs reports a new scam in connection with the online payment service PayPal. Cyber criminals have probably hijacked or falsified business accounts and can send emails with bogus information via PayPal’s servers. In observed cases, false invoices were sent for alleged transactions. If a potential victim clicks on the transaction, amounts of several hundred US dollars are mentioned, which will be debited shortly.

If you then want to undo this transaction, a phone number is displayed for the victim to call. From this point on, there are more reasons to be skeptical. After a call comes a request to install software on his computer. This offers cyber criminals remote access. A typical procedure of, for example, false support employees who go on a data hunt on their own computer instead of an alleged error solution.

Up to this point, people are being misled by the emails in a very malicious way. Both the sender and the content of the e-mail come from Paypal or the associated server and hardly allow any conclusions to be drawn that these are typical phishing or spam e-mails. Paypal has been informed and is aware of the scam as Brian Krebs reports. Additional controls are intended to prevent similar attacks.

How can you protect yourself?

Even if the e-mail provides correct links to PayPal, you should not click on it. The general rule is to call up the corresponding online portals manually, log in with two-factor authentication and look out for corresponding transactions in your profile. If there are differences to the information in a supposedly real invoice, you can assume that the e-mail has a dubious origin – the suspicion is strengthened if it is difficult for you to see the details. If in doubt, you can contact PayPal support. Don’t let strangers trick you into installing programs designed to help you with a problem.