Appears to me to be a scam

[CharlesH]

Today I received an e-mail from PayPal for a $699.99 notebook computer that I did not order! It was to be sent to Wayne E. Bakewell at 16 Elm Stree in Brownsville, PA. I looked up the phone number for that address (724-785-6162) and, of course, it was disconnected.

Please someone put a stop to this madness now!

[Bruiser]

Dan Shakespeare is correct. These emails have nothing to do with PayPal whatsoever. They are not sent through PayPal's network or by PayPal employees (unless they have a second job as a criminal). This is a scam email of a type commonly called "phishing". You are supposed to be alarmed by the email. You click on the link that is supposed to cancel the transaction. It takes you to a website that is setup to look like the PayPal website. I did not click on the link (just to be safe), but it probably has a form to enter your PayPal user id and p***word. Unless you are one of the first persons to receive the email and you read the email soon after it is sent, the web page/web site has probably been shut down because someone has notified the hosting service that the website is a scam. This usually happens very quickly because of the large number of emails sent. However, the perpetrators of this scam can make a new website with a different host and just update the email with the new URL. In this way, the same scam can continue for months. It looks like this is the case with this scam judging by the dates of the posts, although other criminals may have simply copied the email and setup their own website(s).

[blake]

I just received this....
Dear member,

This email confirms that you have paid orders@dell.com $699.99 USD using PayPal.

This credit card transaction will appear on your bill as "PAYPAL *DELL INC".


Payment Details

Purchased From<*** ***="images/smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Big Grin" cl***="inline***" />ell.Inc

Item # Item Title Quantity Price Subtotal
250016390196 New Dell Inspiron 1520 Notebook Computer (Core Duo T5450 1.66GHz//2GB) Laptop 1 $669.95 USD $669.95 USD

Shipping & Handling via USPS First Cl*** Mail to 154XX
(includes any seller handling fees) $19.16 USD
Shipping Insurance (optional): --
Sales Tax (6.000% inPA) : $10.88 USD
Total: $699.99 USD
Note:Thank you!



Shipping Information

Shipping Info: Wayne E Bakewell
16 elm st
Brownsville, PA 15417
United States

[023171]

I've just received one, too -- so I scroogled "hoax paypal" to see if anyone else had one -- and it's been going on for more than a year. I will just delete the e-mail -- hope nothing happens to my account!

Dear PayPal user ,
This email confirms that you have paid Denise Stelmat
([1]denise_stelmat@yahoo.com) $163.99 USD using PayPal.
This credit card transaction will appear on your bill as
"PAYPAL Denise Stelmat".
__________________________________________________ __________


PayPal Shopping Cart Contents

Item Name: [pixel.gif] Apple iPod Fourth Gen (40 GB, MAC/PC -
M9268LL/A) MP3 Player
Quantity:1
Total: $169.99
Cart Subtotal: $148.99 USD
Sales Tax: ] $15.00 USD
Cart Total: ] $163.99

Shipping Information
Shipping Info: ] Michael R Murphy
14092 Ridge Ranch Court
Vaalley Center, CA 92082
United States
Address Status: Unconfirmed [scr_symQuestion.gif]

If you haven't authorized this charge, click the link below to
cancel the payment and get a full refund.

[2]****s://***.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=ESw
8_T0x06uI3w28o_1-8wnict7WdyMn9ccA311tKw7
__________________________________________________ __________

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address
cannot be answered. For ***istance, log in to your PayPal account
and choose the "Help" link in the footer of any page.
[pixel.gif]

PayPal Email ID PP133320
[pixel.gif]

References

1. mailto:denise_stelmat@yahoo.com
2. ****://thebestof.dynalias.com/images...=80a13c0db1f38

[parrotheadneecie]

I don't know any of you, but I needed to join this just to reply to the phishing issue. I am the REAL Denise Stelmat and have discovered that my good name is being slammed all over the internet due to someone stealing my name!! I don't know any of this info on the Apple iPod thing, and have reported this fraud to Yahoo,paypal and ebay that this "Michael R. Murphy" person is ***uming to be me. And its been going around for more than a year??? How do you know that?? Is there something else I can do to clear my name and get rid of this hoax??
Denise Stelmat

[HeavyMetal]

SCAM if it does not say


Dear FIRST AND LAST NAME,

BLAH BLAH BLAH


Then it is a fake... MAKE SURE YOUR FULL NAME IS IN THE INTRO.

Any links in the mail and it is not something you are EXPECTING, its a fake.

DON"TTTTTTT follow the link and login. You are NOT logging into paypal, you are sending your INFO to the phisher

[Viggo]

It's not sent from PayPal! It's a phishing scam where the scammers wants you to click on the link in the mail and enter your confidential information like credit card numbers and log-in details.

If it says "Dear member", "Dear costumer" or "Dear email@adress.com", the mails are always scams. The scammers send out thousands of these emails, and don't know your name. That's why they call you "member" or "customer" instead. Some scammers have programs that calls you by your email address instead.

Read more about phishing scams. There's lots of information on the internet.