Because PayPal primarily communicates with its customers via email, scammers constantly target the company using email phishing campaigns.
Some of these scam emails are rather crude and are easily recognisable as fraudulent. But, others are quite sophisticated, and, at least at first glance, they may look like genuine PayPal notifications.
Here’s a tip that can often help to identify a fake PayPal email quickly. Genuine PayPal notification emails will ALWAYS address you by name. They will NEVER use a generic greeting such as “Dear Customer” or “Dear [your email address]”. Nor will they omit the greeting altogether, as some scam emails do.
So, if you receive an email that uses a generic greeting that does not include your name or does not have a greeting at all, be very wary. Don’t click any links or open any attachments that the email contains.
Remember, it is always safer to log in to all of your online accounts by entering the address into your browser’s address bar or via an official app.
You can report PayPal phishing scams via the reporting address listed on the company’s website.
Screenshot of a typical PayPal phishing scam email:
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
