This is soooo pathetic!

[skyring]

This just in. Reproduced as is, complete with spaces, misgrammars etc. I've slightly modified the link just in case anybody fees the insane urge to click on it.

Hello, Pay`Pal |nc, Member, May 2010.




It has come to our attention that your Online account information needs to be updated.
If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records,
To continue please click the link below: Click Here Link,

http://www.dtcalkunite.com/update-au/index.php

Thank you for using Service Online

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.
For assistance,log in to your Online Account and click thec Help link located in the top right corner
Accounts Management As outlined in our User Agreement, Service Credit Union will periodically send you information about site changes and enhancements.

Copyright © 2008 Service , Click on the following link to review or obtain a copy of our
Privacy Policy Statement

If you fail to provide the required information your account will be automatically
deleted from the , Database

Note: We will be upgrading our yearly SSL EncryptedServer to prevent fraudulent
activity.
Reference ID:

What half-ass numbskull is going to fall for this? PayPal is a reasonably professional entity and this email is so far away from the sort of communications I expect from them that it is an obvious fake from the first few words.

The wildly different treatment of commas makes it partly funny, but what really got me rolling my eyes was the utter lack of any attempt to disguise the goto link. It's SUPPOSED to be from PayPal, not some off-the-cuff domain!

Maybe these things are so wildly woeful because the scamsters don't want people with actual brains clicking on their links and maybe sicking the cyberfuzz onto them. They only want doofusses.

But for me, and I regard myself as someone with half a brain, it's just an annoyance.

Comments

[mojosmom.livejournal.com]

The truly sad part is that there are "half-ass numbskulls" who will fall for this.

[dubnordie.livejournal.com]

There are also, unfortunately, people like my parents who were born and grew up during the war, were never going to be the most tech-savvy of people and therefore wouldnt necessarily know any internet etiquette, how to resolve a url link without actually going to the page, that Paypal always sends your full name in their emails to help show that the email is legit. I still get emails from my mother about "panic panic, see this woman got attacked down the road from you using nothing but a bottle opener!" that takes only 10 seconds on Snopes to show that it's all a mass hysteria and anyway it was a bloke in the US who got barked at by a dog.....

I unfortunately am the other way, having been "playing" on the internet since the early 90s, being a code since the late 80s and now supporting a website with rather a large userbase.....

More scams

[forg.livejournal.com]

This is the one I got! (all typos theirs!!!)

==================================

Dear Account Owner,

==================================

This message is from the CENTRAL technical support department messaging center to all account owners. Due to high rate of spam,We hereby use this medium to inform you that we will be carrying out some maintenance/Upgrading operations inorder to install in your mail box a spam detection/blocker to your mail box, This will also Increase the Storage bite of your mail and also protect your mail box from spam.



As a result of this we will be deleting all expired and unused account to create more rooms for new updated/upgraded ones.



To prevent your account from being closed unnecessarily, you will have to update us with the following information's

below for propal verifications to prevent the unwarranted close of your email account.

=================================

CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW

=================================



1.Full Email Address......................



2.password:...............



3. Re-type password....................



4.age/country:.................



5.date of birth:................



6.First name/Last name:.............





Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ



Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account Within Three days of receiving this warning will lose

his or her account permanently. Thank you for using our brand



Webmail!



Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ



Thanks,

WEBMASTER Alert team

==========================


-- Esta mensagem foi verificada pelo sistema de antivrus e acredita-se estar livre de perigo.

Sigh...

[jessibud.livejournal.com]

Did you forward it in its entirety to the real PayPal, so they are aware of it? If not, you probably should. They can't protect what they don't know (though I don't know if or how they could do anything about it other than maybe putting a warning/disclaimer on their home page.

A couple of months ago I was shocked but highly impressed when my mom nearly, but DIDN'T fall for something similar. She received an email, ostensibly from her bank, claiming some error on her tax form and needed some identity verification to deposit it in her account. My mom is absolutely NOT computer/web savvy (I taught her most of what she knows and anyone who knows me, knows how precious little THAT is! ;-). But she smelled a rat since she has her accountant do her taxes and nothing in all the years she'd trusted him would lead her to believe that he would make an error. So she phoned him first and forwarded the email to him. Way to go, Mom!!