Fake PayPal

I have been writing blogs for almost a year now. Just like many other bloggers, I was attracted by the prospect of earning money by simply writing blog posts. Writing blog reviews was one of my alternative sources of income on the web. If I would compute my earnings on word-for-word basis, I was earning more from blogs compared to my regular job as web copy writer.

The most convenient way of receiving payments for paid blogs is through PayPal. Although it is not as fast as receiving money through wired transfer, it is more economical. PayPal worked well for me. However, I was almost victimized by a bogus PayPal site. I recently received an email that was purportedly sent by PayPal. The email stated that my PayPal account was restricted and I had to fill-in some online forms to lift the restriction. I was almost fooled into giving my passwords and debit card account details. Luckily, a pop-up warning on my Mozilla Firefox browser appeared. I realized that I was about to log-in on a cloned site. The web design was an exact copy of PayPal but the domain name was different.

The picture below shows the bogus PayPal email that I received. As you can observe, it seems authentic and harmless. However, if you are duped into logging-in on the link provided, the site will only steal your credit card or debit card details as well as your PayPal password.



If ever you receive a similar email, check if the link really leads to the authentic PayPal site. Check the domain name. Better still, directly log-in to PayPal.com. Protect your account from cyber space thieves.