My Paypal account has been cancelled and I received this e-mail from them:
I took the liberty of looking up the Office of Foreign Assets
Control Specially Designated Nationals and right on their homepage it states that the office
Uh, thrilling, a computer decided that I can be a terrorist or a drug lord or something. How´s the weather in Guantanamo this time of the year?
Joking aside, is this something to be concerned about or what? I´m planning to change planes in L.A. next December in a trip to Thailand and I wouldn´t like to be stopped there because my name is on a database of Evil Doers®.
*I swear that the ICBM I keep over my mantle piece is only for decorative purposes
A scam is a certain possibility, however it´s quite suspicious that I got this e-mail and my Paypal account was cancelled at the same time. Besides I received this on an account that hasn´t been ever targeted by spam of any kind so far (I use it only for Paypal and Ebay stuff and I haven´t shown the adress anywhere)
Oh, another interesting thing. That fax number is here in my area code in Denver and the front range of Colorado. The supplied mailing address is in Omaha Nebraska, aobut 550 miles east of here.
Again, allow me to encourage you not to send all of your personal identifying information to these people.
Don´t worry, I didn´t have the least inclination of sending anything at all. As soon as I can be bothered to do so I´ll write to Paypal to inquire why did they cancell my account and if it has anything to do with this e-mail.
Sounds like an e-mail designed to look like it came from paypal but did not. I would forward it to spoof@paypal.com and, as threemae has already suggested, do not respond as directed in the e-mail.
Another thing, according to their “About Us”, PayPal is located in San Jose, California. Yeah, they could have other offices, but that’s just weird. And I doubt they’d have just a P.O. box.
Did you go to the PayPal website specifically, and DID you go to the security center?
FWIW this is not an uncommon reason for account suspension. Given that your account is suspended and the reply address looks legit I would guess this isn’t a phishing scam, just a paypal scam.
Luckly my account doesn´t hold any money because it draws it from my debit card; if not all money would have been frozen, $1, $10 or $10.000. I´ve searched the net about other people with the same problem and that´s what happened.
I looked at that page and the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN) and sure enough my name is in it… well sorta, there´s a guy on Mexico whose second name and second surname are the same as mine, Alejandro García; it´s on the text list right after the MOROCCAN
ISLAMIC COMBATANT GROUP. Did I mention García is a very common surname?, the phone directory has pages after pages of Garcías here and in every country with Spanish ancestry.
Is every guy named Al having this done? Everyone with an Arab name? Every Kim? I can see their point if the name matched, but yours is similar so you’re guilty and YOU have to prove otherwise. Is this Soviet Russia?
You may, and your wish has been granted. Personally, I would have asked for treasure or super powers or something, but hey, it was your one once-in-a-lifetime, no-redo wish…