# YOUR PAYPAL.COM ACCOUNT EXPIRES... how DUMB do they think we are? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 18, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132 "2004-01-18T19:15:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/1 "2004-01-18T19:15:55Z")
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had at least half a dozen copies of this rubbish in the past week: > [@](#): > > Dear PayPal member, > > PayPal would like to inform you about some important information > regarding your PayPal account. This account, which is associated with the > email address > > _ **email deleted** _ > > will be expiring within five business days. We apologize for any > inconvenience that this may cause, but this is occurring because all of our > customers are required to update their account settings with their > personal information. > > We are taking these actions because we are implementing a new security > policy on our website to insure everyone’s absolute privacy. To avoid > any interruption in PayPal services then you will need to run the > application that we have sent with this email (see attachment) and follow the > instructions. Please do not send your personal information through > email, as it will not be as secure. > > IMPORTANT! If you do not update your information with our secure > application within the next five business days then we will be forced to > deactivate your account and you will not be able to use your PayPal account > any longer. It is strongly recommended that you take a few minutes out > of your busy day and complete this now. > > DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE VIA EMAIL! This mail is sent by an > automated message system and the reply will not be received. > > Thank you for using PayPal. > > iuaiauwa with a _screensaver_ file attached! Oh yes, .scr files, they are mighty secure. And of course Paypal is going to ask me to enter my personal details into an application like that, by sending out emails with strings of _random fucking characters_ in them. Yes, sounds kosher to me. Obviously I haven’t run the application myself, but I [found a man who did](http://www.osdever.net/paypal.html). Ha! It gets better. “Please provide us with your correct PIN number so we are avle to cross check your credit card with your bank account”. Oh, and lets have your CVV number as well. Y’know, the _secret fucking code that is only available if you have the sodding card right in front of you?_ Hell yeah, how about I tell you my momma’s inside-leg measurement too? Jeez. Idiots. Who falls for this crap? \ Oh yeah - the same people that fell for a very similar scam by people pretending to be my bank. Thanks to the idiots entering their PINs and passwords into a phony site, my bank felt the need to take their _whole online banking site_ down for many hours! Thus inconveniencing everyone, including those of us with half an ounce of fucking sense. \ ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/2 "2004-01-18T19:19:47Z")
> [@r\_k](#): > > Jeez. Idiots. Who falls for this crap? Sadly, plenty of dumbasses fall for this kind of thing. Even sadder is that a substantial subset of those dumbasses will fall for BOTH the virus-lzaden attachment, AND the password-harvesting scheme. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/3 "2004-01-18T19:57:21Z")
My family members are, for starters. We’re always having conversations like, “My computer runs so slow! Why is yours always so fast?!” “Uh huh. Run Spybot and Ad-aware.” “What? Why? Alright…Huh! It’s so much faster now!” ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/4 "2004-01-18T20:24:22Z")
It never ceases to amaze me how dumb people can be. “You need my pin code? Sure! Here ya go! Why don’t I give you my credit card which I’ve forgotten to sign on the back while I’m at it?” ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/5 "2004-01-18T21:43:44Z")
I had the hardest time last spring convincing a guy at work that there is NO Teddy Bear virus. The teddy bear icon is a PROGRAM in his computer that is supposed to be there! And Norton and MacAffee don’t indentify it because it is NOT a virus. Sheesh, I just hope he read and sent on all the info I sent him from Nortons site about it. Hell needs a level just for the maggots that send those hoaxes out! ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/6 "2004-01-18T21:58:55Z")
You get the PayPal scams? I get the eBay ones. Wanna swap? ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/7 "2004-01-18T22:06:40Z")
They must think I’m really dumb as I’ve not had a paypal account on this email yet my account is expiring. Funny. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/8 "2004-01-18T22:31:37Z")
Well this one was pretty obvious. Hmm . . . if I don’t take some time from my busy day my PayPal account will expire? Well, then, let it expire and the hell with 'em, is what I thought. Then I thought again, only this time what I thought was: Another scam! So no, I didn’t fall for it–although I might have, it was almost believable. The really bad one was when Microsoft kept sending me “patches” for the “virus problem.” My husband said, “Oh, I’m sure it’s okay–it’s from Microsoft, they always send updates.” They don’t, they don’t, they don’t. He only said that because we got this particular scam message about 110 times. I feel bad for those who fell for this, but they are not stupid. They fell for something that was _designed_ to look legit, like all scams. What I don’t understand is why so many people spend all this time and effort to do something illegal, when with the same investment of time, effort, and applied smarts, they could make as much money _legitimately_. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/9 "2004-01-19T07:46:48Z")
The “Microsoft security patch” ones are especially laughable for those of us who don’t use Windows. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/10 "2004-01-19T08:00:29Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > You get the PayPal scams? I get the eBay ones. Wanna swap? And I have been getting both for the last couple of days. I **wish** eBay was giving away a free Mercedes. ---
**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/11 "2004-01-19T08:44:42Z")
What’s really fun is the new, unpatched security vulnerability that allows URLs to display in the addressbar and statusbar as, for example, [www.paypal.com](http://www.paypal.com), when in fact they’re using some ASCII chars to hose IE’s URL parsing system. Note that I don’t speak of the old, tired [www.paypal.com:blah@blah.com](mailto:www.paypal.com:blah@blah.com) thing, but the one that actually makes [www.paypal.com](http://www.paypal.com) appear. Quite nasty. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/12 "2004-01-19T08:50:54Z")
Could somebody mail me that attachment file to [ioannisk1@orange.net](mailto:ioannisk1@orange.net) ? I would be grateful! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/13 "2004-01-19T09:21:55Z")
It’s not PayPal - it’s PayPaI. There’s a capital ‘I’ at the end of it, rather than a lowercase ‘L’. Cunning! ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/14 "2004-01-19T11:56:19Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > You get the PayPal scams? I get the eBay ones. Wanna swap? I haven’t got either. I feel so unloved! ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/15 "2004-01-19T14:34:04Z")
I’ve been getting the paypal scam every day for the last 6 weeks on an email address that isn’t associated with my paypal account. I just forward them to [spoof@paypal.com](mailto:spoof@paypal.com). It doesn’t seem to change anything, but now it is a test of wills between me and them… ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/16 "2004-01-19T15:27:13Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I’ve been getting the paypal scam every day for the last 6 weeks on an email address that isn’t associated with my paypal account. “Phishing” (i.e. spam designed to trick you into revealing your online account details) is like all spam. It is not targeted, it’s fired out to any email account possible. So you can get this scam, and those like it, on any email address, even if you don’t have any online account of any description at all. ---
**Author:** ![jeevmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@jeevmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevmon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/17 "2004-01-19T16:25:01Z")
I’ve received 2 eBay ones this year. The site they took me too was a very slick mockup of the eBay site. It was only when I saw all the stuff they were asking that my spider-sense started to tingle. I checked the eBay site for a link to their Security Center, which is when I found out that these scams are fairly common. A partner in my law office got suckered in by one of those and spent the better part of his summer on the phone with Citibank trying to straighten it all out. So it’s not necessarily stupid people that fall for it. ---
**Author:** ![Verick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ea666f/32.png) [@Verick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Verick)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/18 "2004-01-20T12:00:28Z")
> [@Alereon](#): > > What’s really fun is the new, unpatched security vulnerability that allows URLs to display in the addressbar and statusbar as, for example, [www.paypal.com](http://www.paypal.com), when in fact they’re using some ASCII chars to hose IE’s URL parsing system. Note that I don’t speak of the old, tired [www.paypal.com:blah@blah.com](mailto:www.paypal.com:blah@blah.com) thing, but the one that actually makes [www.paypal.com](http://www.paypal.com) appear. Quite nasty. [Here’s](http://www.secunia.com/internet_explorer_address_bar_spoofing_test) a site about that vulnerability, with a little example. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/19 "2004-01-20T13:42:15Z")
> [@r\_k](#): > > "Please provide us with your correct PIN number so we are avle to cross check your credit card with your bank account It’s PIN you fucking dumbass, not PIN number. Same goes for ATM. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132/20 "2004-01-20T16:23:02Z")
> [@r\_k](#): > > Obviously I haven’t run the application myself, but I [found a man who did](http://www.osdever.net/paypal.html). [The attachment is a worm](http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/paypal.asp)! I wonder how many copies that guy sent while seeing what it did. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-paypal-com-account-expires-how-dumb-do-they-think-we-are/225132.md?page=2)