Scammers are taking advantage of the Christmas shopping season

Because the fraudsters take advantage of the Christmas shopping season and target what is routine and already known - hardly recognizable to the uninitiated. We give you tips based on the current PayPal case study.

In Germany, people like to invest in Christmas presents - even in these special times - and dig deep into their pockets for their loved ones or themselves. The buying season is intensively promoted in November at the latest with Black Friday , Cyber ​​Monday and countless other bargain offers.

The risk of falling for a fraudster is even higher than usual during this time, as this is peak season for cyber gangsters.

The payment service provider PayPal has now been used by fraudsters for a particularly nasty trick, which fortunately has a decisive advantage: it is relatively easy to recognize that it must be a bluff.

Unfortunately, this is no guarantee that criminals won't catch one or two careless users. However, the scam also reveals that it was surprisingly easy for the criminals to set up and that neither fake emails nor fake websites were necessary. The fraudsters use a PayPal service to establish their initial contact via the official PayPal server.

Before the new procedures are described, a quick excursion into the “traditional” scam workshop with fake emails and fake websites:

A fake email pretends to be from a well-known company or domain by typically putting a credible email address in the From: field. She also underlines her origins with logos, slogans or other contact details that she has copied from the brand. Almost anything can be inserted into the sender line, regardless of the actual address from which the email is sent.

A fake website mimics the look of a real website by copying its exact web content and images to make the appearance as pixel-perfect as possible.

Scam sites also try to make the domain name in the address bar appear at least vaguely realistic, for example by putting the copied logo on the bottom left (paypal.com.bogus.example), in the hope that the user does not check the bottom right side again. The real name can be seen on it. Other fraudsters try to create similar names with bizarre ideas: for a W, two VV or instead of a small L (l) a capital I (I).

Such “traditional” tricks used by website counterfeiters can be quickly exposed with a few small tricks, here are a few tips:

  • It is worth studying the header (i.e. the header of the e-mail) carefully : the real server from which the message was sent is mentioned here, and not which one the sender specifies.
  • Set up an email filter that automatically scans the header and body of every message for fraud.
  • Surf the Internet only with a network or device firewall that blocks outbound web requests to fake websites and drops inbound web responses with risky content.
  • A password manager links usernames and passwords to specific websites. Therefore, he cannot be fooled by fake content or similar names.

Email fraud, like in this PayPal case, is also very sophisticated

Email scammers get much closer to their victims and, upon initial contact, send messages that actually come from genuine websites or online services and point to servers that are actually operated by the same legitimate websites. However, the scammer must then find a way to stay in touch with the victim in order to continue the scam.

And this is how the current “request money” scam via PayPal works:

  1. The scammer creates a PayPal account and uses the Request Money feature to send the victim an official PayPal email requesting that they send money to the scammer.
  2. It presents the request as an existing invoice for a real product or service, even if it was not ordered and probably for an unlikely or unreasonable price.
  3. Finally, the criminal attaches a phone number to the message, seemingly offering an easy way to cancel the payment if you think the whole thing is a scam.

So the email actually comes from PayPal, with an air of authenticity, but: it directs the victim to actually call the scammers. Instead of simply replying to the email yourself or contacting PayPal. The perfidious thing here is that the fraudsters have found a way to come into direct contact with the victim via an official source (PayPal) and now communicate with them away from the platform and without control from it.

What can you do?

First of all, nothing. PayPal money requests are, as the name suggests, requests, not invoices, not demands, not receipts. So if you receive a message like this and are not aware of a recent purchase, simply do nothing, especially do not contact the phone number provided. Then the fraud comes to nothing.

However, you should definitely report the fraud to PayPal so that the account in question can be closed and ensure that no other user falls for it. If you suspect anything, you should contact spoof@paypal.com .

Authorities such as the police (these often have their own cybercrime departments) or the Federal Network Agency also have reporting services. The more abnormalities reach official bodies, the greater the likelihood that they will take the case seriously and it will become public.

Source: nakedsecurity

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