Fake PayPal emails and texts, some posing as a security report, try to get you to tap a link and type your login. Checking your account directly avoids the trap.
Fake messages that pose as PayPal are circulating by email and text. Some call themselves a security report or a case about your account. Their goal is simple: get you to tap a link and type in your PayPal login.
Phishing is a message that pretends to come from a company you know so that you hand over a password, card number or code. It is not a program on your phone, so there is nothing to uninstall. Harm happens only if you tap the link and sign in on the page that opens. Then the senders can sign in as you.
Official-sounding words such as case number or report ID prove nothing, because anyone can type them. The FTC says real companies do not send links by email or text to update payment details. A real account problem also shows up when you open PayPal yourself.
Anyone with a PayPal account can get one of these, on an iPhone, Android phone, tablet or computer. If you got one and deleted it without tapping anything, you lost nothing. Be wary of any message that only works through its own link, button or phone number. The steps in the alert box above cover what to do.
No sample message, list of reported addresses or registration data was available. That leaves it unclear who is behind these messages or how widespread they are. PayPal's own reporting page could not be read, so its instructions are not described here.
Never use a link in a PayPal message. Open the app yourself, check your activity, then report and delete the message.
The Attala County Sheriff's Office in Mississippi says scam calls are reaching residents, and a call that sounds official may not be.
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