Skype TopUp Payment Leads to PayPal Phishing

Internet users can expect their inboxes to be spammed with an email that alerts them on a payment of around $100 (70 GBP or 82 EUR) that has been made from their PayPal account to a Skype TopUp account.

“You sent a payment of 69.99 GBP to Skype (TopUp@*******.com) Thanks for using PayPal. To see all the transaction details, log in to your PayPal account. It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account,” reads the fake message reported by Hoax Slayer.

The message, as many of these hoaxes is well designed to resemble an alert coming from a genuine payment website.

Instead of providing a details link like in many of these hoaxes, users are faced with a link that claims to be hiding a page that will allow them to get a full refund.

The so-called refund process in simple. The victim is required to fill in a form containing details such as billing address, city, zip, date of birth, phone numbers, cardholder name, card number, expiration date, verification number, sort code and the bank's name.

By providing such details, the unsuspecting user is practically handing over his bank account since the data is more than enough for the crooks to do as much online shopping as they desire.

Since PayPal representatives know that their services are highly targeted by phishers, they made an advisory in which they inform their customers on things they will never require via email.

Credit card numbers, bank account data, passwords, emails, driver license numbers and not even names will never be requested from users in a legitimate email sent by the company.

Always be on the lookout for shady sender addresses, links that point elsewhere but the genuine website, attachments, and most importantly, the false sense of urgency that's created in these scams.