If you just happen to be sorting through your Email inbox and you notice a message with the subject line ‘You Sent A Payment’ with an amount in excess of $500.00 - don’t freak out. This is a hoax message designed to fool you into clicking on malicious links.

The full text of the message reads:

You sent a payment

Transaction ID: 2O857825UD806436L
Dear PayPal User,
You sent a payment for $614.53 USD to Tracey Bullard.
Please note that it may take a little while for this payment to appear in the Recent Activity list on your Account Overview.
View the details of this transaction online

This payment was sent using your bank account.

By using your bank account to send money, you just:

- Paid easily and securely

- Sent money faster than writing and mailing paper checks

- Paid instantly — your purchase won’t show up on bills at the end of the month.

Thanks for using your bank account!

 

Your monthly account statement is available anytime; just log in to your account at https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_history. To correct any errors, please contact us through our Help Center at https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_contact_us.

Amount: $614.53 USD
Sent on: August 6, 2012
Payment method: Bank account
Sincerely,
PayPal
Help Center | Resolution Center | Security Center
This email was sent by an automated system, so if you reply, nobody will see it. To get in touch with us, log in to your account and click “Contact Us” at the bottom of any page.
Copyright Š 2012 PayPal, Inc. All rights reserved. PayPal is located at 2211 N. First St., San Jose, CA 95131.

PayPal Email ID PP118

If you hover over the links provided in this message, you’ll see that they actually resolve to a .fr domain - and not Paypal itself. Be sure not to click on any of these provided URLs and immediately delete this message so it doesn’t have a chance to infect your computer system.

I hope that you found this post helpful and it saved you time and hassle associated with deceptive phishing attempts. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!