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A new email scam targeting PayPal users has hit the internet, leaving customers at risk of losing their cash.
The malicious email is crafted to appear like an official communication from PayPal's address ‘service@paypal.com’ and aims at having users install malware on their computers and phones.
Technology experts say the malware only installs on Windows machines, with Mac, iPhone and Android users unaffected by the virus — even if they open the fraudulent email.
The said email is sent with the subject line ‘PayPal account warning’ and requires users to open an attached Word document laced with malware.
“To protect your funds, verify please your account data. It will let us approve your post address and personal data. Also we strongly recommend to keep passwords and login data, in the safe place,” reads the scam mail in part.
“To make your account information verified, please fill and send the next form via e-mail or via post. If you will not react on this notification, we will be forced to temporarily block your online services until you won’t verify your account information,” the fraudulent email concludes.
Security blog My Online Security says there are several variations of the PayPal scam currently being circulated online.
One of the malicious email reads. “Greetings, dear Client! We noticed a lot of frauds performed by machinations with online services of the accounts of our clients.
“Attackers obtain access to accounts by stealing login data and passwords, this may be very dangerous for your funds and our reputation, so we are asking you to perform some actions, in order to prevent fraud.”
This comes days after PayPal disabled accounts owned by Kenyan users connected to Safaricom’s Mpesa in what was seen as the escalating cases of SIM Card swap fraud.