You've got paypal money the scam message said

I had a message in my email inbox today that was just what I wanted to hear. "You´ve got money!" it said. Now being a bit short right now, just like a lot of people in this ongoing recession, naturally it was wonderful news, and possible too seeing as I have several items for sale on Amazon.com.

Wonderful, I thought. Someone has bought something I have up for sale, or maybe some kind person wants to give me a donation.

The email alert looked as if it was from PayPal. It said:

"Just thought you'd like to know David Rocks sent you $835.00 USD.

Don't see the money in your account?

Don’t worry - sometimes it just takes a few minutes for it to show up.

Yours sincerely,

PayPal"

Now, of course, my hopes were raised and I felt excited that maybe, just maybe, I really did have some much-needed money. I noticed there were two options for clicking on, which were labelled "Get the details" and "Transaction ID" followed by some numbers.

Fortunately the sceptical and paranoid side of me kicked into action and warning bells started ringing., especially when I looked the name of the person who had supposedly made this payment to me and the large sum he had given.

For a start I don't know anyone called Dave Rocks and I really couldn't imagine anyone wanting to give me all that money!

I thought that just in case though it would at least be worth looking in my PayPal account. I did so and found that nothing more had been added to my account.

This mail is fraudulent I concluded. It is a hoax that is intended to get me to click on one of the links in an effort to find out what the details were and to see the "transaction."

I was glad I hadn't done so and thought I would send it to spoof@paypal to see what the real site has to say. This is what the real

PayPal reply said:

"Thanks for forwarding that suspicious-looking email. You're right - it
was a phishing attempt, and we're working on stopping the fraud. By
reporting the problem, you've made a difference!

Identity thieves try to trick you into revealing your password or other
personal information through phishing emails and fake websites. To learn
more about online safety, click "Security Center" on any PayPal webpage.


Every email counts. When you forward suspicious-looking emails to
spoof@paypal.com, you help keep yourself and others safe from identity
theft.

Your account security is very important to us, so we appreciate your
extra effort.

Thanks,

PayPal"

So there we have it: it was an attempt at "phishing" which means that the crooks behind this were hoping to get my password and log-in details. They failed because I knew about such fraudulent schemes and also knew where to report it.

Unfortunately I haven't really got money from this but maybe, just maybe I will make a bit more here by sharing my story with you all?