As a person who conducts many thousands of dollars worth of transactions through PayPal every month, I’ve become rather adept at spotting a spoof. Not only is Thunderbird pretty excellent at picking up on scams, but a quick commonsense check when looking over an email from PayPal is all that it takes to thwart most spoofers. Does the ‘Click Here to Resolve’ actually link to PayPal? You can tell simply by hovering your mouse over the link and looking at the URL at the bottom. No? Ergo, not from PayPal.

Still, some idiots must be biting, because Consumer Affairs has posted some advice on spotting a spoof. The above advice is pretty much all it takes: use Thunderbird, look at links before you click them. But they also point out that most mass-emailed spoofs begin with “Dear PayPal Member” instead of your name. PayPal addresses each email personally.

They also remind that PayPal won’t ever ask you to email back your credit card number, address, driver’s license or social security numbers. They also don’t need your password, your bra size or for you to fill out a quick survey about how you feel about the volume of your ejaculate.

PayPal Offers Advice On Spotting A Spoof [Consumer Affairs]