Email “phishing” has become a very popular way to try to get consumers to enter personal information on invalid websites. Many times someone will receive an email from what looks to be a valid source, however, it has actually been sent by a thief! These type of emails are being sent from hackers claiming to be from various companies like UPS, FedEx, IRS, eBay, PayPal, Bank of America and hundreds of others. It is important to know how to spot a phishing scam from any company, however, for those who use PayPal, there is a higher level of protection needed because of the services they provide. How does one protect themselves against this type of scam?

One way is to take a challenge provided by PayPal.com. At this website, it will give a 5 question challenge to see if you are on your toes when it comes to this type of scam. It helps you to spot whether or not a senders email address is legitimate, what type of information they will NOT ask for in the form of an email, whether or not they will include attachments in their emails, and whether or not you should click links in emails from them.

This is a very helpful challenge for everyone who uses email to take, just to be sure that they are aware of what phishing really is. Paypal provides an email address to forward questionable emails to, should you receive one. To learn more, go to the website for PayPal and read the Security and Protection topics.