Poker Players Should Beware of Fake PayPal Emails
Whether you’re new to online poker or old hat at it, there’s more than one way to lose big, and one of those is something called phishing. Phishing is the term given for a specific means in which thieves try to steal financial and personal information. The thieves send an email asking you to confirm your password at a trusted site like an e-wallet, Facebook, or even an online banking site. When you click the link, it takes you to a site that looks like the right site, but actually belongs to the thief or thieves. When you put in your username and password, it creates some kind of error or says “thank you,” leaving you unaware that you have been on a fake site.
German security vendor Avira tracks phishing, and in the past three months, the largest number of phishing attacks were perpetrated on PayPal accounts. If you use PayPal to fund your online poker account, it’s critical to remember a few things. PayPal’s advice in these matters is clear “[A sample] email asks you to confirm/update/verify your account data at PayPal by visiting the given link…PayPal never send their users emails requesting personal details in this way.” Do not be rushed by threats to close your account. Instead, type the correct address for your e-wallet or online bank into your browser’s address bar. This helps make sure that you always enter your information on the correct website. Remember that anyone can copy PayPal’s seal. If you suspect that an email is a fake, send it to the company that it is pretending to be from. Send it to spoof @ the company’s domain. This will help them shut down the thief’s site before anyone can be scammed.
