I clicked on a suspicious link in my email

[pmer]

I was going through my emails the other day and looked at a paypal purchase message. It looked like a confirmation email from a purchase I did but I didn't buy anything lately. It had a paypal logo and etc.

It had a link to paypal so I thought I'll just log in and dispute it or look at my account. On the click my browser opened and went to a web page not found screen. Tried again and nothing and started to think oops what did I just do..

So I went to a different PC and logged into my account and didn't see anything odd and changed my password. The real paypal logo was slightly different than the one in my email. So I fell for the typical phony email scheme.

Then I went back to first computer which had virus and malware programs running and started doing scans and nothing came up as bad. Could that first PC still be infected with something even though it passed those checks?

(I did log into my paypal on the first PC after I clicked the phisching link)

[JSnover]

Did you notice any abnormal operations? Either your software didn't detect the virus or the site may have already been shut down by the time you clicked on the link.

[Cowboy_Dan]

Or it could be that your protective software stopped the link from loading the page, thus preventing whatever tricks were planned for you. Just make sure there haven't been any recent downloads to the machine, if there haven't been it should be fine.

[tunnug]

I get those all the time in just about every variation you can think of, I just report it as phishing, it will then go to delete on it's own, every now and then I go to the delete file and click/send those paypal emails to the junk folder, kind of a double whammy for them.

[Uncle Jimbo]

Just to be sure, I would suggest that you get the latest update for your virus and malware software and then open your OS in safe mode and then do a complete scan in "safe mode". Some malware can hid from the anti virus and malware programs when they are running.

[pmer]

Thanks guys for the tips. It is a HP laptop and it seems to be running normally. Programs and features look normal and I'll see if I can get safe mode running and do another scan.

I tightened up the email settings and more emails land in the junk folder too. It's a Hotmail account and sometimes I wonder if a different email service would have less of these types of troubles. My Hotmail name doesn't match my true name and that helps to spot troubles too but as I know now things can slip by.

[imashooter2]

Those schemes typically don't install anything on your PC, they just harvest your log in info from the fake web site. You should be fine.

[Goatwhiskers]

I contacted a well-known person re: buying a piece of reloading equipment and to send me a mailing address. He replied that he would set things up to pay thru pay-pal. Told him I don't use pay-pal. Didn't bother to tell him that I get 2 or 3 of those scam communications every day and that I never open anything from pay-pal. Guess that saved me some money I didn't need to spend anyway. GW

[RogerDat]

Those schemes typically don't install anything on your PC, they just harvest your log in info from the fake web site. You should be fine. This is probably correct. The page not found response means literally the file that was the fake login screen was removed. Which could be the results of the company that owns the server that hosts the scam site deleting the files in response to it being an illegal operation.

Pretty clever approach, if they sent you a link to "reset" or "confirm" your password most people would know it is a scam. Paypal purchase that you want to dispute with the link right there? More likely to click it.

The solution is when you want to go anywhere that requires a login do just what you did to reach the site. Open the browser and go there, ignoring the provided link.

The suggestion to scan from safe mode is good. Another tool is download the windows defender bootable DVD or CD. You make the disk and use it to start the computer, disk has nothing but a tiny operating system and anti-virus from microsoft. Any virus that is "hiding" in your operating system can't protect itself using Windows OS because your not running the OS on you hard drive but the one on the bootable CD.

I expect we will see more of the type of email scam you experienced. Virus or Trojan is operating system specific. Can't get both windows and Mac operating system. A link in an email to steal financial passwords works for everyone.

[bosterr]

I get around 5 of those warnings from paypal every single day and I don't report them anymore. Don't EVER log in with their link! l have a desktop icon for the real paypal and set it up when I want to log in I get a 6 digit one time code sent to my cell phone. My phone rings within a couple seconds with the code which I then enter. There's no way anyone but me can log into my account. I used to check for "suspicious activity" on my account that these fake emails warn me about. I hardly ever do that anymore too.

[Soundguy]

Those schemes typically don't install anything on your PC, they just harvest your log in info from the fake web site. You should be fine.

Agreed. many times they just want you to put in your UN and PW into their fake login screen.