PAYPAL EMAIL SCAM
I got another html formatted email notice from PayPal informing me that "PayPal is currently performing regular maintenance of our security measures. Your account has been randomly selected for this maintenance, and placed on Limited Access status. Protecting the security of your PayPal account is our primary concern, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. To restore your account to its regular status, you must confirm your email address by logging in to your PayPal account using the form below."

On the form they not only ask for my email address and date-of-birth but they also want my credit card number, expiration date, AND bank account number.

Right! Dream on! I don't even have a PayPal account. Nor have I ever had such an account in the past.

Of course the return address on the email is info@paypal.com. And it actually looks like it could be from PayPal. But the button in the form sends the information to http://www.parom.org//cgi-sys/formmail.pl. The whois at nic.com says the domain belongs to:
Registrant ID:51-C
Registrant Name:CONTACT NOT AUTHORITATIVE
Registrant Street1:Whois Server:whois.rrpproxy.net
Registrant Street2:Referral URL:www.key-systems.net
Registrant City:N/A
Registrant Postal Code:N/A
Registrant Country:CA
Registrant Email:not@available.org
Admin ID:51-C

That's real helpful.

This isn't the first time someone has tried to pull this scam. Last fall the scammers sent out similar email except they directed people to a bogus website to fill out the form. This time they are more clever -- just sending out the form in html format.

I've reported this kind of stuff to various ISP's and companies in the past. But I've never gotten a response. So this time I decided I'd respond to the solicitation. I entered an email address: Can you say "Jail Time" Then I put in a password: "You're busted". I clicked the "update" button in the form and it sent my message off.

I wish I had the power to make my message come true. It only takes one or two people to fall for this kind of a scam to make it worth the while of the bad guys.