Fake PayPal Payment Notifications Direct to Security Exploits and Malware

You might thank your lucky stars if you check your email one day and see that you've received one (or several) PayPal payment notifications. Or you might just be puzzled and wonder why you've gotten payments from people you don't really know.

Either way, you'll probably end up clicking on the links in the email to cash out or get to the bottom of the payments--and that's when the trouble begins.

Some cybercriminals are taking advantage of people's love for money by modeling their latest spam campaign after PayPal's notification emails. These emails are sent with subject lines that read "RE:You just sent a payment to [random first name] Peterson" and contain exploits-serving links that are served by the Blackhole exploit kit, which lets hackers make use of unpatched exploits to hack computers and install malware.

If you get a PayPal payment notification and haven't sold anything or aren't expecting it at all, then don't click on any links in the email. If you feel the need to double-check, just log on to your PayPal account on a separate tab on your browser instead.

Article by Hazel Chua
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