Trend Micro researchers warn of a new wave of PayPal account scams being used by businesses related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Fraudsters use a common social engineering technique by posing as PayPal operators. A potential victim receives a fictitious e-mail notification from a supposedly payment service about debiting funds for purchases of cryptoassets.
For credibility, scammers use the names of well-known cryptocurrency companies and their assets in their accounts, in particular, Terra Luna Classic, Oasis Network, Bitcoin Exchange, Stellar XLM, TrueUSD, and the like.
The fake charge notification is accompanied by a “helpdesk” phone number and a set of phishing links to steal funds and personal data. The victim is asked to contact in any convenient way to dispute the operation.
At this stage, the scammers attempt to gain access to personal information to authenticate the PayPal account and download Trojan software.
Cybersecurity provider Trend Micro is reminding PayPal account holders to exercise caution when dealing with unexpected and unauthorized payments. Especially if such notifications are received by e-mail.
PayPal announced in August that it would allow its customers to transfer BTC, ETH, BCH and LTC to external addresses, including exchanges and hardware wallets.
Source: Bits
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