i just deleted an email message without opening it that stated just that.."paypal unauthorized access code" and some number after it.

i have paid with paypal twice in my life in the past three years.

has anyone received this message by email? or had any problems later with their accounts or misuse of credit card?
or is this just regular spam /virus, whatever?

Sonds like phishing. I get those all the time and delete them.

PayPal is the worst for scams. Delete it.

Absolutely do not respond to it, and if it is still in your delted items box forward it to [email protected]. This is from their website:
"If you think you have received a fraudulent email, forward the entire email to [email protected] and then delete it from your email account."

And it isn't even a PayPal issue - I have never (ever) used PayPal and still get these phishing paypal e-mails.

And even If I had ever used it I would never open an e-mail supposedly from paypal. If I need anything I would contect them - not the other way around.

As DH always tells me, "NEVER open anything like that from PayPal"...it is a scam...PayPal would never contact you that way....

I get at least one a day from "paypal"
and some from Chase Bank.

Paypal and eBay are similar.

They never ask for your account passwords in an email.

I'm not sure about Paypal but eBay always sends a duplicate message to your account mailbox if/when they send you an email to your email account.

If you're not sure they sent it, log into eBay and check your account messages.

Once again. They never ask for your account info in a regular email sent to you.

I've gotten emails supposedly sent by them and they are frauds.

And legitimate PayPal e-mail always addresses by your full whole name.

PayPal is just as much a victim of these criminals as you (might have been - - had you taken the bait).

Best wishes,

Rex

thank you.

Essentially all the e-mails you might receive claiming to be from PayPal are in fact fraudulent. I receive up to a dozen of these a day, and I delete them all without opening them.

You can check the headers in the raw message text to determine where the e-mail really came from, but that's difficult to do if you're not a geek.

I used to forward everything to PayPal, but I got the impression that nobody ever reads the messages and nothing is really done.

To be double sure, never access PayPal by clicking on a link in an e-mail. Type PayPal's URL yourself in a browser and access it that way. This prevents you from being secretly directed elsewhere by a fraudulent link.

Hi lin,

I make it a point to never open email from someone I don't know.

I also never open an attachment without first verifying that the person who sent it did actually send it.

You can get all sorts of viruses if you aren't careful.

If you actually go to the so-called "PayPal" site and look at the URL you'll soon find out that it is a copy...simply ignore the messages as well as all the others you'll get from "banks" where you've never had an account, etc.

On a somewhat related note I wonder sometimes if Fodor's sells e-mail addresses.