
The best way to avoid one-ring phone scams is to never call a number you don’t recognize. 2 This occurs when someone unknowingly calls an international phone number and then gets charged by their phone company for the long-distance call. So, if the recipient of the phishing email didn’t quite believe the message but wanted to follow up, the scam could catch them with what’s called a one-ring phone scam. In actuality, it was an international phone number. The PayPal phishing email included a support phone number that claimed it was toll free. Phishers rely on people to rush and not give themselves time to listen to their better judgement. Take a deep breath and make sure to reread carefully all emails that “require” a quick response. That’s another trademark of phishing emails: urgency. The email also included wording that encouraged the user to act quickly or be charged a lot of money.

Proceed with caution and do not click on any links in the message. Large companies, especially ones like PayPal, have teams of content experts vetting all automated messages for such mistakes, so several mistakes in an email should set off your alarm bells. Remember, phishing emails are often worded poorly or have errors. Luckily, the typos, odd punctuation, extra spaces, and grammar errors in the body of the email give away that it is a phishing attempt. According to one source, the phishing email comes from a legitimate-looking PayPal service email address. The typical part of this three-sided scam is the phishing email component. Let’s look at this “triple-pronged” PayPal phishing scam and review some tips to help you identify and proceed should you encounter it. PayPal is regarded as a safe platform where security and strong encryption are a priority however, a recent and advanced phishing scam is putting PayPal users at risk of giving up large sums of money and their personally identifiable information (PII). There are various payment apps available, and the company that may first come to mind is PayPal. Without having to tally totals at the table or fumble with crumpled bills, you and your companions can spend less stress and more time on the fun at hand. Payment applications make splitting restaurant bills, taxi fares, and household expenses so much easier.
