A Paypal Payment Scam Arrives
Posted by Nick O'Neill on January 16th, 2008 12:25 PMAllen Stern has covered yet another payment application that leverages Paypal. This one looks like a huge scam though that is used to generate affiliate revenue for the application creators. The developers are even claiming that this application has been created by PayPal. They have gone so far as to set up a false PayPal marketing site that is intended to look just like an official site. Scam alert!
I haven’t reached out to anybody at Paypal but I am confident that this is definitely not a Paypal site and this application will soon be shut down due to false representation. This scam has been thoroughly developed. The developers have even gone so far as to create a fake Paypal profile. Talk about illegal. Want to get yourself into trouble? Go build an application that falsely represents an online payment system.
Unfortunately the Facebook platform is still down and I haven’t been able to test out the application but I don’t really need to test it out to know that this is definitely a scam. All the links to this application are ad urls. I’m surprised that the application has been around for this long. Is this a violation of Facebook terms of service? I’m not sure but I’m sure it’s a violation of PayPal’s.
I doubt that this application will be around a few days from now. If you want to be smart, heed my advice: don’t install the fake paypal application.
Update
It appears as this app may just be the real deal. A whois shows the nameserver ending in “paypal.com.” It is still strange that they chose to use the domain www.paypal-marketing.co.uk though and even stranger that the homepage shows the words “Default.” Paypal has definitely messed up on this application. Allen Stern wrote this morning though that the application was not working. I believe that was actually a result of the Facebook platform going down. It appears to be up and working again.
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January 16th, 2008 at 11:39 am
thanks - i’ve added a link to this post for my readers - the whois data on the url shows paypal.com for the dns if that matters.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Guys - this is the real app. PayPal has had this app for like six months. The facebook platform crashed last night. It’s not a scam. Be careful when making conclusions like this.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
The app is legit - there’s also a link to it from PayPal’s sponsored group on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7251737722
January 16th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
thanks - i’ve added a link to this post for my readers - the whois data on the url shows paypal.com for the dns if that matters.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
What a coincidence, we just ripped this apart on the Facebook developer forums this morning!
http://forum.developers.facebook.com/viewtopic….
January 16th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Don’t be so quick to shout about it being fake. While the pages look very, very suspect, I got an email from PayPal announcing this application, which would have been very hard to fake. It had my full name (admittedly not hard to find) and a link to http://email1.paypal.co.uk/u.d?FmZyqfnpcUb3zsLl... , which redirects to https://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk/facebook/ . If somebody has hacked PayPal’s redirect system, then Facebook apps are the least of our worries.
Also, a WHOIS on http://www.paypal.com and http://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk come up more or less the same.
If it is a scam, someone has gone to some monumental effort. I’m more inclined to think that someone at PayPal just screwed up and set off all the wrong alarms on our ends, though.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Guys - this is the real app. PayPal has had this app for like six months. The facebook platform crashed last night. It’s not a scam. Be careful when making conclusions like this.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
The app is legit - there’s also a link to it from PayPal’s sponsored group on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7251737722
January 16th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
What a coincidence, we just ripped this apart on the Facebook developer forums this morning!
http://forum.developers.facebook.com/viewtopic.php?id=7079
January 16th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Don’t be so quick to shout about it being fake. While the pages look very, very suspect, I got an email from PayPal announcing this application, which would have been very hard to fake. It had my full name (admittedly not hard to find) and a link to http://email1.paypal.co.uk/u.d?FmZyqfnpcUb3zsLl=1681 , which redirects to https://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk/facebook/ . If somebody has hacked PayPal’s redirect system, then Facebook apps are the least of our worries.
Also, a WHOIS on http://www.paypal.com and http://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk come up more or less the same.
If it is a scam, someone has gone to some monumental effort. I’m more inclined to think that someone at PayPal just screwed up and set off all the wrong alarms on our ends, though.
January 16th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Wow, how can you condemn a legit app like that? This app has been around for months. Shouldn’t you confirm with PayPal first? It is borderline unethical. You may want to take this off before PayPal comes after you for damages.
January 16th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Wow, how can you condemn a legit app like that? This app has been around for months. Shouldn’t you confirm with PayPal first? It is borderline unethical. You may want to take this off before PayPal comes after you for damages.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
it is not legit. WHEN I TYPE THE WEBSITE IN MY BROUSER. IT COMES UP. WARNING THIS SITE MAY SCAM YOU. and it tells me to not continue to the site. and the continue to the site bit says ‘NOT RECOMENDED’ dont do it, click on the verify thing. it says paypal singapore. paypal is set up in america. paypal-marketing is not legit.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
this is a scam. my brouser wont even let me on it
it comes up warning this site may try to scam you
and tells me not continue to go to it.
paypal is not based in singapore
check the paypal.com security encryption thing. it says pAYPAL US thats real. tahts where paypal is based. paypalmarketing says ‘PAYPAL LMT SINGAPORE’
paypal is not based in singapore do not even test it. its not legit
May 7th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
it is not legit. WHEN I TYPE THE WEBSITE IN MY BROUSER. IT COMES UP. WARNING THIS SITE MAY SCAM YOU. and it tells me to not continue to the site. and the continue to the site bit says ‘NOT RECOMENDED’ dont do it, click on the verify thing. it says paypal singapore. paypal is set up in america. paypal-marketing is not legit.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
this is a scam. my brouser wont even let me on it
it comes up warning this site may try to scam you
and tells me not continue to go to it.
paypal is not based in singapore
check the paypal.com security encryption thing. it says pAYPAL US thats real. tahts where paypal is based. paypalmarketing says ‘PAYPAL LMT SINGAPORE’
paypal is not based in singapore do not even test it. its not legit