PayPal Cease Trading Crypto Currency Bitcoin Warning Email Sophisticated Fake Scam?

Currencies / Bitcoin Mar 16, 2018 - 11:25 AM GMT

A warning popped into my email in box from PayPal a few hours ago, warning of dire consequences if I did not " Cease any activity that results in the trading or transfer of crypto currency". the full text of which follows below:

Warning email- Cease any activity that results in the trading or transfer of cryptocurrency

Dear Nadeem Walayat

We appreciate the fact that you chose PayPal to send and receive payments for your transactions.

While reviewing your account, we noticed that your activity involves the trading or transfer of cryptocurrency which is prohibited under our Acceptable Use Policy. As this is not permitted on the PayPal platform we ask that you cease any activity that results in the trading or transfer of cryptocurrency. If you continue to engage in this activity on PayPal, we'll be unable to continue offering our services.

You can view the complete PayPal Acceptable Use Policy by clicking the 'Legal' link at the bottom of any PayPal page and clicking 'PayPal Acceptable Use Policy'.

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter and ask that your continued use of PayPal be in accordance with the User Agreement and the Acceptable Use Policy.

This mailbox isn't monitored and you won't receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click Help at the bottom of any PayPal page.

Yours sincerely,

PayPal

Analysis

The first thing to do is to check that it is actually from paypal in the first instance it made it through my spam filters, so if its a fake its more sophisticated then the normal fakes.

The initial email to and from look ok

However looking at the headers repeatedly reveals the domain name mkts2944.com as the originating domain, so ignoring text ahead of the domain name such as 'abuse' this appears to be from where the email came from.

So who is mkts2944.com's registered to ? is it Paypal or someone else?

Domain Information
Domain:
mkt2944.com
Registrar:
MarkMonitor Inc.
Registration Date:
2009-08-17
Expiration Date:
2018-08-16
Updated Date:
2017-07-16
Status:
clientDeleteProhibited
clientTransferProhibited
clientUpdateProhibited
Name Servers:
ns1.p11.dynect.net
ns1.silverpop.com
ns2.p11.dynect.net
ns3.p11.dynect.net
ns4.p11.dynect.net

Registrant Contact
Name:
Domain Administrator
Organization:
International Business Machines Corporation
Street:
New Orchard Road,
City:
Armonk
State:
NY
Postal Code:
10504
Country:
US
Phone:
+1.9147654227
Email:
email@us.ibm.com

Has IBM! SPOOFED?

IP address 74.112.67.243

Loxahatchee Groves, Florida, United States

OrgName: IBM
OrgId: IBMC-12
Address: 6303 barfield rd ne
City: Atlanta
StateProv: GA
PostalCode: 30328
Country: US
RegDate: 2016-05-05

Again IBM. What relationship does IBM have with paypal? This looks like a sophisticated phishing attempt for the fundamental fact that I have NEVER DONE ANY CRYPTO CURRENCY TRANSACTIONS VIA PAYPAL.

So the next step is to log into my PayPal account and as expected there are NO warnings, therefore I am 80% certain at this point in time that this is a sophisticated FAKE email! The alternative 20% is because unfortunately PayPal is not 100% trustworthy i.e. they have been known to shut people out of their accounts for feeble or even NO reason. SO the scammer here 'could' be PAYPAL preparing the way to grab customer balances! But at this stage given that I have never transacted in a crypto via Paypal, then I am 80% certain this is a FAKE PayPal warning despite the email header looking genuine.

The alternative is that somehow someone paid me via a cryptocurrency through a third party and that is the trigger for this warning. Or that a paypal algorithm has deemed a transaction or more to involve cryptocurrency trading. Though without any message on my Paypal dashboard I currently give this a low 20% probability. Currently, there are a few exchanges and methods to buy Bitcoin with Paypal. Paypal is one of the best methods to buy Bitcoin due to its refund policy, which means that paypal blocks the accounts that have been involved in any scam activity.

As for the prospects for the Bitcoin price and other crypto currencies, see my recent video analysis:

By Nadeem Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Nadeem Walayat has over 30 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free.

Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 1000 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

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