Does PayPal have a phone number/real address?

[Ed Gerson]

About a year ago I paid for PayPal - very soon afterwards I began receiving official looking emails with suspicious email addresses.

Is this a real address? : https://www.paypal.com/us

Looks real but after a year of this nonsense I don't even trust what looks like a legitimate address.

There is so much phishing going on I am leery of giving out any security information to anyone.

I have no idea who/what/where they are physically.

Thanks - Ed

[Dennis_Vied]

I have been a member of PayPal for some years now. The only legitimate e-mails I have received from PayPal have been in response to something I have initiated, such as a transaction or request for information.

Most of the stuff I receive from PayPal, (or with a supposed PayPal address), is bogus. Fortunately, I have a good Spam filter from Norton which flags it for me.

If you want to do anything with PayPal, use your official log-in site to initiate it. Don't respond to anything from PayPal unless you go to your log-in site and confirm it.

PayPal does not initiate any e-mail requesting your log-in information.

By the way, PayPal is based in San Jose. I met the founder of PayPal once. Nice fellow.

[MikeA]

Simple answer:

It doesn't matter. Never, ever, click a link in a paypal email.

You know how to log into paypal, and you decide when to log in to paypal. (Like when you have a reason, not when you get some crazy email) When you do need to log into paypal, just open a browser window and actually type the address you know into the browser. That's right, just type www.paypal.com into the browser and log in.

This won't protect you from keyloggers, but that's a different story...

Mike.

[Noel_Carboni]

Never click on a link in an eMail - it's quite often a scam, and even though the link looks legit in the eMail, it can and will go to somewhere other than what you see on the screen! If you put in your password you'll likely be giving your money away to someone.

Instead, always type this in yourself: https://www.paypal.com

That's the only real way to be sure you're going to the right place.

I don't think they do telephone support. The best it gets is a chat session with someone at a computer.

Also, make sure your password is VERY strong: Put numbers and letters (both cases) and even special characters in it (and of course make sure you remember it). This password ALONE is protecting your money.

-Noel

Yes, PayPal does have a phone. The number is 800-852-1973. They also have given me a second number since I have a merchant account through them. The main number should get you most of the help you need. If not, contact me and I will give you the merchant support number.

[SKIP RUNGE]

Some of the "phishing" email looks for all the world like real Paypal communication. But it's not.

Anytime I get an email from "Paypal" (or a facsimile thereof) I always forward it to

spoof@paypal.com

Without exception, they have written me back to tell me not to respond to the email because it's a "phishing" scam.

It's comforting to know there is a way to check those emails out. And like I said...not a single one so far has come from Paypal!

Skip

[Mark_Rogers]

As someone else mentioned, it is best to never click on links in emails that claim to be from paypal. I get lots of them and I think all of them have been false. You can always just log into your account directly. One easy way to check links is to put your mouse over the link, and click with the right mouse button (not the left) and then select “properties” in the pop-up menu. That allows you to see the actual link that the text is referring to which in the case of false paypal link will change to something like this:

From:
http://www.paypal.com/checkaccount
To:
http://198.230.123.78/~tldkjf/checkaccount.html