I recently received an e-mail purporting to  be from PayPal. I haven't used them at least in 5 years if at all, and certainly did not order the phone. The name is not me either. Should I respond to t his e-mail and give any personal information? How can I tell if this is authentic?
  
Dear PayPal Member,

This email confirms that you have paid LWP ELECTRONICS (sales@lwpelectronics.com) $274.99 USD using PayPal.

This credit card transaction will appear on your bill as "PAYPAL LWPELECTRONICS*".


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PayPal Shopping Cart Contents

Item Name:  BRAND NEW NOKIA 6600 CELL PHONE
Quantity:  1

Total:  $274.99 USD

  

Cart Subtotal:  $254.99 USD
Shipping Charge:  $20.00 USD
Cart Total:  $274.99 USD
  


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Shipping Information

Shipping Info:  Bill Chang
202 N Magnolia Dr.
Saco, ME 04072
United States

Address Status:  Unconfirmed    

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If you haven't authorized this charge, click the link below to Verify your Identity to cancel the payment and get a full refund.
                          Dispute Transaction  

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Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the "Help" link in the footer of any page.


PayPal Email ID PP120


  

   NO, YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY NOT RESPOND TO THE EMAIL.  It is a scam.  All they want is your credit card number and information so that they can charge your card and ruin your credit.
   If you think it is legitimate and you want to check it out, do not use the links in the email.  Instead, open your browser, go to http://www.paypal.com and log into your account.  You will probably see that there is no charge or activity.
   You can also look at the links in the email and see that they do not link to paypal.com.

This is very standard phishing.  DO NOT RESPOND TO IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!  Either delete it or forward it to abuse@paypal.com and then delete it.  Among the ways you can know that it isn't authentic is the salutation, "Dear PayPal Member".  PayPal themselves point out that they always use the member's username as a salutation, just because of this problem.

Since you obviously don't have a lot of experience with this kind of scam, I would recommend that you use some kind of software which helps to protect you from them.  Pegasus Mail is an excellent free email client which provides some phishing protection.  The advertisements for Symantec's Internet Security Suite 2007 also advertise protection, but I know nothing else about that program.

Good luck.
C.

If the email contains a hyperlink...DO NOT CLICK IT!.  Also, there is a free program named..."Calling ID"  download it and install.  It will tell you if a URL is valid for the address contained.  That way if you pass your mouse over a hyperlink, it will advise you whether or not that link is valid.

   PayPal also has an Internet Explorer add on that is supposed to tell you if links to it are valid or not.  It is free.  I just consider all emails like that from PayPal as frauds (because they usually are).

Quoted from billrobb I recently received an e-mail purporting to  be from PayPal. I haven't used them at least in 5 years if at all, and certainly did not order the phone. The name is not me either. Should I respond to t his e-mail and give any personal information? How can I tell if this is authentic?

Most places like that have an email address to forward those to and will let you know if they are valid.  For paypal, ebay and many banks it is SPOOF@Paypal.com spoof@ebay and spoof @ yourbank.com or .net