So, I have received a PayPal invoice from GoDaddy today that I need to pay $62 for renewal of one of my domain names. Which fair enough, I thought to be a legitimate request.

First of all to start with, when you receive an email from anyone and you have even the slightest suspicion, check where it’s coming from from. In my case, it did come from paypal.co.uk, so, first check is OK.

But that’s probably the only thing legitimate about this.

I am wondering who this SHAUTFBD is? It does look suspicious, but maybe it’s a trading name that GoDaddy uses for the UK? Unlikely, but let’s move on.

Second thing to check is, do they know my name? They seem to not. They have started the email with, hey XXX@gmail.com, instead of my name, which means they don’t really know me, I am not their customer, so they are probably phishing for victims.

Third thing, the invoice has the GoDaddy Logo, BUT, lucky for us to notice, the OLD GoDaddy logo, so again something to keep a lookout for.

Fourth thing, the actual invoice is issued by SHAUTFBD, not GoDaddy, so there’s definitely something wrong here.

Ok, basic checks in the email itself are complete, I am not going to pay for this invoice, let me log into PayPal and see what’s going on there.

OK, so my PayPal dashboard even further strengthens the case for this fraudulent invoice. It is issued by Dmitrii Povetkin, which I am quite convinced definitely isn’t GoDaddy by now.

But, OK, I don’t want to be a bad citizen and have an unpaid invoice in my PayPal account. Can it affect my credit score? Can I report this anywhere? Can it be deleted from my account? So, even though I’m quite sure by now that I am not going to pay this invoice, just for a piece of mind, let me talk to PayPal support.

The fraudulent invoice was reported to PayPal. The customer service rep also confirmed that it’s definitely not from Go Daddy and it can be ignored. Speaking further, I asked, how can someone give me an invoice and expect me to pay it, can’t it be deleted from my account, because it’s fraudulent. I don’t want it just sitting there in my account waiting to be paid.

It turns out that all that they need is your email address. That’s it.

If you are not vigilant enough and careful enough, and like most of us, don’t have time to review every single email that comes through and you want to be a good citizen and pay your bills on time, you might just fall for it.

So if you are ever in this situation, make sure to cancel this invoice from your PayPal Account, so that is no longer shown as due.

I am not sure if there is a specific well know name for this attack, but I’m sure as hell it’s not the first or the last time someone will try it.

Stay Safe. Educate others. Share.