Thought I'd inquire here...
I re-subscribed here about a month ago when my year was up. I used the PayPal method "from AK" as I always have. I just fill in the blanks/get an email from PayPal saying it went through and almost instantly my Red Subscriber Banner is back on and I have another year paid for.
This time, after the real PayPal email came, I started getting spam/phished from a fake PayPal site asking for donations or whatever. Today it was for Hurricane IAN relief. I didn't fall for any of it but I wonder if it could have sprang from here or maybe/probably from the actual PayPal site being hacked.
Your or anyones thoughts...
fwiw... I have never had a PayPal acct.
For anyone else dealing with this... a real email from them will be from "PayPal.com". The one's I'm getting are from "@emailPaypal". Don't click on anything. Forward it to "
spoof@paypal.com".
Many thanks
@onemug for raising this issue and bringing to everyone's attention. As you've correctly identified this is a fake phishing scam email. Sadly PayPal like many other big companies have their imitators, the fake emails are becoming more and more realistic and you did well to identify the unusual email address that it came from.
Sadly tragic events (such as Ian) seem to give extra motivation to these scammers which is pretty sickening, given that they are tugging at the heartstrings of good people. I'm certain that these phishing email campaigns are created with haste as soon as a tragic event occurs. Some people have no shame!
My advice to anyone who receives an email asking for money or to gain your information, would be to not click on anything and look at the email address that it came from. Whether from a tech giant like PayPal or Google or even a local store or service, always think twice before sharing bank details or personal information. Take your time and be as vigilant as possible!
The contents of the email will typically look legit but the tell that it's fake is usually a bizarre email address that it came from.
Going forward, here is a link to PayPal where you can report fake emails impersonating them
https://www.paypal.com/us/security/report-suspicious-messages
And another link and screenshot about what to look for to identify a fake email
https://www.paypal.com/us/security/learn-about-fake-messages
Essentially, you can forward anything you think is malicious to
phishing@paypal.com
Finally, I can't say for sure if PayPal were hacked and if as a result the hackers targeted recent PayPal users with these phishing campaigns. I can say that in both my personal and professional experience I get at least one of these fake emails per day. Usually from a scammer posing as a big well know company such as Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, PayPal etc.
So, it could be a coincidence that you received a scam email from PayPal soon after using their services, or it could be related.
Without knowing the inner workings of PayPal we won't know. All I can do is reiterate the need to stay vigilant, educate yourself on what to look for, question what is being asked for, ask a friend their opinion, and report anything you know to be fake.
Thanks again
@onemug!
I'll do that now... 
