Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America. At PayPal, one of our goals is to enable the Community to stay safe by providing tools, technology and resources to help prevent identity theft, as well as raise awareness of what to do if someone steals your identity.

To that end, we are pleased to announce a set of new Identity Theft Protection educational resources on PayPal aimed at helping you protect your identity.

The new pages feature helpful tips, including:

• A printable checklist of steps that everyone should take to help prevent identity theft.
• A guide for determining how to spot a spoof (fake) email or Web site.
• Recommended tools for protection from fraudulent emails and Web sites. These tools include SafetyBar, a free downloadable toolbar for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express that blocks spoof and spam messages from hitting your Inbox, and eBay Toolbar with Account Guard.

We encourage all eBay and PayPal users to review these new resources. As a reminder, we want to highlight the following safety tips:

• If you are suspicious about an email that claims to be from eBay or PayPal, and requests payment or other account information, report it by forwarding the email to spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com.
• Do not click on links in emails that ask for your personal information.
• Keep your operating system, web browser, and virus detection software up to date.

Please join eBay and PayPal for an online workshop on how to protect your identity on Thursday, August 4th at 11:00 PDT. We look forward to seeing you there.

Sincerely,

Dave Steer
Senior Manager, Trust and Safety, PayPal