uring the past two months, PayPal users have been targeted in several scams where Internet fraudsters have tried to trick them into providing personal information such as name, address and phone numbers and account passwords and credit card numbers.

Several PayPal customers have reported receiving e-mails in September and October 2002 that appeared to be sent by PayPal. The e-mails contained a message stating there was a problem with the user's account and provided a URL address to a phony PayPal Web site where users were asked to enter their personal information and credit card number.

Senders of the e-mail used a variety of tricks to entice customers into providing information, such as confirming that their account was still active or providing information that may have been lost because of an error in one of PayPal's computer systems.

The e-mails contained many grammatical errors, which is often a sign that something suspicious is going on. PayPal said these types of Internet scams are common and that most of its users are savvy enough not to fall victim to them. But if they do, the users of PayPal would not be liable for any losses.