At PayPal log-in, am getting "Security check information required"

[Sal Minella]

page which lets me go no further, and I can't access my PayPal account (which has a balance in it -- or did before I got locked out of it by the phish-scammers).

The page looks exactly like the scam e-mail "security information check" shown as Number 1 on the list that appears when you google "PayPal" on Snopes.com.

I've sent a report to PayPal but have received nothing back yet.

Is there something I can do on my end to get past this stupid phish-page???

Edit to add:
This is the start of the text on the fake web page when I try to sign into my account:

============================================
Security Measures

We are currently performing regular maintenance of our security measures. Your account has been randomly selected for this maintenance, and you will now be taken through a series of identity verification pages.
============================================

It then asks for my Visa card number and my bank account number, both of which PayPal has been using happily for many years without a glitch.

[struggle4progress]

1. I'm no expert, but there are several immediate possibilities

The first is malware on your machine; another is a poisoned DNS cache somewhere

If I were you, I'd do at least the following:

Record somewhere the URL that you're getting redirected to; this is so you can actually block it, if need be
Clear your browser cache
Now thoroughly examine your security. Is your anti-virus up-to-date? Are you running a firewall? Do a thorough malware scan; you may want to do several different scans, using more than one product. Be sure to look for trojans and spyware. Make sure your security scans emails and so on for malicious attachments automatically. Consider whether the browser you're using is really secure
Also ask yourself if you're using a secure DNS

I wouldn't be doing any sensitive online transactions until I nailed this down

[Sal Minella]

2. I don't know what a "DNS cache" is.

I scan with Malwarebytes daily (the $25 version purchased after PayPal blockage developed).

Avast! scans and updates several times a day (have had this for many months).

I can copy the url address of the webpage that shows up demanding my bank/visa #s (it's an absurdly long url address) -- can I plug this in somewhere on a "block" listing to get rid of it?

Off to clear browser cache. (I have run CCCleaner recently, which I believe clears old caches?)

I use Firefox as browser and have had no problems with it, except really jerky videos, which I can live with.

[struggle4progress]

3. Somewhere off in cyberspace is a big dictionary that you're using

to translate "http://www.democraticunderground.com" into something like "216.158.28.197" more useful to the electronic machinery. There are lots of copies of these dictionaries out there, and they're not necessarily all secure. I don't know how to set DNS in XP since I primarily use OSX and Linux, but you can probably figure it out by googling. Popular options seem to be OpenDNS and Google's public dns

https://store.opendns.com/setup/computer/
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/

You might try this at minimum to stop redirecting to a spoof page:

Stop Automatic Redirects To Other Websites with Firefox 3
http://technofriends.in/2009/01/18/how-to-stop-automatic-redirects-to-other-websites-with-firefox-3/

Apparently, there are firefox add-ons that can be used to block websites; I haven't tried any. You can also edit host file; but I haven't tried that eiuther

[Sal Minella]

8. Thanks for your post -- PayPal is in process of fixing the problem.

Somebody apparently did try to hack my account, and PayPal shut it down.

So I am in process of proving that I am who I say I am to have access again.

Thanks for your help --

[blogslut]

4. This was an email message?

And you clicked on their link?

Never, never, never do that. Always, always, go to www.paypal.com to log in and look for messages from the company. Paypal is awful about preventing spoof emails. As a rule of thumb, ignore all emails from PayPal.

[Sal Minella]

5. No, No, No!!!

I included the snopes e-mail spoof listing only to show the web page that appears when I try to log into my PayPal account.

I would never ever fall for such an obvious spoof in an e-mail -- but I can't figure out how to get past this page to get into my PayPal account.

[hobbit709]

6. Does the address bar on the login page look like this?

https:// and then followed by paypal.com

If it doesn't, then there's something wrong.

[Sal Minella]

7. Mystery solved.

Apparently somebody else tried to gain access to my PayPal account and PayPal closed it down, and was demanding my numbers again to make sure it was the account's owner seeking access.

The page I thought was a phony phishing page was the real thing -- the "phishing" e-mail shown by Snopes was obviously copied from the sign-in page PayPal uses.

New password registered, should be good to go.

Thanks for your response, and yes that's what the url looked like, and PayPal eventually assured me it's the Real Thang.