Shoutbox

Gin,

You simply need to get in the habit of deleting all such unsolicited emails without even reading them.  Even if they were from Paypal, they probably would be advertising you can live without. 

To give you an idea how bad it can get, I receve 6 or more fake "Paypal" and various bank emails at one of my older email addresses, each day.

The only exception would be if you did something on Paypal or bank website and were explicitly told they will email you a confirmation with a link to click.  In that case, you should check for it right away and do it.

If you still read some unexpected email and feel concerned about it, just go to the site using your existing bookmark or typing in the address as you normally would.  If there is a real issue with your account, you should receive some notice about that after you log in.

P.S. Do not -- I repeat, do not -- rely on any suggestions on how to distinguish "good" emails from the "bad" ones.  While someone with a strong technical / security background may be able to do so by simple inspection, there are too many tricks to be aware of for a typical user -- and the list keeps growing.  False sense of security is a very bad thing.