Phishing emails

Unsurprisingly, the more online activity you get involved in, the more your email address gets abused by fake emails. Personally I can receive up to four or five a day - at work we get dozens every day. Some are relatively easy to spot, for instance the 'legacy' scam where you are told a previously unknown relative has left you money in a will - or the 'cash movement' scam where you are invited by the relative of a deposed dictator to help move millions of dollars with the promise of a cut... These are designed ultimately to get you to pay a charge for the transaction which will never actually happen... Frankly if you fall for these, you shouldn't be allowed to have a bank account in the first place.
More worrying is the scam mails supposedly from your bank or from Paypal etc.. Some banks may actually use email communications, I know mine does, so people can be drawn in - the things to look out for here are:

• Are they using an email address that you have given to your bank? 
• Do they use your name in the email? 
• Is there a link in the email asking you to 'log-on' to change your settings or contact the bank? 

Use these questions to test the validity, and email that starts, Dear (blank) or Dear User/Dear Customer... can be ignored, if they don't know your name they are NOT your bank. Naturally many of us have multiple email addresses, is the email address used the one you gave to your bank or to Paypal? if not, you can ignore/delete it.
Pretty much all of these scams will use a link to get you to click on something that is designed to get information for you - NEVER click on a link in this type of email. If you think you should log-on to your bank website, by all means do (via your normal link in your 'favourites'/'bookmarks', or by typing the URL directly into your browser), but NOT via the link given in the email - whatever it looks like, it is certainly not directing you to your bank.
If you are still uncertain, before taking any action, simply forward the email to Paypal or your bank using an email address provided by the bank - they will be able to tell you if it can be ignored. You can use 'spoof@' for suspected bogus Payal emails, each bank may have it's own reporting procedures.
Don't be caught out, treat every unsolicited email as potential spam, and a few you were expecting may catch you out. I have seen loads supposedly from credible courier companies asking for payments before deliveries are made - again, treat these with the utmost caution, even if you are expecting a courier delivery.