Got an email suggesting I cancel my monthly (small) donation through PayPal and then restart it by clicking on the link in the email. [Screenshot 2026-02-16 at 8.57.21 AM]

This does seem to be a genuine email, and I’m sure no-one at iNat thought it would be a problem to include a link for a user to set up a new payment. But it doesn’t really follow good cybersecurity practices. It would have been a lot better to simply tell users to “Go to iNaturalist. Click Donate at…

You can also check the headers. I am not currently donating, but I get an update email every day; here’s a header from one of those: Received: from o1.ptr9832.inaturalist.org ( o1.ptr9832.inaturalist.org [198.37.153.128]) by (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C70435FD00 for ; Sat, 14 Feb 2026 07:40:07 -05…

Suspicious email about iNaturalist donation payment method change

General

wayne_j February 16, 2026, 5:07pm 2

It appears that is a legitimate email, check this thread:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-the-email-about-changing-paypal-donation-for-some-other-system-valid/75135/4

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Suspicious email about iNaturalist donation payment method change

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