Yeah, the hover trick is only recommended for looking at URLs in e-mails before clicking them (no sane client would execute JavaScript contained in an e-mail), but really you should just never click a link in an e-mail anyway and open up a new window and type in the URL of the website.

Open a new browser window and type in PayPal.com rather than clicking any links in that "You need to update your information or your account will be shut down" e-mail.

Once you're actually on PayPal.com (or whatever), looking at the hover URLs is pointless.