Mystery paypal payment received

MORPH3US

Hi folks,

I have received a mystery paypal payment and not sure what its for.

Got this e-mail:

"Dear XXXXXXX,

On XX May 2009 you received $X.XX USD from xxxxxx@xxxxx.com.[EMAIL="johnandvicki@gmail.com"][/EMAIL]

Please claim this money as soon as possible:
1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click the History subtab
3. Click Accept or Refuse in the Action column of the transaction in question.

We automatically cancel unclaimed payments 30 days after receipt, so if you do not claim your money by XX Jun. 2009, this payment will be cancelled.

---

Transaction details

---

Amount: $X.XX USD
Transaction Date: XX May 2009
Transaction time: 02:07:18 BST
Transaction ID: XXXXXXXXX


To view the details of this transaction, click the link below.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

You need to manually claim this payment because:

Your payment receiving preferences are set to accept or deny this type of payment manually.


If you have questions about this transaction, log in to your PayPal account and click the History subtab, then the Details link.


Yours sincerely,

PayPal

Now first I thought it was a "click this link, login and they nick your login details" but the link was genuine to paypal. Anyway just to be on the safe side I manually went to https://www.paypal.com and logged in and sure enough the money is there waiting to be accepted.

I have no idea what its for so should I accept it or contact them?

M

so2006

I would contact them on the senders email address.

If no reply is given within 24 hours, just refund.

Do you sell on ebay? was it a ebay item's payment?

Is your email address common?

MORPH3US

Right guys, this has just happened again... someone sent me $10.00 dollars this time...

I have now accepted it. If people are stupid enough to send me money for whatever reason then I am happy to accept.

Will update if anything comes of it, but has anyone else had this yet? I find it strange that it would only be me they were targeting if it was a scam.

sequence

Its probable the someone was trying to send a friend or seller a payment but got the email wrong. Then they sent it again because it didn't work the first time ?

milliemonster

Whenever I have received legitimate payments for things through Paypal, I have never had the message to tell me I have to log in and accept or refuse the payment and if I don't do this the payment will be removed after 30 days???? that just seems a little strange to me

dacouch

I hope you logged into your paypal account using your ebay account rather than clicking on the option to log in to pay pal on the email otherwise someone has your password now...

NotQuiteNorbert

MORPH3US wrote: »

Now first I thought it was a "click this link, login and they nick your login details" but the link was genuine to paypal. Anyway just to be on the safe side I manually went to www.paypal.com and logged in and sure enough the money is there waiting to be accepted.

Hope this answers your question dacouch.

soolin

Weird and weirder. I cna understand getting money by accident, but I don't get the bit about it needing to be claimed..that strikes me as very odd.

Personally I would be phoning paypal to see if they can make sense of it.

Groovygirl

Dont you have to set up your paypal account to automatically accept payments??

I had to accept a payment once and I vaugley recall having to change some options on my account.

soolin

Groovygirl wrote: »

Dont you have to set up your paypal account to automatically accept payments??

I had to accept a payment once and I vaugley recall having to change some options on my account.

No, it is always automatic unless you only have a basic account and receive a card payment. However, if that had been the case I am assuming OP would have mentioned getting a message saying about an upgrade required and fees being chargeable.

MORPH3US

Hi guys...

Well money is accepted and in my account and no follow ups yet....

To update:

First payment was for $5.00 and said "You are being asked to manually claim this money because: Your payment receiving preferences are set to manually accept or refuse this type of payment."

Second payment was for $10.00 and said "This payment is pending because it was sent in a currency in which you do not currently hold a balance."

All very strange.... especially that two separate people have both sent me payments which I wasn't expecting and both in dollars....

I keep thinking scam but then they would have to be the richest scammers in the world to send people money in paypal and risk not getting it back.

Incidentally, just checked the e-mail that are supposedly from paypal and the first e-mail just said "to accept this payment, login to your paypal account" but didn't give a link to click to get there......

The second mail did give a link to click to accept the payment but the link seems legit as it is https and is https://www.paypal.com/xxxxxxxxxxx

I haven't logged in through that link myself but it looks legit to me...