Facebook Ireland/Paypal......scam?!!

SevenOfNine

I've received notification from Paypal regarding a 'transaction' with a company called Facebook Ireland, $270.20 converted to £167.06!!!

Who the hell are Facebook Ireland? Have opened an 'unauthorised activity' dispute but concerned in the meantime.

Anyone know/heard anything before about this. Have found a short 'blog' which seems to be American relating to the same thing - I'd better get researching or I've lost £167.06.

I've changed my Paypal password etc but definitely not a legit purchase (don't even know what Facebook Ireland is).

Nilrem

Erm silly question, you did log into paypal directly through your browser not an email link?

SevenOfNine

Yes, never use any email links for logging into anywhere (but a perfectly sensible question).

!!!!!! - trawling about for answers and stumbled into some Paypal forum, seems this has been happening in UK and USA, though a year or two old. Someone mentioned they'd also discovered they'd 'authorised' recurring transactions to Facebook Ireland. Checked my Paypal and so had I, got rid of that pronto.

keyser666

Facebook ireland is legitimate, Facebook bases all its sales there so as not to pay the tax they would in the uk. Seems legitimate to me, I would be looking at maybe the kids or similar buying games additions or similar

SevenOfNine

No-one in the house except us two 'oldies'. No games played (of any description). Never purchased a game in our lives (presume you mean for PC), unless it was a board game, Monopoly or Scrabble!

This transaction seems to have happened today at 3pm or thereabouts - whilst we were sitting in the cinema, no-one at home (no-one else lives here anyway - kids are 33 & 36 have own homes). Definitely no legit purchase by us or any family members.

Last time I used Paypal was 2 separate Ebay purchases about 5 days ago.

Absolutely no question that this is not us, no-one even been in the house except us 2 since Sunday when my 86 year old mother was here - she doesn't play games either so hasn't nicked my Paypal info and purchased any from this company.

Looks like if Paypal don't sort it out, the bill is paid from my c/c company so I may have to turn to them - though don't know quite what my 'rights' would be..........if any!

Chickabiddybex

You can open a "dispute" in PayPal and they are often quite effective (make sure you keep an eye on it as it progresses though in case they ask you for further info)

imoneyop

A scan of your machine with your Anti-Virus and also malwarebyes would be a good idea.

Your password has either been phished or you've got a keylogger - if it is the latter then the changing of your password won't have helped as they will have got the new one.

If anything comes up from the scan, post in the Techie forum for advice on removing it.

SevenOfNine

Chickabiddybex wrote: »

You can open a "dispute" in PayPal and they are often quite effective (make sure you keep an eye on it as it progresses though in case they ask you for further info)

Cheers, good advice to check progress, I'll keep a close watch on it.

Raised dispute straight away, changed password, removed c/c linked to Paypal a/c, removed the 'future transaction' thing that had been set up for this company, cancelled credit card with bank just for good measure.

Stumbled on a Paypal forum of very unhappy Paypal customers this has happened to (same company mostly), 14 PAGES of comments, the most recent in Feb but stretching back quite a while.

Thank goodness I found that, it was where I saw the advice to check my Paypal a/c for a 'future transactions' set up, some people didn't know about that & even though in a transaction dispute, the offending company were still able to carry on making charges whenever they felt like it - & had!

Spoke to the bank who said they cannot 'stop' payment (which is still showing as pending on my c/c), but I can raise a chargeback when it clears on 10th.

Thanks imoneypop, we have McAfee so will get that done now.

imoneyop

An AV won't pick everything up - so download MalwareBytes (typo in my earlier post) and run that as well - you don't need the paid for version, the free one will do a full scan for you.

SevenOfNine

Wow, Paypal were faster and more co-operative than I anticipated, probably because it came to light within hours of this company taking my money.....or because it's happening to many of their users.

Got email to say the "transaction was authorised because of a billing arrangement" on my Paypal a/c. Clearly that was the 'future transaction' thing THAT U DID NOT SET UP, which allowed this company to just bill me whatever and whenever it liked.

I think that might have been slipped in when I recently made 2 purchases via Ebay with Paypal payments (a pair of joke tights and a scarf - just in case anyone thinks it was 'game' related products or anything remotely connected to Facebook Ireland).

Perhaps there's something in their T&C's or some sort of virus - not techie enough to figure it out myself.

They've already reversed the transaction though, & refunded to c/c (apparently). RELIEVED is the understatement, but wary of Ebay & Paypal now.

Thanks for reading and contributing with ideas. I'm off to have a stiff drink.

transient

imoneyop wrote: »

An AV won't pick everything up - so download MalwareBytes (typo in my earlier post) and run that as well - you don't need the paid for version, the free one will do a full scan for you.

CCleaner would also be a good shout to your advice