Genuine Paypal Payment SCAM

mdonaldson

I recently experienced an attempted Paypal scam which I thought I would share on here as I can find little similar information about it on the Internet.

Yesterday night, I got an email stating I had a pending echeque from Paypal. The payment was in a foreign currency and was for a large amount of money, over £1000. I thought at first it was a scam email so, avoiding clicking any email links, I went into my Paypal account but sure enough, there was a pending echeque in my account. I was unsure how to respond and about half an hour later, I received a second echeque for a larger amount of money!

Not being able to speak to Paypal about it as they were closed for the night, I declined both echeques and thankfully there were no more by the time I got up the next morning.

I phoned Paypal and they confirmed that it was almost certainly a scam and that I had done the correct thing in declining the echeques and that they had reported the transactions to the appropriate Paypal department. They were surprised though the money had been sent by that payment method.

Apparently the scam usually starts with an instant payment from the scammer sent to the victim. They then email the victim saying the payment was a mistake and could they refund the money by bank transfer letting them keep a percentage of the payment themselves. After the scammer receives the bank transfer they then gets Paypal to cancel the original payment. So the scammer gets their original money back together with the victims bank transfer payment!

Well, I hoped that was the end of it, but tonight I have received and Instant Payment from Paypal, again for about £1000! After making sure I had actually received it in my Paypal account, I have refunded it back, as advised by Paypal. It looks like I will be phoning Paypal tomorrow morning too.

What bothers me was that I was in a panic about this last night and there was not even an emergency phone number to contact Paypal about this. Paypal does not even show a running balance for your account now and it can be difficult to see what is going on with some payments.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone who experiences this in the future.

Dean000000

Not knowing how this works, can’t you keep it, withdraw it, and shut your PayPal with immediate Effect?

soolin

Dean000000 wrote: »

Not knowing how this works, can’t you keep it, withdraw it, and shut your PayPal with immediate Effect?

I'm interested in the reasoning behind your strange advice?

1) an echeque can't be withdrawn as it isn't cleared
2) why would OP give up any future ability to use ebay or paypal to launder money?

soolin

OP- I wouldn't worry at all, I wouldn't even bother declining the payment- if it's a scam then the money will go back anyway- just let paypal know it is still happening.

It doesn't sound like a very clever scam, the scammers are obviously scraping the bottom of the barrel here as someone would need to be exceptionally gullible to send a bank transfer against an uncleared echeque they weren't expecting.I do know that some people fall for the most obvious scams, but this seems an unlikely one.

Browntoa

And if any suspicion of money laundering the possibility of also losing your bank account .

Dean000000

soolin wrote: »

I'm interested in the reasoning behind your strange advice?

1) an echeque can't be withdrawn as it isn't cleared
2) why would OP give up any future ability to use ebay or paypal to launder money?

few things:


1) it wasn't advice (it was phrased a question)
2) It was qualified as 'not knowing how these things work (I don't use paypal) and don't even know what a echeque is.... This should be obvious as its stupid advice if it cant even be withdrawn!
3) for £1000, I would happily forgo my ability to ever use ebay, or paypal again (at the detriment of a proven scammer of course)


@ browtoa cant see how it might be conceived as money laundering - on the basis I had thought it was actual withdrawable money I thought you may have been able to argue it was an agreed payment for some sort of service.


In any case - clearly im wrong on many counts...so apologies sorry for being thick...

Browntoa

Money arrives unsolicited

No paper trail to prove it was a sale

You suddenly close account and withdraw the money

You refuse to pay it back

Turns out source was hacked bank account or credit card

Would look like fraud or money laundering to me

Try getting any credit with a fraud marker

Google "money mule" to see the problems people have got themselves into

mdonaldson

I contacted Paypal this morning about the Instant Payment I received and the one I spoke to today seemed less interested in the situation! They told me that there was no need to contact Paypal if I received any other payments like that, I should just cancel them. I think it is important to inform Paypal of any possible fraudulent activity if there is any chance of catching the scammers or stopping them doing this to other people.

Dean000000

Browntoa wrote: »

Money arrives unsolicited

No paper trail to prove it was a sale

You suddenly close account and withdraw the money

You refuse to pay it back

Turns out source was hacked bank account or credit card

Would look like fraud or money laundering to me

Try getting any credit with a fraud marker

Google "money mule" to see the problems people have got themselves into

point very much taken - and infact will change my outlook going forward...genuine thanx