PayPal Issues - Hacked Account?

martindow

I use PayPal on my website as one of the payment options.  I received an email supposedly from paypal@paypal.com entitled Important Account Information.

Through ongoing monitoring, we have identified potentially fraudulent transactions in your merchant account. 

We are reaching out proactively to request that you investigate the following transactions and confirm either that they have been cancelled or, alternatively, that you immediately stop shipment/fulfillment on the attached list of orders. 

In addition, you may see transactions in your merchant account that have been proactively reversed as a result of our continuous efforts to protect your account.
 
2FLxxxxxxxxx1506

I logged in to PP as I assumed it was fraudulent in some way.  There was nothing untoward and no message there, but the transaction reference is genuine and relates to an order I had sent a few days earlier.  The payment has not been reversed.

As a precaution I thought I should change my PP password.  The profile settings page where I would expect to do this is just a blank page.  The same thing happens logging in with a different browser.

This is a business PP account and has 2FA set up so needs my phone to make changes.

Any advice on what to do?

mta999

Did the email have any links on it that irt asked you to click on for example to login to your account to check the transactions?

martindow

Yes, there was a link further down

Should you require further information, please feel free to contact<PayPal Customer Support> for further assistance.

The part between < and > was a link.

What I don't understand is how the PP reference is correct and is for a recent transaction.

I have been reading of various issues with PP at the moment, so maybe I will be able to get in to change the password in a day or two.

mta999

hopefully you didn't click on that link to log into Paypal?

One way they could have got that reference is by your order being a scam and the scammers then sending out that email hoping you will your click on the link to sign into PayPal and that way they would have your password

Be on the lookout for scammers trying to get hold of the OTP from your phone if they try and sign in

stand-out

We also got the same type of email. With a big list of transaction IDs, all old orders and genuine - not reversed. Contacted PayPal and they are investigating it. The email does seem to be genuine and from PayPal, but sent incorrectly and they are unsure why.

It seems they have had a system issue for a few days now, at the moment we are struggling to issue refunds or make any withdrawal. So this all may be linked.

martindow

Thanks all.  I didn't use the link in the email , but logged in directly.  From what stand-out says it does look like a PayPal glitch. I can withdraw money OK, but it is typical of these issues that they affect accounts in different ways. I hope that it will be resolved soon and that you manage to sort out refunds and withdraw money soon stand-out! 

jamieostrich

We also received a similar email on 25th August, with a list of 16 transaction numbers on from 21st and 22nd August. Looking in PayPal, all are legitimate, but 7 have already been reversed by PayPal as a "general adjustment" with a case ID. I will call them now to discuss further as this is a lot of money we are looking to lose on top of the goods already sent. 

se2020

Paypal are not suggesting you are the scammer or you have been hacked.

They are saying you are the seller/retailer and some of the purchases from you are fraudulent or made by a hacked account. 

I have been through this recently. 
4 transactions (out of around 20) over a 2 week period were flagged as 'fraudulent'
Paypay told me to cancel the transactions and not post any orders releated to them.
It was a bit late as they had all been dispatched by the time I recived the email.
2 of the transactions had been reversed when I checked my PayPal account even though I had sent the items.

Customer service said I would still get the money via the seller protection provided my tracking showed as delivered.  
That may have been why only 2 of 4 got refunded as 2 had been delivered. 
Nothing actually happened with the 2 that were not refunded.

I called PayPal a week after the refunded ones showed as delivered and the agent re-credited the funds manually. 


They would not give me any particular information on what was going on. All the guy would say was sometimes security issues are flagged up incorrectly such as somebody using their own paypal account from a friend's phone or on a macdonalds WiFi network etc.

All the stuff I sold was low risk of scamming, low value and not easy to resell so I think it was a glitch.
None of the buyers ever contacted me and, if all 4 were really scammers, I'd have expected at least one to try some sort of charge-back?

It was also strange that it has never happened before then I had 4 in 2 weeks.
I guess the system randomly checks a sellers account every now and again?

jamieostrich

After a 30 minute wait on the phone with PayPal, I was told this is a technical issue affecting many merchants worldwide, only affecting orders on 21/22nd August, and not a wave of fraudulent transactions. They have no update for me yet, but can't see why we will be out of pocket at the end of it. 

slinkyminx

So currently i am sitting out of pocket as my orders have been reversed and i am
expected to add money to too them up

the tracking number says not delivered yet but i have the delivery photo from the carrier 

paypal are being very evasive on the phone - said they should have a resolution within a further 72 hours so i shall be diaabling the paypal checkout on my websites until this has been sorted