PAYPAL SCAM via FB purchase of a crochet pattern

Clarina1

I recently tried to order a download crochet pattern from a site on FB called Ma Boutique, I payed by Paypal the £2.65 using two step verification as recommded by PP. The link was never received and checking my emails later I discovered not only did I have an invoice for £2.65 but three further invoices totalling almost £7500!!

 I then checked on my PP account and it showed all 4 invoices for this total.with the name AC Invest alongside. Checking details on the supposed invoices and the PP transactions none of the names, email addresses or phone numbers exist

I straight away raised a dispute with PP, trying to get through to a real person was almost impossible but I persevered. Eventually spoke to fraud dept who assured me that they have my back and it should be ok!

So totally shocked to see 30mins later that the dispute was closed and these three payments have authorised!!! You are not able to contest this result for at least 10 days after dispute is closed!

I immediately got hold of my bank to ensure that any request for payment was blocked, removed my bank details and debit card details from PP and reduced any money in my bank current account to £100. 

My bank account already showed a declined payment for PP now for £8500!!

I cant believe this has happened as PP has always promoted the two step verification so I can only assume that the scammers somehow did this in the few seconds it took me to confirm the £2.65 payment.

 Having looked again at FB there is a long thread of people all been scammed by using the same company to buy patterns

Ive reported to Action Fraud UK

If anyone else has had this happen to them i would like to hear

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Paypal complaints is here OP, hope you get everything sorted  

https://www.paypal.com/uk/cshelp/complaints

After completing the complaint escalation process, if the outcome isn’t to your satisfaction and you are a UK PayPal customer, you can refer your complaint to the UK Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS is a free, independent service which might be able to settle a complaint between you and us. You may obtain further information regarding the FOS and contact the FOS at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk. 

born_again

Clarina1 said:

I recently tried to order a download crochet pattern from a site on FB called Ma Boutique, I payed by Paypal the £2.65 using two step verification as recommded by PP. The link was never received and checking my emails later I discovered not only did I have an invoice for £2.65 but three further invoices totalling almost £7500!!

 I then checked on my PP account and it showed all 4 invoices for this total.with the name AC Invest alongside. Checking details on the supposed invoices and the PP transactions none of the names, email addresses or phone numbers exist

I straight away raised a dispute with PP, trying to get through to a real person was almost impossible but I persevered. Eventually spoke to fraud dept who assured me that they have my back and it should be ok!

So totally shocked to see 30mins later that the dispute was closed and these three payments have authorised!!! You are not able to contest this result for at least 10 days after dispute is closed!

I immediately got hold of my bank to ensure that any request for payment was blocked, removed my bank details and debit card details from PP and reduced any money in my bank current account to £100. 

My bank account already showed a declined payment for PP now for £8500!!

I cant believe this has happened as PP has always promoted the two step verification so I can only assume that the scammers somehow did this in the few seconds it took me to confirm the £2.65 payment.

 Having looked again at FB there is a long thread of people all been scammed by using the same company to buy patterns

Ive reported to Action Fraud UK

If anyone else has had this happen to them i would like to hear

Fake paypal site, would be a good guess.

edinburgh1979

Interesting - my wife had exactly the same at the weekend and will likely add a message later. Instantly queried it on paypal, lodged a claim against the large transaction and they've refunded the £2.65 but have said a bigger one for £499 is fine. Will need to appeal it and go through complaints procedure, but hoping it can be resolved quickly - from looking at some other forums it may take a while to try and resolve these things with paypal.

Quite frustrating but not sure how the £2.65 transaction suddenly because £499 (or £7500 in your case). Shop name was identical though to yours.

Hopefully we can rosolve this together and both get to a good outcome, but paypal must have pretty rubbish controls as never have any transactions anywhere near this through the relevant paypal account).

noitsnotme

born_again said:

Clarina1 said:

I recently tried to order a download crochet pattern from a site on FB called Ma Boutique, I payed by Paypal the £2.65 using two step verification as recommded by PP. The link was never received and checking my emails later I discovered not only did I have an invoice for £2.65 but three further invoices totalling almost £7500!!

 I then checked on my PP account and it showed all 4 invoices for this total.with the name AC Invest alongside. Checking details on the supposed invoices and the PP transactions none of the names, email addresses or phone numbers exist

I straight away raised a dispute with PP, trying to get through to a real person was almost impossible but I persevered. Eventually spoke to fraud dept who assured me that they have my back and it should be ok!

So totally shocked to see 30mins later that the dispute was closed and these three payments have authorised!!! You are not able to contest this result for at least 10 days after dispute is closed!

I immediately got hold of my bank to ensure that any request for payment was blocked, removed my bank details and debit card details from PP and reduced any money in my bank current account to £100. 

My bank account already showed a declined payment for PP now for £8500!!

I cant believe this has happened as PP has always promoted the two step verification so I can only assume that the scammers somehow did this in the few seconds it took me to confirm the £2.65 payment.

 Having looked again at FB there is a long thread of people all been scammed by using the same company to buy patterns

Ive reported to Action Fraud UK

If anyone else has had this happen to them i would like to hear

Fake paypal site, would be a good guess.

There have been a couple of similar posts on here recently and I'm not sure they are fake sites.  It appears to be the scammer setting up a Paypal recurring payment and then using it to request larger sums after the first small sum has been authorised.

I always thought it was made clear by Paypal if a recurring payment was being set up (I knowingly did one just this week and it was obvious) but I guess if someone is not familiar with it or not paying attention, they might miss the relevant onscreen description and agree to it anyway.

@Clarina1 and @edinburgh1979 - check your automatic/recurring payments in your Paypal accounts and see if there is one set for the business in question.

Clarina1

@noitsnotme I didn't have any recurring payment with this company never used them before! However PayPal used a direct debit to get funds from my account, I gather this was the normal way, but as I very rarely used PP I had never worried. As soon as this happened I removed bank and card details from PP and stopped the DD with bank. There was already a declined payment on my bank account for £8500! And today PP have tried again for the money but refunded automatically, couldn't understand why so rang bank and DD cancellation is 3 days, but fraud department had highlighted the situation and assured me not to worry! 

born_again

Clarina1 said:

@noitsnotme I didn't have any recurring payment with this company never used them before! However PayPal used a direct debit to get funds from my account, I gather this was the normal way, but as I very rarely used PP I had never worried. As soon as this happened I removed bank and card details from PP and stopped the DD with bank. There was already a declined payment on my bank account for £8500! And today PP have tried again for the money but refunded automatically, couldn't understand why so rang bank and DD cancellation is 3 days, but fraud department had highlighted the situation and assured me not to worry! 

Check your paypal account under automatic payments. As retailers set these up.


https://www.paypal.com/bb/cshelp/article/what-is-an-automatic-payment-and-how-do-i-update-or-cancel-one-help240

noitsnotme

Clarina1 said:

@noitsnotme I didn't have any recurring payment with this company never used them before! However PayPal used a direct debit to get funds from my account, I gather this was the normal way, but as I very rarely used PP I had never worried. As soon as this happened I removed bank and card details from PP and stopped the DD with bank. There was already a declined payment on my bank account for £8500! And today PP have tried again for the money but refunded automatically, couldn't understand why so rang bank and DD cancellation is 3 days, but fraud department had highlighted the situation and assured me not to worry! 

It was possibly set up as an automatic payment (sometimes referred to as a recurring payment) when you paid the initial £2.65.  I’m not aware of any other way a business can take further payments, unless it was a fake site, that stole your PayPal login, as @born_again suggested.

Check your automatic payments as we have suggested.

QrizB

noitsnotme said:

born_again said:

Clarina1 said:

I recently tried to order a download crochet pattern from a site on FB called Ma Boutique, I payed by Paypal the £2.65 using two step verification as recommded by PP. The link was never received and checking my emails later I discovered not only did I have an invoice for £2.65 but three further invoices totalling almost £7500!!

 I then checked on my PP account and it showed all 4 invoices for this total.with the name AC Invest alongside. Checking details on the supposed invoices and the PP transactions none of the names, email addresses or phone numbers exist

I straight away raised a dispute with PP, trying to get through to a real person was almost impossible but I persevered. Eventually spoke to fraud dept who assured me that they have my back and it should be ok!

So totally shocked to see 30mins later that the dispute was closed and these three payments have authorised!!! You are not able to contest this result for at least 10 days after dispute is closed!

I immediately got hold of my bank to ensure that any request for payment was blocked, removed my bank details and debit card details from PP and reduced any money in my bank current account to £100. 

My bank account already showed a declined payment for PP now for £8500!!

I cant believe this has happened as PP has always promoted the two step verification so I can only assume that the scammers somehow did this in the few seconds it took me to confirm the £2.65 payment.

 Having looked again at FB there is a long thread of people all been scammed by using the same company to buy patterns

Ive reported to Action Fraud UK

If anyone else has had this happen to them i would like to hear

Fake paypal site, would be a good guess.

There have been a couple of similar posts on here recently ...

See for example:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6627463/paypal-danger-please-read/p1

(That thread is now closed, for resons that will become self-evident if you read it.)

noitsnotme

QrizB said:

noitsnotme said:

born_again said:

Clarina1 said:

I recently tried to order a download crochet pattern from a site on FB called Ma Boutique, I payed by Paypal the £2.65 using two step verification as recommded by PP. The link was never received and checking my emails later I discovered not only did I have an invoice for £2.65 but three further invoices totalling almost £7500!!

 I then checked on my PP account and it showed all 4 invoices for this total.with the name AC Invest alongside. Checking details on the supposed invoices and the PP transactions none of the names, email addresses or phone numbers exist

I straight away raised a dispute with PP, trying to get through to a real person was almost impossible but I persevered. Eventually spoke to fraud dept who assured me that they have my back and it should be ok!

So totally shocked to see 30mins later that the dispute was closed and these three payments have authorised!!! You are not able to contest this result for at least 10 days after dispute is closed!

I immediately got hold of my bank to ensure that any request for payment was blocked, removed my bank details and debit card details from PP and reduced any money in my bank current account to £100. 

My bank account already showed a declined payment for PP now for £8500!!

I cant believe this has happened as PP has always promoted the two step verification so I can only assume that the scammers somehow did this in the few seconds it took me to confirm the £2.65 payment.

 Having looked again at FB there is a long thread of people all been scammed by using the same company to buy patterns

Ive reported to Action Fraud UK

If anyone else has had this happen to them i would like to hear

Fake paypal site, would be a good guess.

There have been a couple of similar posts on here recently ...

See for example:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6627463/paypal-danger-please-read/p1

(That thread is now closed, for resons that will become self-evident if you read it.)

Yes, that’s one I was thinking of.

Catsmomma

Hi I too have been scammed with Ma Boutique through Paypal, on the 1st of September I ordered a crochet pattern for £2:65 and got confirmation email then another 20 mins later for £499.00. I tried to stop the larger payment but couldn't, an hour later two attempts to take £2499.00 which was declined by the bank. I contacted my bank and PayPal the following morning, I explained what had happened and PayPal investigated to be sent an email saying I had authorized the payments, I have got nowhere with PayPal and I ended up closing it down. Has anyone managed to get their money back off them as I can't seem to get anywhere, any help would be helpful.