PAYPAL SCAM via FB purchase of a crochet pattern

edinburgh1979

Quick update on this - from the original noting of the transaction being unauthorised my wife phoned paypal to lodge an appeal as clearly the transaction was irregular, no goods or anything had been received and she’d never authorised the transaction. A couple of days later they did find in her favour. Not sure if you’ve called paypal but that may be the best route as the forms and chart on their website wasn’t that great.

The number she called to appeal was 02039 017 000 (you can also find that on the paypal website in the contact us section).

Their fraud detection systems must be awful - surely an automatic payment for a very small amount quickly followed by a huge amount must ring alarm bells on their system. Also from wider google/facebook searches it looks like quite a large number of people have been hit by this same Ma Boutique scam/fraud.

PHK

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 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.

As I understand it, when you click to pay by PayPal the rogue site takes you to a fake PayPal site. You enter your details which the fake site uses to access the real PayPal site. You then get a code from actual PayPal which you type into the fake site. The fake site now has access to your account. 

They tend to advertise things that are going to attract the less tech savvy who won't notice they aren't on the real site and won't report the situation straight away in the app, but wait to phone PayPal. 

I don't know how this would play out,  being an EMI rather than a bank - the account holder would need to prove  to the FOS that PayPal had done something wrong or should have questioned the payment as they were out of character for their normal pattern of spending.

Butternut8

I have also fallen for the Crochet Pattern scam on August 28th this year. Paid with PayPal. First 2 payments via credit card which I saw and deleted card from PayPal. These payments have been refunded via the credit card. But big mistake as then left bank account as default payment and £6500 taken before I realised. Bank not interested and said must speak to PayPal. Am now fighting to get this money back from PayPal. Firstly I reported online to PayPal that there had been fraud. Response a few days later that transactions had been authorised. I then rang PayPal which was a task in itself. Finally spoke to someone who reopened the claim, reassuring me that I would be covered. Response a day or so later from PayPal repeated the first response. I then called PayPal again 0800 358 7911. After several tries I said I was calling about a “dispute”. Apparently that is the magic word to get to speak to a human. I explained again what had happened and said I have not received anything from the company. My claim with PayPal has now been changed to items not received. Case pending as they are awaiting a response from the seller. Can’t see that happening but you never know.  If they don’t hear by October 1st they say I will be refunded in full. Time will tell. So if you are having problems with PayPal having reported as fraud then try again and report as items not received. I await October 1st with baited breath! 

Butternut8

Relieved to be refunded in full today. 

Blueyes51

PayPal has been an absolute nightmare, and at the moment are saying that the transactions were authorised. The customer service is absolute rubbish and it takes hours of patience getting through to explain the same thing over and over, and each transaction has to be reported individually, I have 10 of various amounts. m recovering from a stroke so all this stress is not helping. I have written to the CEO of PayPal also and the response is not good, they simply don't care and continue to advertise the safety aspects of using their platform. I'm not trying to solve with my bank, I had two credit cards attached to my bank. I also reported to the police fraud crime agency. I hope this all gets sorted for all of us

Blueyes51

I am trying to solve with bank, my post says not but it's a typo

born_again

Blueyes51 said:

I am trying to solve with bank, my post says not but it's a typo

How is your PayPal account linked to your bank?
If it is via account No, so payments are via DD there is nothing they can do.

Butternut8

To Blueyes51
please see my post above. I also had the same issue with PayPal. I got through by ringing  0800 358 7911 and used “dispute” as key word which got me to speak to someone. Change your dispute to “items not received” rather than fraud. Payment came back from PayPal into bank within days.