Very good PayPal scam. Please read so you don't get caught out. I almost gave away £750...

[Hungrycaterpillarsmummy]

Was almost scammed to the tune of £750. This is a good one and I was sooooo close to falling for it. Was on the phone to the scammers! Woke up to an email from PayPal saying there's been what looked like fraudulent activity on my account. I checked the email address by clicking on it and it did look legit. I then decided I'd go to PayPal from Google rather than clicking any links in the email. Logged in and saw a pending transaction for £750. Not one I recognised and definitely wasn't me. So I clicked on the transaction and there is a note saying "this is fraudulent activity" and call this number. So I call the number, go through security, get sent a security code, I am then transferred to someone senior, they tell me my bank card number, confirm all my name and address etc. Then they ask for the 3 digits on the back of my card. I pause, with alarm bells ringing. This is the absolute crème de la crème of information you can give someone because once they have that they can make purchases. I said no, this sounds like a scam. Then all of a sudden the guy is like "well you called us with the number from PayPal. You've called us because you got an email saying fraudulent activity detected and you can see on your account there has been". Whilst I was on the phone I decided to check my PayPal account and I had been logged out and couldn't get back in. He told me that was an added security measure. Anyway, I said no it's a scam and he ended with "ok then you will lose all your money". I said ok and hung up. Changed my password immediately, found the £750 transaction and this is where I had gone wrong. The phone number to call "PayPal" was on a NOTE on the transaction but this note is from the scammers! So they put their number in there and then act as PayPal. Honestly I was sooo close to saying those three digits but that's the only thing that hasn't allowed this scam to be successful. All I had to do was click "cancel" against the money request!

The payment request is from a random email address but that does happen. People can send invoices and request money for many reasons. But the note I thought was PayPal and as I said, I was tired after a bad night with a baby!

Yes I called PayPal and they told me they are already investigating it.
They need to be partnering with email providers and phone number providers imo to shit down the phone numbers and scammer emails asap

This is definitely a thing for some banks.

This is not a sophisticated scam.

There was no deity on your account. You had a money request; someone requested money from you same as if you're splitting a bill with a friend or something. It wasnt a debit. Your account would show what it was.

The only place that said "your account has been debited" was in the money request note. That is written by the person sending the request, like "this is what you owe me for your half of dinner." It isntt a notivation from PayPal. It's a money request with a note.

The email from PayPal would have said, "You have a money request."

It really isnt sophisticated and Is an obvious ploy. There are some good scams around which are easy to fall for. This isnt it.

When you reset your password and PayPal send you a verification code, it says "this is for resetting your password" so didnt you wonder why they were resetting your password? You just gave them the code?

Sorry. I know some scams can be really sneaky but this wasnt. It relied entirely on well... stupidity. It was an obvious scam from the start.

Sorry OP but I have to agree. I don't think this is a clever scam at all, I think it just relies on people being vulnerable/tired/panicking and not checking what they're doing properly.

It looks really scammy from the offset, the wording is crap and it wasn't even taking money from your account, it was just "requesting" money. You could have just clicked no..

Hopefully this thread will help other tired mums though I guess!

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy I had this twice last week! The first time I called in a panic and then hung up when they asked for the text code they had sent and the second I just blocked. Scary times!

Well thanks for the patronising post.
I just checked the txts and the first one had the code and says password reset but I didn't open the txt I just read it from the notification quickly and only looked at the number.
The next two they did just say this is a security code.

The fact is it does make it seem legit because you can see a transaction of sorts on your account.

Instead of trying to put others down for raising awareness, just move on if it's too menial for you.

Something very very similar happened to me last year, down to what he said to you "you rang me etc and putting me through to a different department. With my bank account though. As soon as he asked for my online log in I knew it was a scam. He got annoyed and hung up.

*This is not a sophisticated scam.

There was no deity on your account.*

Now that would be a sophisticated scam.

Cool. I used the wrong word about it being clever then.

You panic and can't think straight. I can def see how ppl get scammed

Well with me they asked me to confirm my email address. Then asked a security question which I thought was to verify it was me the account holder they were talking to rather than trying to block me from my own account!

I've never heard of it so thanks for letting us know.

Sorry to hear that op. You should watch out over the next couple of weeks/months and be wary if scam emails, phone calls etc. They tend to try and retarget people that went along with part of it or all of it.

OP, glad you saw through it. Scams based on telling people they have been defrauded work really well because we all have a tendency to panic in that situation. An elderly friend of mine ended up not only giving her details away on the phone but handing her bank cards to a "plain clothes policeman" who came to her door- it was awful and really shook her confidence in herself and in the world.

On another note then, it just goes to show them how simple a scam has to be for people to believe/almost believe it..
;)

For anyone reading and not a dig at you op, this is blatantly a scam, why would PayPal use a random outlook address, the language, tone, capitalisation is instantly off.

Oh gosh that's so sad. I can totally understand the knock in confidence. What a shame.

I believe if this scam got to my granny she'd have done exactly the same as me as well as giving away the three digits on the card.
You definitely do panic.

Op, I'm going to report your image cos it has your email address visible in it.

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy @WeepingSomnambulist

Unnecessarily nasty posts there. Scams work precisely because people are vulnerable to panicking and making errors.

Like, I saw it was an outlook email address but I didn't think the note was from the person/company I thought the note was a PayPal note telling me the outlook email was a scammer...

The ‘if this wasn’t you’ can be legitimate though, I get it for Facebook and my bank.

It's probably not a good idea to post images with your actual name and email address on.

I think it is quite clever, because it happens when you see something in your PayPal account, it gives it a kind of cover of authenticity.

Anyway, whether it’s clever or not is fairly irrelevant - scammers are everywhere and they’re innovating and we all have to keep on top of them! Thanks for spreading awareness.

Panicked again, I guess...