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!

Thanks for the heads up and the warning @Hungrycaterpillarsmummy !!!

I am very canny, I trust very few people, AND I've never, EVER been conned or scammed by anyone, and I've always said I never would be. But a couple of times over this last few months. I've nearly fallen for it. Even though I have never fallen for it, I can see how some people do!!!

Someone some months ago purporting to be from 'domestic and general' phoned me, about the guarantee on my new washing machine I bought last Autumn. 'Hello - I'm calling from domestic and general about your washing machine guarantee to see if you want to extend it. It's £25 for an extra two years. Just for today this offer is on. It's normally £75!!! Can you confirm your name and address and your date of birth please?'

I said 'wow okay that sounds amazing, what a bargain! SO, my name is ......' Then I stood there with my mouth open for about five or six seconds. CUT off the call. I thought 'this could be anybody. I don't wanna give my details.'

They called again a few days later. I said 'I'm sorry, but I'm not happy to give my name and address and date of birth to some random caller on the phone, via an unsolicited call.' She said 'oh this is genuinely domestic and general. I just have to confirm your identity before I can carry on the conversation...' I said, 'well, you've done nothing so far to confirm this is definitely domestic and general - so I am cutting off the call again and blocking this number.' I cut her off and blocked the number.

I looked on 'whocalledme.com' a few minutes later, and sure enough the number had about 50 negative remarks saying 'yes, it's a scam.' They'll try and get you to pay £25 for an extra two years guarantee and will take your bank details. Then toodle pipski to all your fecking moneyz!'

Don't trust anybody that just randomly calls you or send you emails UNSOLICITED... Call the proper company with their proper number (from their website) and see if it was them calling!

Also, I have no idea how this scammy person knew I was coming up to the end of my guarantee on my washing machine! Must hack Curry's files and find out who is due!

Oh the other time I nearly got 'caught' was by a bloody text saying 'your Royal Mail courier has attempted to deliver your package and has failed. A charge of £2.77 has to be paid for re-delivery. Please follow this link to pay for re-delivery...'

I WAS expecting a package from Royal Mail, so thought it was real, and clicked on the link ... My phone refused to take me to the page I was trying to reach. Anyway, yep. SCAM. Again, when/if you give bank details, they will wipe out all your funds in your account. Gotta be sooooo careful.

I felt so stupid after, but when they catch you off your guard, it's sooooo easy to fall for it. You THINK 'nah not me hahahaha I'm not THAT daft!' But as I say, when you're not expecting it..... 'Well.......... Be very careful!!!

If I’m ever in doubt I block the email and see what email of theirs shows up - you can tell if it’s a suspect looking email address. If it’s legit I can then unblock it.

Nah I was definitely on my PayPal. I see the history of codes being sent to me whenever I have logged in but didn't get one today.
Maybe they did have my password and switched it off? But if they had my password they could have just approved the money request so that doesn't make sense either.

Something has changed because I definitely did have the two factor authentication on.

I always noticed these things happen more often around christmas time. Greedy bastards.

The email from this particular scam is actually from PayPal though - and includes your full name.

I follow this youtuber, he does lots of videos about scams, and he made this one showing how he also fell for one, even though he's the last person you would think would. So don't feel bad. Like you say, catch anyone on an off day and it can happen.

I haven't heard of this before thanks for the warning.

You're not sharing them with all and everyone when you use reputable passport managers. They have one way saltd hashing, encryption etc

Op I almost did the same thing!

Don't let anyone make you feel bad about it, I'm usually do careful and untrusting that im still kicking myself for ringing them, I hung up when they asked for the pin that PayPal text you,I then realised it couldn't be PayPal as they never would ask you to the reas the pin
In hindsight its really obvious but at the time going through emails and being rushed off my feet I just rang the number.

That’s what I’ve done. Yes it’s a pain but at least it means they verify it’s you first.

But if you block it you should get a message coming up with something like blocked email then some address which looks very suspect, eg you blocked email [email protected] and you’ll know immediately it’s not legit.

Password manager software usually has much stronger security than any old random site

So they say, at least until it all goes wrong and they insist the next software really is foolproof and that one they previously said the same about was actually rubbish

Hell will freeze over before anyone gets to know my passwords, and the same goes for storing sensitive information on things like the Cloud. In theory huge companies can afford the best security, but then huge companies are also the most worthwhile to breach, and as we've seen it happens all the time

Glad you dodged this one OP. FIL wasn't so lucky and got caught out by the same scam last week to the time of £2000. He's been very lucky as his bank are returning the money I think but I know that's often not the case.

I'm not having a go, really! Just sharing that advice to everyone as it's fresh in my mind from watching Rip Off Britain and telling my parents to be aware. I can totally imagine myself falling for a scam like that if I hadn't seen it publicised.

But in the email @lemmein has posted it literally says "tameka Gibbs has sent a money request" and then says the note is from tameka Gibbs...so why would you think the note was from PayPal? When it literally says right there it's from the person requesting the money!

Good for you for staying alert. My husband does lots of business transactions through paypal. I bet he would sense it's scam (years of dealing with scammers), but I will tell him to be careful.

I think I'm quite savvy with these things (it comes from generally not liking people so the distrust is there from the off ) but when I got that email this morning it confused me for a second tbh. I clicked on the email address expecting it to say '[email protected] - but when I seen it was from a genuine PayPal address and used my full name I did wonder what the hell was going on.

Luckily I'm skint so even if I did owe them £750 I wouldn't have replied! 😅

I did get caught by one at work (where on opening the email attachment and "logging in" it sends the same email that caught you out to everyone you have ever emailed).

Because the person who sent it often sends abrupt emails with an attachment in the style of the phishing one, and at the time Microsoft/One Drive was repeatedly asking me to log in before I could do something, so I didn't think anything of opening a document and being asked to login before I could see it.

Thanks for posting this polite reminder to be careful OP, and for wading through all the clever clogs who responded saying it was obvious and they wouldn’t have been caught out.

Of course none of us would have fallen for it………….until we had.

Omg, im so glad you twigged it OP! Apparently these types of scams have become much more common (and they were common before!) since covid times. And they prey on people less savvy than you, which is such a shame and so horrible. Make sure you keep a lookout and stay vigilant, and its a good idea to warn as many people as you can as well. My co-worker's friend lost her whole life savings of £20k to a scam - i think she managed to get it back in the end but it's devastating when it happens

The email from paypal was a legitimate, standard notification that the OP has received a payment request.

The text of the payment request (written by the scammer) was phrased to read as if from paypal, supposedly notifying her that the payment had actually been debited AND was fraudulent.

But that's nothing like an email from PayPal telling you about fraudulent activity.
That's an email from paypal informing you that someone has sent you a money request and shows you their message, in quotation marks.

It's so clear. You have a money resquest; here is the message from them.

The scammers arent "getting in to paypal (whatever that means)".
They are just any old person setting up a PayPal account of their own, and sending out money requests after buying up a bunch of email addresses. They put a note on the request with their number and for God knows what reason, people call them.

That's when they get into your paypal account. Because you give them your security details and password reset codes, they sign in and go to approve the money request from within your account and then ask for card details for the payments whilst pretending it's to check your identity.

It isnt sophisticated. It isnt PayPal's fault. They haven't let the thieves in. You do that when you call them and give them your password reset code.

It is very obviously not a message from PayPal. It is a message from the person requesting the money. Just say no.

But the message is clearly not from PayPal. It is from the person requesting the money. Doesnt matter what has been written. It is quite clearly not written by paypal. it literally says "you have a money request, here is their message."

Some scams are very sophisticated. This is not. This is very clear.

It isnt sophisticated. It isnt PayPal's fault. They haven't let the thieves in. You do that when you call them and give them your password reset code

It is Paypal's "fault" that they have set up a system which someone has found a loophole in to try to scam people/obtain their details. If they want people to use Paypal it is their responsibility to sort it out, and why it sounds like they are taing it very seriously.

Yes, I got one of these a few weeks ago. I just deleted the email as it looked like an obviously scam. Never thought to check my Paypal as it's an old paypal account that I no longer use that isn't actually liked to my bank account anymore - hence why it seemed like an obvious scam. Just logged in out of curiosity and the request for funds is there with message that reads: "SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION FOUND IN YOUR ACCOUNT, AMOUNT 797. 99 GBP HAS BEEN DEBITED FROM YOUR ACCOUNT FOR A PURCHASE OF IPHONE 14 PRO AND DELIVERED TO YOUR MAILING ADDRESS IN 3 TO 5 BUISNESS DAYS, FOR ANY DISPUTE OR CANCELLATION REACH US IMMEDIATELY @+44-808-109-8782"

I'm rubbish at remembering to pay my actual bills because too many plates spinning at once, but there must be lots of people being caught out by this if they aren't saavy enough.