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 warning, wish PayPal was more proactive about warning us and blocking the fraudsters

@WeepingSomnambulist
I was replying to the question "why would OP think the note was from paypal" and drawing the same distinction as you - the email is from paypal, the note it is informing you about is not.

How else can they word it?

They actually say "You have a money reauest from joebloggs. Here is the message from JoeBloggs."

If someone writes something criminal/offensive/scammers in that message, it has already been made very clear that it is not a message from PayPal but a message from the person sending the money requested.

It isnt even small print. It is write there and big letters and then the message is put into a little bubble with quotation marks.

When you log onto your account and see the money request, you can see a note from the sender. Again, clearly labelled as being written by the sender and not PayPal.

Thanks for posting OP, it’s so useful to be kept aware of the latest scams. Glad you realised in time! Scary.

Sorry that some people on this thread have been so rude to you - guess insulting strangers on the internet brightens their day for whatever reason. 🤷‍♀️

Gosh, check you out. Aren't you such a clever clogs?! Knowing all the tricks and never falling for anything??????? ....Yawn... 🙄

Well yes @WeepingSomnambulist I did just delete it - I can see why some would fall for it though. You are told to look out for dodgy email addresses; this comes from PayPal themselves, if you google the email address it appears 'safe'. They use your full name (because it is actually PayPal) but that's another scam identifier you're told to look for ticked off.

Most people don't get PayPal requests do they? You normally use PayPal to send money, not request it - so I guess most wouldn't be familiar with them and just panic thinking PayPal is demanding the money.

But this email is legitimately from PayPal though. This scam is a money request through PayPal. The money request is real and the email from PayPal is real

Thanks for the info OP!

It’s so easy to think “I’d never fall for that” but they could catch anyone. Well done for stopping it!

But this email is legitimately from PayPal though. This scam is a money request through PayPal. The money request is real and the email from PayPal is real

Yep, I logged into my PayPal and it was under my 'recent activity'.

I don't know as I'm not a fintech security expert - but they (Paypal) have set up a system - separately from the usual banking system, which allows users to send payments to one another.

There are other ways of doing that - usually through your bank. If PayPal want people to use their system and not a high street bank, then they need to make sure that people trust it. So it is their issue to sort out, certainly not the customer's.

You know, both my parents have bought stuff from Currys and they are inundated by scammy callsi do wonder if Currys sell data or have terrible security!

But also I think they just rely on coincidence. It was a coincidence yours was needing renewed. Etc

Honestly I know how you feel. I can't believe I got as far along the scam as I did.

Yes exactly, the email IS legit.

Well done for staying so cool and not buckling!

I was scammed where the scammers pretended to be the fraud department of my major high street bank, and everything they said was similar to what the real fraud department said, except they rang me, and half way through, I realised this. During the time I was on the phone, they removed several thousand from my bank account, so effectively I was diverted from calling the real fraud prevention team til after this had been done. Very clever. I did get the money back from my bank but it was very upsetting to have talked with real people who are lying to you to get your money from you, especially as they came over very sympathetic.

OMG I had similar with Amazon. Someone called me on Monday and said that someone had got into my account and that they needed to put on added security - they gave a name and asked it I knew that person and had I authorised them to use my phone number to set up an account ? Got a code from Amazon via email and they asked me to read it out. I wouldn't because I told them that it might be a scam and I would do my own security. They got angry and said the email is from Amazon so how could it be ? I've just looked back at the email and it says password assistance on it !

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy Your post could have been written by me - EXACTLY the same thing happened to me a few days ago and my response was also totally the same as yours - I was so shell-shocked for the rest of the day as I couldn't believe how close that had been..crazy thing is I'm usually very savvy and embarrassingly work in IT 😳 I know people say how could you not have realised at the time that it's a blatant scam but I just didn't notice the 'NOTE' and genuinely thought I was calling PayPal as I was looking at my PayPal account, although it was a close shave, I know we'll both be so much more alert in the future so definitely looking at it in a positive light - every day's a school day !!! 💪

PayPal could attempt to minimise these phishing attempts by marking all money requests with a message about potential fraud, and making it clear to the user that a money request is not a debit nor should it ever have a message that contains instructions to call numbers or click on links. They could also stop the message written by the requester being shown until the user has read and clicked that they have understood the warning. It could be similar to how many banking apps warn you when you set up a direct payment for the first time.

All they need is a dodgy mate with a card reader or cash on it over the phone to a scammer in another country
I would definitely cancel the card!!

I got that email this morning and it had me worried for a moment, but my PayPal account has never been used, it was never fully activated after I set it up

Like in the old days when you got your card scammed in New Look, and the person would go and buy phone credit from their mate in the phone shop who wouldn't need a 3digit pin

well done OP for informing people. I work a lot with fraud cases and the best deterrent is making people aware of the circumstances.

Thank you for sharing OP. The more light shone on these scams the less likely it is they'll work when someone is stressed/exhausted...which is frankly when most people of intelligence are going to have their guard down.

You sharing might be that little tinkly bell for someone up to their eyes in stress who gets an email like this and can't see the woods for the trees and instead of responding in panic to the idea of losing money they'll stop for 5 seconds and examine things a little bit closer.

Hopefully PayPal will tighten their protocols ASAP if the scammers have exploited a weakness.

I got an email at 3am this morning saying

Please create a new password - unusual activity, we've disabled your password etc....

So I have changed my password. It all looks ok, but slightly worried now reading this. No phone call or anything though.

Yes it does and it did on mine too except I didn't read that email I told later.

What I did was read the email from a notification on my phones main screen or if I did open the email I didn't scroll down enough to see that but otherwise it is very very obvious that is a scam.
It looked more like a note from PayPal ON PAYPAL in the transaction that's all.

Thanks for spreading the word.

Golden rule is always google a phone number before ringing it. And only use numbers from an official company website.