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!

@Motcouk

Reading what's in front of you and acting on the actual information rather than what you imagine because you skimmed it is not hindsight.

My tip is that your bank or PayPal's fraud department don't need any of your personal details to pause a suspicious transaction. They don't need to move your money out of your account, or get your info NOW before the money is stolen.

When I've been called by my banks genuine fraud department about transactions they have flagged (which were actually me), they had already blocked the transaction. There was no urgency or rush on their part. I said I'd phone them back, and called the bank on their usual number to ask for the fraud department. I had to prove my identity to release the payment. If I hadn't called them and done this, the payment would not have gone through.

Anyone saying you need to prove your identity to block or prevent a fraudulent payment is a scammer.

I don’t know why some people are being so rude and sarcastic. Even if you think the op was naive, there are plenty more naive people out there and some of them might read this thread and be warned.

Apart from one typo there was nothing suspicious about the Paypal email - nothing. It was by no means obvious that the fraud department phone number was phoney because the email was genuine. The fact that it was superimposed into a genuine email was easy stop spot once the fact was pointed out but the email itself and all the links contained therein passed every test of being genuine - they were genuine. just that damned phone number. Even the response to a call to it didn't throw up any alarm bells until, in my case, I asked a few awkward questions and the answers did not pass the smell test. Then once it was clear that I was not going to 'approve' thee payment the 'supervisor' began to lose their temper. That was the clincher but they knew several facts such as card number (in part at least) and other things that now have gone into the dustbin of the memory. It is a simple scam for sure, but the psychology is clever because even digitally streetwise 'net users would be suckered. It is easy to poke fun at potential marks, but when one is flustered and perhaps scared, the guard is weak. Armchair experts are expert indeed!

I don't care if it's clever or not. It's the fact people feel the need to come here and say if it is clever or not because I used the word in the title. Strange thing to focus on imo.
It's a believable scam. I'm warning others. Job done.

Omg. Even after having to explained, you still dont understand.

It isnt super imposed onto a real email.

It is a real email full stop.

When someone sends a money request through paypal, they can write a little message so your friend can request money from you and write, "This is what you owe for your half of dinner" or whatever.

PayPal then email you saying, "You have a money request from Jane Smith. Here is a message from Jane Smith." And then their message to you appears in a bubble with quotation marks.

The email is genuine. PayPal are telling you that someone has asked you for money and are showing you the message they have written. There is nothing fake.

The scam is that some random is sending a request for £750 and then in the message, they write that a fraudulent transaction has been debited from your account and give you a number to call.

This message is not from PayPal. It is written by the scammer but it is included in a real email from PayPal because they pass on the message from the money request.

It will say "You have a money request from Scammer. Here is the message from Scammer." Then you read the message telling you to call the fraud number.

It isnt superimposed. The email isnt fake. But the message is written by the person requesting the money. PayPal tell you that the message is from the person requesting the money. That message has nothing to do with paypal. If you can read that email and genuinely think that paupal have written that message then you're not reading properly.

Heh your post is word for word really.
You used the same word as me! "Clever" ;) naughty naughty you!

Really, people, think a bit before you call people 'stupid' for falling for a scam.

Leaving aside all the psychological tricks these scammers use, which mean people aren't stupid, just human, calling people 'stupid' creates a culture of shame where people are too embarrassed to admit they have been victims - too embarrassed sometimes to report the scam or try to get their money back and too embarrassed to tell their friends or fellow internet users - which is exactly what the scammers rely on.

Omg I think it's pretty clear the poster meant the Note not the email which you were being nit picky about but actually it's only the word "it's" that didn't have the apostrophe that was wrong.

She does understand.
And I think we both understand you are just nasty.

We know the email is legit. If I had seen the full email i'd have realised it was a scam but I didn't. I read a couple of lines and immediately went to PayPal and saw the note on there which I have no experience of
This is your issue.

We all get scam emails, and we know them for what they are. But obviously sometimes they catch some people out when their minds aren't working at 100% on financial literacy.

Thats the whole point of a scam but you're focusing on whether it's clever or not. Get a grip.

I'm beginning to understand why the scammers have hooked onto this type of fraud now after this thread, seeing as no one can tell the difference between an email from PayPal about fraud and an email from PayPal that says "you have a message from this person and they have written.."

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy

Um, no. She thinks that a scam message was superimposed onto a real email and then sent out.

That is not at all right.

Could be right @Hungrycaterpillarsmummy ... Could be a coincidence. Like the 'I'm calling about your recent car accident' scam calls people used to get - still do probably. They got loads who had not been involved in a car accident, but they did get some people sometimes who had had a car accident/been involved in one, and did con some people. As you say they chance their hand!

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy

paypal being hit with many attacks at the moment

they are not fit to handle

they need to get on top of it in the next 72 hours

That is incredibly sneaky

Had similar message yesterday. I went straight into panic mode but then calmed down enough to read it properly. I can see how some people would fall for it, especially if they are tired/frazzled/dealing with other shit.

I do love that typo though. Freudian slip? 😆

To those who have advised: yes I will get a new card.

Very irritating as it was was pretty recently renewed.

😂😂 whoops! Now that would be good!

Because I didn't read all the email. 🤷

Yes that's right and I usually always do! But in this case it didn't occur to me because the number was in a transaction whilst I was in PayPal.
It's so simple 🤦 especially in hindsight.

In fact I have watched loads of rip off Britain episodes whilst on maternity leave and just thought "how can anyone fall for this shit" which is kind of what a select few posters on this thread have done. Because they think it's blatantly obvious. Except I wasn't quite with it today and basically dropped the ball.

And thanks to those for being kind and understanding we are not robots!

I'm sorry to all those who have been targeted and suckered in. It's really put me in a rubbish mood all day for how far it got.

I got an almost identical message this morning and it made me look twice - the email from PayPal is what causes you to question it combined with if you don't use money transfers

Yep. Never used a PayPal money transfer in my puff!

Try not to dwell on it.

I know of acquaintances that have been scammed, a couple to the tune of £1000's in life savings. These are sensible folk who you wouldn't expect to have fallen for a scam but were vulnerable in the moment.