PayPal payment received in error

[Blueroses99]

I received a payment of 100 euros from a name I didn’t recognise with a message in German along the lines of “For you and <a name> from Grandma”. I then got a message in German saying it was sent to the wrong account and could I send it back.

I am not going to to hold on to money that isn’t mine but just wanted to make sure it isn’t a scam of some sort? I can’t see anything online but most help seems to be if you send to the wrong account rather than if you receive in error. Also if I use the ‘issue refund’ function, if I send the amount that I received back, it might not be 100 euros if there are exchange fees etc.

Should I contact PayPal, issue a refund or something else?

Sounds strange to me. I would contact Paypal.

Thanks for your reply. It could be completely genuine but doesn’t quite feel right.

Definitely a scam.

They get you to send the money outside of paypal, then request the £100 back via a paypal dispute.

Also, if you go via PayPal, don't do it via anything the other person has sent.

Close everythiglng, open a new browser window, go to paypal.com, log into your account and do everything via the support centre. Possibly even through the susoected fraud option.

It may be genuine but it's also a common scam.

I would tell them to raise it with PayPal and get a refund through PayPal to the card/account they paid with.

It’s a scam. They have a stolen card attached to their PayPal, and they send you the payment. You then send it back to their account, and they withdraw to personal bank account. In a few weeks/months time, the stolen card bank tells PayPal, they remove the £100 from your balance to repay from the stolen account (despite you refunding or sending back) so you’re £100 down.

Let the sender contact PayPal. Don’t speak to them directly, and don’t remove the £100 from your PayPal account.

Ohhhh… thanks for explaining how a scam might work. I’m afraid I did reply saying I’ll ask PayPal how to send the money back and they responded with refund instructions. I’ll raise with PayPal and not engage further.

@Blueroses99 please can I ask how you resolved this? The same thing has happened to me (large amount of money into my Paypal and person saying they used the wrong email address and can I refund them). PayPal have said just to refund it but I'm really nervous to do that in case it's a stolen card payment and I end up being made to repay that as well.

I don't want this person's money. I just want it all to go away. I'm getting emails from them too.

If anyone else has any ideas that would be great. I haven't replied to anything so far. Thanks

Just to add - the way the emails are written suggests a scam to me (odd wording and getting angry despite it being their 'mistake').