Paypal payment mistake

[Frannyhy]

Some weeks back I received a mystery payment of almost six hundred pounds to my paypal account. I had no idea of what it was for, and didn’t know the sender.

I didn’t touch the money - I waited. The following day I received an apologetic email from the sender, saying that the money was for his sister who has the same name as me - he’d made a typo.

As the money was sent by friends and family he can’t reverse the transaction himself, and asked me if I’d do it.

I replied, that he needs to process the refund through paypal. I’m not sending the money back myself in case it’s a scam. However, Paypal won’t get involved.

He has written a couple of nasty emails to me. I’ve blocked him and taken legal advice and was advised that as long as I don’t withdraw the money I’m fine.

I do remember seeing someone who had made this mistake and was wondering if he or she is still here? I’m wondering what happened about it, and if a solution was found. I want the money to go back if the guy is on the level, but won’t risk sending it back myself.

@BradPittsLeftTit

You're totally right to do it this way OP

My friend got scammed this exact way! Someone accidently put money in her paypal account and she was messaged with an apology asking for it to be returned.

She returned it but the money hadn't fully cleared and the person then reversed the payment too. So he reversed the original payment and she transferred it back meaning she was in debt to paypal for £200

She was really lucky that as she contacted them so quickly afterwards they managed to resolve it but she was told it's a well known scam and to always contact them and they will freeze the money and unpick it themselves

This!

YOu can end up losing quite a bit of money in these scams!

Glad PayPal is on it and have frozen the money.

Ignore most of these posters OP.

You are right it has huge potential to be a scam & should try get paypal to refund him.

I would do the same as you.

Just send it back... it's his money and you're keeping it??

How's he going to scam you? You have records that he sent it and that he then said it was a mistake so you can prove it's nothing else.

@SoupDragon

So, after several weeks it's sorted in 9 minutes

Right? Poor guy. No wonder he sent shitty emails. He probably thought OP had nicked his money.

Oh I should've FTfT lol at least it's sorted

I am shocked at some of the responses giving op a hard time.
Op has contacted PayPal and they have said do not send the money back, they will sort it. Glad op ignored some of the do-gooders on here and did the safest thing.

People need to stop telling OP to send it back when it's a setup used by scammers.
OP is 100% in the right by getting PP to return the money according to their process.

A scammer will not send money by friends and famiy as they have zero chance of getting it back via Paypal, if they do a chargeback via the bank they will still owe Paypal the money.

So I must be stupid as I can't see how this is a scam.

You’ve done the right thing. Better to be safe than sorry.
He made the mistake and he is going to get it back, just not as quickly as he’d have liked.

@SuperstoreFan

A scammer will not send money by friends and famiy as they have zero chance of getting it back via Paypal, if they do a chargeback via the bank they will still owe Paypal the money.

So I must be stupid as I can't see how this is a scam.

Me too, as if they just used a random persons email address and that person didn’t bother responding to an email chasing for it, then the scammer has lost the money at the first hurdle (like what seems to have happened here anyway)

Just click the "Refund This Payment" button on the transaction.

The poor man made a simple mistake and you're just punishing him.

@Maskless

Just click the "Refund This Payment" button on the transaction.

The poor man made a simple mistake and you're just punishing him.

It is not a transaction, there is no refund button.

@ElephantOfRisk

It can be a scam or related to money laundering so best to let Paypal sort it which is what OP is doing.

How would he be able to paypal it to you by accident anyway?

World's slowest money launderers, £600 at a time , the authorities will never spot the 1000s of refunds from paypal coming into the account

Of course you can send money to the wrong person, if you make a typo in the email address and there's a person with that address on paypal it doesn't know you've made a mistake. It's like a phoning a wrong number if it's a valid number you'll get a different person to the one you meant to call

It is not a transaction, there is no refund button

Maybe not all accounts are the same but if someone sends me money via F & F I get a button to send the money back

@AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken

You’ve done the right thing. Better to be safe than sorry. He made the mistake and he is going to get it back, just not as quickly as he’d have liked.

I agree with that.

His mistake-why should Op have to sort anything out?

She didn't say that he couldn't have his money back, just that PP should deal with it.

@SoupDragon

Send it back to the account it came from.

You clearly don't want it to go back to him that badly if you won't send it back to where it came from.

She clearly doesn't want to lose money, which is understandable surely?!

Glad all sorted OP.

Op - you've done the right thing. I don't know how this could be a scam, but why take the risk?

I paid a small deposit through payPal but mispelt the email address. payPal told me that I had to ask the person I sent it to by mistake to send it back. They never did.
I completely understand why you are concerned, however.

I sent money to someone by F&f I was one letter out
I got it back
It’s really not fair to keep money that isn’t yours.

Luckily good honest people are out there who DO return money for a typo.

I sent a cheque instead- not having that stress again.

I’d return his money.
It isn’t yours to keep

I think you are quite right to be wary. Well done on contacting PayPal.

Why are people not reading the OP's posts. At no stage has she said she has withdrawn the money from her PP account. No, she has left it in limbo for PP to sort out.

She is not keeping it. She has as any good honest person would do referred it to PP to sort out.

You're doing the right thing by being cautious OP.

For the people who are incredulous this could be a scam, read this - it's quite a well known one. (Apologies I couldn't find a better article about it) kvoa.com/news/2021/02/01/scam-alert-this-venmo-scam-sends-you-money-by-accident/

Also, my family send me money via paypal because I live in a different country to them and a bank transfer involves going into the actual bank and filling in a form because it's international, whereas paypal can be done from anywhere.

It probably is an honest mistake, and a total nightmare for the poor bloke, but best to do it all properly.

Unblock him and pay him his money!

I can't believe how many people don't know that this is a very common scam tactic!

OP is absolutely right to be getting PayPal to deal with it. Under no circumstances should anyone ever refund a sum of money like this no matter what sob story the sender tells.

And what's more, if the sender was genuine, they could contact PayPal or do a chargeback themselves. The fact that they haven't speaks volumes.

I've seen this scam before - an amount is transferred "in error"
The payee requests the recipient to return it.
After the amount is returned, they then open a dispute with PayPal and claim it again. Leaving the original recipient out of pocket.
He can definitely open a dispute - unless he is known to PayPal as a scammer and that's why they are refusing to get involved?
Definitely do not return it until you know for certain that no further funds will be deducted from your account.