Am I accidentally involving myself in some kind of scam?

[SlimeSuspect]

I am a self employed small business.

Client calls me ahead of an event I am booked with him and tells me his accounts department have accidentally paid me twice via a bank transfer. I have checked my account and the duplicate payment is definitely there. Client asks can I please send the duplicate payment back, but not to the account of origin, via PayPal to his personal (non business) account? I don’t have a business PayPal account, so would have to do this through my personal PayPal account.

Is this usual? Should I be suspicious? It seems odd for a business to request a payment be refunded via a personal PayPal account. I have spoken to my bank and also PayPal who have both advised me not to do what he is requesting.

Most alarming of all is that my client is reluctant to move the conversation from text message to email (despite repeated requests, and the original contracts being arranged that way).

Does this scream ‘scammer’? Obviously I have already been paid, so won’t lose out financially, but I clearly don’t want to be involved in someone else’s dodgy dealings.

Also, before anyone accuses me of dishonest intentions, I have no intention of not transferring the over payment back to the correct place. My bank can’t disclose the account of origin, so that would need to come from the bank that sent the payment. I have asked him for the account details, to no avail.

Any thoughts on what might be going on here, and how I should proceed? I will have to work with this guy this weekend, so am worried!

Is it definitely him your messaging? Sounds like maybe they've been hacked and you're being scammed. It works as they've seen the legitimate messages between you and know you expect to make a payment. They then give you a fraudulent account to pay it back to. (Something similar happened to me once)
Can you talk to him on the phone? And ask him what his reasoning is for wanting it paid to his PayPal. I definitely wouldn't pay it yo this account

Not a scam per se, but he's definitely trying to claim it as a business expense and it's illegal for you to participate in something like that.

I knew someone this happened to. The person paying into her account was stealing company funds. She went ahead and did what he asked and, when he was caught, she was convicted of money laundering.

If it sounds dodgy, it usually is dodgy!

It could indeed be someone shady in the accounts department (that issued the payment twice on purpose) contacting you via text. I would email your direct contact cc'ing the accounts dept to say "re your text messages about the duplicate payment. I can confirm that payment has gone through twice, but I can only return the duplicate payment to the account it came from, not a PayPal account. Please confirm the account number and I will send it straight away"
Then whoever is being dodgy will hopefully get caught out. I might even cc in an extra company email/owner/director to cover all bases, just in case your contact and the person in accounts are in cahoots..... but then I'm a suspicious person.

If this is a scam, then it's the one where they say they've sent too much money, the victim refunds it but then the funds don't clear so that the victim is out of pocket. Absolutely the bank will not refund your money if they've told you not to do it.

Definitely this

Is it only by text? How do you even know it’s your client? Phone numbers can be spoofed!

DH’s bank account got hacked and the fraudsters transferred £££ to our usual payees - people like the burglar alarm company, the plumber etc. They then rang these companies, claiming they had transferred the £ by accident and could they just send it back? Bank account details were then supplied which were not ours but the scammers. Thankfully all the companies were suspicious and contacted me instead…..all except the plumbers who merrily transferred £14k 🤦‍♀️

Call the clients on the usual number you always use. I bet you they’ve been hacked!