Complete Stranger Requested $200 on Paypal

[elaerna]

<removed>-- print screen of the payment request

A complete stranger just requested $200 from me on Paypal saying that he had been incorrectly charged $200 after buying something from me on ebay. I am not selling, nor have I ever sold anything on ebay. I can't even remember the last time that I used paypal. I have never met or interacted with someone by this name or any similar name before. I cancelled the request, but I'm not sure if I was still scammed in some way. Why would a scammer send a phony money request if I can just cancel the request that easily? Is there some other underlying scam that I don't know about? I looked into reporting suspicious activity on paypal, but I only see something about forwarding suspicious e-mails, and I received this as a notification of payment request on paypal so there was no e-mail.

[ksraber]

It must be fraudulant because I got the same request last night from a <removed>. Here is what he said.

Note to <removed> Good afternoon. There was a pay of 200$ from my wallet on your wallet , as if I bought smth from you on Ebay. But I didn't do this. It must be a mistake. Write me on <removed>  i'll send you the copy of invoice. Sorry to disturb you.

Details

Money request amount

$200.00

Total

$200.00

I am glad to hear someone else got this because it proves it is false.  Thank you .  I'm going to cancel and not even contact the person.

[Whac-A-Mole]

somehow they manage to get hold of your email address,you figure most surfers have Paypal account,so why not try to see if he can get free money from you?

Once I read an article of an internet cafe,Nigerians come to work in front of the pc manufacturing emails  daily,if they can send out 100,000 emails and catch one sucker forking over some hard currency,they earn a daily wage worth bragging.

It even shows one person with a used car,he said he earned the money scamming online !

Sad,as most are educated and read and write English well. 

[Zuline]

Yes. Scam. The very same thing happened to me. I got the email on November 30, 2016 with the EXACT same wording, but a different name: <removed> from the email address: service@paypal.com

Here is the copy/paste:

"<removed> sent you a money request
NOTE FROM <removed>
quote Good afternoon. There was a pay of 200$ from my wallet on your wallet , as if I bought smth from you on Ebay. But I didn't do this. It must be a mistake. Write me on <removed> i'll send you the copy of invoice. Sorry to disturb you."

I am so, so glad I went with my gut that this was a scam. I ignored it, Andy have not heard from the "person" again. The request is still in my PayPal, which I am going to Cancel this instant!

Also people remember - Very Important - do not click on ANYTHING in the email.

Do not send the money, and do not click in the email.

Great Job detecting these jerks!