Billing Department of PayPal updated your invoice

[LE2022]

Since I've posed this question twice to PayPal and haven't gotten a response that makes any sense, I thought I'd ask here—has anyone else received an email with the subject line "Billing Department of PayPal updated your invoice" in recent weeks? I knew it was a scam when I saw it—I don't issue any invoices through PayPal—but I was a bit alarmed that the address the email was sent from appears to be legit. 

I asked PayPal customer service representatives how the message could have come from an address comprised of the [removed] (the system isn't letting me post the actual email address), and if they were at all concerned about that, but the person I spoke with on the phone just kept repeating a broad definition of what phishing scams are (which was not helpful). I also received a message from PayPal that did not explain how someone was able to send a phishing email from a seemingly legitimate PayPal email address. I was wondering if anyone else got a similar email from that address—or if anyone has any idea how that would be possible without having access to PayPal's system? (Because if that's how the message was sent, PayPal should probably be looking into how it happened ...?)

[sschaible]

Yeah, the appearance of this email coming from a legitimate PayPal address was super intriguing. I knew it was fake because it was addressed: "Hello, PayPal User," etc. but combined with a real-looking email and very convincing email itself...this is a pretty good one as far as they go.

I just forwarded mine to phishing@paypal.com as directed by the Moderator.

[LE2022]

I'm so sorry that happened to you! The messages look alarmingly real -- PayPal really should, at the very least, be alerting users about them, instead of just encouraging people to forward fraudulent-looking emails to them. I forwarded this one, weeks ago, so they've known about it for at least that long, yet I haven't seen anything on the company's website or receiving any warning notifications from PayPal. People absolutely could fall for this phishing attempt, and I'm surprised PayPal isn't more concerned about its liability ... maybe they're doing something behind the scenes to prevent further messages from being sent, but I received some after notifying PayPal about the problem. (Based on the posts in this message chain, I'm guessing other people may have contacted the company about the messages, too). Posting or sending something to warn users about this risk seems like an easy way for PayPal to at least offer some protection for both users and itself! 

[alexis-007]

I just got an email like this today.

The scammer simply sent an invoice to us via their PayPal account, which is why the sender address is from PayPal.

I've sent invoices to others before. 

To do this, all you need is a recipient name. 

Go into 'send and request' in your PayPal account. 

Type in the name 'John'. 

This will allow you to scroll through an endless list of PayPal users named John.

That's how they found prospective victims.

The scammer randomly identified us - on PayPal - and sent us an invoice.

So that's why the email you rec'd was actually from PayPal.

Then they caused confusion by including text as if they were PayPal billing.

Text stating: 'you will be charged $500.00 today' ..... 'automated deduction of the amount' - is bs.  They cannot automatically deduct $ from your account.

Actions I took are:

I cancelled the invoice with the message: 'lol.  nice try'

Then I reported it to phishing@paypal.com, and other government or non-profit phishing orgs. 

I don't want to see others duped by these losers.

[drgunther]

Yes, this happened to me just today.  I knew it was bogus because it was sent to an address I don't use with Paypal.

But damned if it didn't look legit-like. 🙂