SCAM WARNING - SOMEONE PRETENDING TO PAY VIA PAYPAL

[PoppyNZ]

Sellers beware! Anyone else had someone wanting to pay for an expensive item you have listed on say Facebook Marketplace via Paypal then you receive an email allegedly from Paypal but with an onmail.com domain address saying you've received a pending payment but demanding an additional $500 to set up a business account so the payment can be released? Email had spelling and grammatical errors so clearly not from Paypal. The person had messaged from a private Instagram account even though my item was listed on Facebook, and I could not see them on Facebook at all. Was very elusive when I began asking more questions then stopped replying. Obviously a scam.

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@PoppyNZ 

Yep scam has been ongoing for about 15 years and is posted on this forum about 6 times a day (they don't give up), glad you weren't caught out.

[PoppyNZ]

Thanks. I was raised by a Policeman and spent almost 20 years practising law so trained pretty well to spot a scam.

[bethany617]

YES! This is a phishing scam. Very irresponsible for PayPal not to know this is happening (a PayPal answer from, I assume, a team member said there was nothing to worry about in May).

The scam is as follows:

The scammer knows that PayPal has not implemented a prenote check for their systems. Without this protection, scammers can create these fake accounts to steal money. Remember, PayPal is not covered by the FDIC as a bank would, so you're out of luck should someone get their hands on your PayPal balance. 

I implore anyone with more questions to Google "PayPal prenote", listed as a Credit for $0.00 - this is how the phisher checks to ensure the account is open and has available funds. I saw it this morning, did my research online, alerted my bank, and immediately canceled my debit card. One thing - you have to wait for the $0.00 charge to clear through your bank before they can investigate and refund any money taken during the investigation. Research, research, research & shame on PayPal for either 1) not knowing about this scam or 2) not telling customers.

[kernowlass]

@bethany617 

Sorry but that is rubbish, this scam has been ongoing for 15 years and has NOTHING to do with paypal.

The scammer sends 'fake' paypal emails and does not even have a paypal account.

[bethany617]

@kernowlass 

This has nothing to do with a "fake email." I've worked in IT and digital marketing for several years, and also have eyes - I'm pretty good at recognizing/not clicking on phishing emails. This is in reference to a line item on one's bank statement listed as "PayPal Prenote Credit - 0", which is running a zero-dollar transaction to see if the bank will accept and clear a transaction for them. By the time someone sees that line item on their statement as "pending", the scammer already has your financial information and is just waiting for it to clear, which most people do not catch unless their check their statement every morning.

Also - If someone hasn't experienced this before, and the only identifiable direction they have is PayPal- perhaps they would come to the PayPal Community to search for information? Hopefully, you're able to put your rude response aside and at least respond in a helpful manner.

 Good day.

[kernowlass]

@bethany617 

Nothing to do with a prenote, separate issue altogether.

The original poster received a FAKE PAYPAL EMAIL (I received an email allegedly from Paypal but with an onmail.com domain address) telling them that they need to pay to set up a business account to receive their payment.

The payment would be sent by another method totally than paypal and the original poster would have be scammed.

Nothing to do with the prenote which is a totally different scam.

I have been on here for 15 years and my advice was correct and yours was not.

[Summerland27]

I have just experienced the same issue in NZ. I have an item for sale on market place. They said they wanted to use PayPal so I opened an account. They said they paid $1200 into my account. I received an email saying the account amount needed to be raised to $2000. So an extra $800 was to be paid and refunded. They insisted the $800 was paid into my account and therefore I needed to refund them this amount. My account balance showed 0.00 so I kept saying I’m not paying them anything as there is no evidence that I have received any funds. They said PayPal hold the funds until the refund is made. This made no sense to me and I then recognised a scam. The email from PayPal was not business like and they wanted screen shots to show payment was made. This is not normal business practice. This person has now deleted all messages from Messenger. Please be aware of the scum bags out there and play safe. 🙏

[sophie1944]

Hi: i posted an item on Kijiji for $6,000.00.  I got a reply and did not have a current PayPal account. It took me some time to update my account. I got several emails from PayPal service  stating that $6,600.00USD was in my account, and I was to return $500.00usd.  I had added $100.00 for shipping their cost $6,100.00.  I phone PayPal and they told me it was a scam, which I suspected because it did not make sense to me to overpay and send them money back.  Sneaky.  Then I got an email stating they were reporting me as a scammer.  nothing like putting the fear of God into you. Pay up or we report you as a scammer. Brazen con artists. 

I hope this helps someone else not to get scammed.  I'm 78 years old but not stupid I hope. Have a good experience with PayPal so far for me not so good.