Am I caught up in a scam?

[Isaackar]

Over the past 24 hours I have received 12 payments from 4 different users I don't know and haven't requested money from. Each transaction is for $70.xx aud , totalling some $850 in my balance. I should also clarify that I am not actively selling anything and that the transactions have dodgy messages attached like "mum told me to pay your rent this month" I know this is fraudulent activity but I am not sure what type of scam I am caught up in. I have already updated my password a bunch of times and made reports to paypal but no outcome yet. Should I be worried ? Should I be locking down my banking and credit cards ?

[Devilkingdave]

I got one today for $280.00AUD from an unknown person. I’m not selling anything other than eBay and eBay sorts the payments. The other odd thing is the message which reads as “$280. 00” (there is an actual space between the dot and two zeroes

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @Isaackar and @Devilkingdave, 

Thank you for your posts and welcome to the PayPal Community! I'm sorry to hear of the distress you're experiencing regarding some fraudulent activity, and I'll be happy to help guide you.

First thing to check - are these actually payments, or are they invoices? If they are invoices, they should have an option to cancel them and report. Or if not, you can ignore the invoice and email the notification to phishing@paypal.com to report it. An invoice is not a payment, and fraudsters might send one to carry the phishing message in the hopes that you'll accidentally pay it, or that you'll call the number in the message. PayPal does prevent the vast majority of this activity from happening, but it can slip through sometimes. The best way to combat this is to be informed about what to look out for, and report it when it happens.

If it is actually a payment, it is likely from a compromised account. Contacting Customer Service through messaging or at the official number (not the one listed in the payment details) is the right way to go. Report the activity and ask that the payments be reversed by a representative. This way PayPal can act quickly to limit the other account, you won't have to pay the fees for receiving the payments, and it will be noted in your account that the payments were unsolicited.

Receiving payments or invoices is not an indication that your account or financial credentials have been compromised. It's just an indication that a fraudster is trying to trick you into divulging info, but you're too smart for that!

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[Isaackar]

Hi Olivia , thanks for responding. Yes what I am dealing with are actual payments , not invoices. Since I originally posted this I've now surpassed 1,000 and I thing there have been about 15 payments in total. A few people have mentioned , yourself included , that the scamer would try to contact me to arrange an alternate refund arrangement however it's now been several days and I've had no such contact. I am also sure that wouldn't work in this case as I've been receiving many transactions from different users so I'm sure anyone in my position would recognise that it's a scam and wouldn't negotiate any alternative refunds with someone they don't know - but maybe I'm wrong. I've found the only way to stop the payments from coming was to change my PayPal email - since then I haven't had any more but all of my disputed transactions are still under investigation. Thanks for your jnput

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @Isaackar,

You're doing all the right things. I'm sorry this has happened to you.

Olivia

[Devilkingdave]

Hi Olivia, I didn’t get any emails regarding this deposit, not even one from PayPal saying that I’ve got a deposit. I didn’t get any invoices either. Just a notification from the app. I haven’t received any contact from anyone asking me to send the money somewhere else. The payment also came through as friends and family and I’ve reported the transaction

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @Devilkingdave, 

Thank you for the follow-up. It sounds like you are also doing what you need to do. If you contact Customer Service, they can manually reverse the transaction to prevent a fee.

Thanks for checking in!

Olivia