Received invoice from one seller which I didn't make any purchase. Is it a scam?

[MichaelCHK]

Hi all. I received a notification from PayPal that someone sent me an invoice to make a payment of USD 500 for purchasing a anti virus software which I didn't make. Could I just leave it like that with out paying or how do I cancel or report this?

[Lechner_Sean]

I received a email saying 620$ worth of bitcoin was being purchased on my PayPal. I had 24 hours to call and claim it was not me after calling[Removed. Phone #s not permitted] The rep then tried saying my ip address was compromised and then started to get me to download Anydesk. This seem fraudulent? It does to me. Thanks

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @Lechner_Sean,

Welcome to the Community Forum, and thank you for your post!

You're absolutely right to be suspicious. That was not a legitimate number or a legitimate PayPal Customer Service representative. 

You can learn more about the fraud invoice scam in this linked post. 

I'm glad you were skeptical!

Olivia

[BryanB_]

I've received several money requests recently where when I go to my Activity page, the requests do not appear. The "To" address in the email from Paypal is to a different email than mine (e.g., [removed]'). The message within the email claims to be charging my account for a product, and to call a phone number to avoid the charge. This is obviously an attempt to get me to call their phone number, where no doubt they'll try to get me to give them money in some alternative way.

The from-address in the email is indeed a paypal.com address. My question is, is Paypal actually sending this email to me, and if so, how is the scammer getting the email sent to me, when the to-address is not mine? And if so, why is Paypal enabling these 3rd-party requests?

[petang]

Got a request from a Andre [removed] [removed].  It had a Note saying..."You've Sent a Payment of 899. 99 AUD to BITDEFENDER. If The Transaction is Unauthorized Contact Our Customer Support (this turkey gave a valid looking aussie 1 eight hundred number.)

Anybody else get this as it seems like a scam to me as the email is a clearly bogus gmail.   

If this is a scam then PAYPAL need to stop this from coming in - I can't be that hard.  Look up the email and the company name.  Use your A.I. 

[kernowlass]

@petang 

Scam money request or invoice that shows in your Paypal account..

Scammers harvest email addresses and send out money requests or invoices hoping that some of those email addresses are linked to an open Paypal account.

The unsuspecting recipient is given a fake Paypal phone number in the 'notes' section added by the scammer.
If you did call that number (DO NOT) to query the transaction the scammer tells you that they need to access your computer / Paypal account to cancel that transaction for you.
They will then hack your computer or Paypal account.

Paypal never put phone numbers on emails or in money requests/invoices, they tell you to contact them via help/contact bottom of their website pages.

If there is a cancel option then cancel it, if not ignore it and it should time out at 30 days.
As long as you don't click to pay it then no money would be transferred.

[SirBlain]

Hello,

I am hoping this message reaches the proper person at PayPal. The amount of fraudulent message requests has quintupled over the last few weeks. Every day I have at least four or five in my inbox. I've done my best to report them and harass the people on the phone number given, but this only slows them down. In the past six days, two of my elderly customers have fallen victim to this scam. They both called the fake phone number that was pretending to be PayPal.

I propose that PayPal simply remove the ability to put a phone number in those message requests. This one change would prevent my elderly customers from falling victim to scammers pretending to be PayPal. Both of those customers wanted to close their PayPal accounts. Making this change would protect potential elderly victims, and prevent them from leaving this service in the first place. Some sort of proactive action must be taken on this soon.

Thanks,

-Blain

[PayPal_JonK]

Hello @SirBlain, 

Welcome to the PayPal Community! I'm sorry to hear you and your customers have been receiving a surplus of fraudulent requests recently. This is certainly something PayPal is aware of and is working on an option to prevent in the future. However, in the mean-time, I've been recommending people change their email address to a new unique address. Since requests are sent / received via the email address attached to your PayPal account, if you have a new unique address, the requests should stop. 

I know it's a bit of a hassle, so hopefully PayPal will have a better fix soon. For our users that have fallen victim to this scam, we recommend working with their funding source to see if dispute options may be available (if they funded the payment with an external funding source) and reporting it on ic3.gov. 

Good luck and thank you again for reaching out via our Community Forum, 

 - Jon K

[LRM10]

This message was emailed to me and showing under my PayPal Activity section: "Request received from Crypto wallet [*I removed email, due to PayPal posting policy] Transaction ID U-68D24189P25329007 Note Dear Customer, Your Purchase of Bitcoin cost $345. 66 Successfully Approved. If you cancel this transaction please call HelpDesk ********************** Details Money request amount $345.66 Total $345.66" I do not know who this person is that sent this request; so, I clicked, under my PayPal account's Activity section, and clicked to "CANCEL." Is there anything else I need to do?

[sdbobie]

I also received a fraudulent money request, but from Curtis [removed] from Kaspersky LLC for $599.99 with the same message to call the Help Desk to cancel.  I took the same steps you did, canceling the request within my account.  I then tried reporting it in the Resolution Center but the site keeps telling me these transactions are not covered within the Resolution Center.  I did forward the automated email indicating the money request was sent to me, to phishing@paypal.com.

[ma192]

I received the same request today from Anita [removed] at Kaspersky LLC for 2 $599.99 payments, canceled both on my app and sent an email to paypal phishing.