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?

[sharpiemarker]

@Margo281 

It’s the same as spam pretty much. Can’t get rid of spam so it’ll be difficult to get rid of bad actors who want to keep opening new accounts from anywhere in the world sending unwarranted invoices to unsuspecting users anywhere in the world. You want PayPal to get rid of the Invoicing and Money Request features? That’s what may have to happen. If the answer was easy, they would have done it already! Do you want stop the production of cars and guns just because they have a potential to kill people? If you receive an unwarranted invoice or money request, just forward the email to phishing@paypal.com and PayPal will take it from there.

[V210]

I agree wholeheartedly that this is on PayPal to get it fixed. I have received two invoices already. Here is the problem with canceling the invoice - PayPal sends the cancelation information to the Spammer/Phisher. You have just provided them with more information about you. Some state (hello California!) should sue PayPal for allowing phishing communication and potentially exposing personal identifiable information.

[3b6e9n]

I recently got an email and phone notification about an invoice from Norton Security. This is obviously a scam, the sender of the invoice is some random guy's name and very much not Norton Security, to say nothing of the fact that I've never bought antivirus software in my life. There is also an article about the recent uptick in these specific scams here. Despite this apparently being a pretty prevalent problem I can't see any way to report this invoice as fraudulent or to report this PayPal account? If I try to report the transaction via the Resolution Center I get an error that these types of transactions can't be dealt with there. Maybe I'm missing some mechanism to deal with this, but as far as I can tell there's no way to deal with / report this obvious scammer, and even though I didn't fall for it that doesn't mean that less internet-savvy folks out there won't. If there is a way to dispute or report invoices then it should be much easier to access, and if there's not then it's a pretty glaring hole in terms of fraud prevention (which scammers are already swarming to take advantage of).

[sharpiemarker]

@3b6e9n 

Forward the email to the email address to report phishing email found here:

How do I report potential fraud, spoof or unauthorized transactions to PayPal?

And add a note that this invoice is a scam invoice asking for it’s removal from your account and reporting the account that sent it.

Hopefully they’ll do something about it.

[Bel125]

I sent the email to them, but I also cancelled the invoice as well - will that help as well? I hope so

[JUHerr]

I sent it (I've had 2 of these scam invoices since October 12). I was not able to cancel the transaction on the PayPal website. I got some sort of goofy error message, which then tied up my screen. It would be nice if PayPal got a hold of this and simply deleted them, or stopped them in some way. I suspect they get a lot of this however. 

JohnH

[Temp20221209a]

@3b6e9n When click that link, I don't see an actual email address... can you post it?

[balloonmanmike]

I have a pending invoice which is fake. I try to report a issue but "resolution" process fails. Is there a way to get this invoice removed?

[kernowlass]

@balloonmanmike 

Should be a cancel option, if not should time out at 30 days.

You can't report it in the resolution centre as no transaction was made.

[balloonmanmike]

Thanks @kernowlass 
Unfortunately, there is no cancel button. When I try to view the invoice it shows "Something's not right". It was issued 10/18/22 and is still there. 

I guess I just need to keep ignoring it.