PayPal Alert Scam: How It Works
Online financial transactions have become quite a daily routine for everyone in the last few years and PayPal scams have been proliferating. In a world that's constantly changing due to new technology updates, criminals prey on people's ignorance, convenience, and naivety – and hit them with all kinds of fraudulent practices. The newest scheme is the PayPal alert email, which is the closest variation of the PayPal Support Text Scam. Another alternative lately is the implementation of cryptocurrency, for the example the PayPal Bitcoin Invoice scam.
Watch the video below to see PayPal Alert scam:
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PayPal Phishing Email Scam VideoÂ
In the PayPal Alert Scam, you receive an email – or text message on your phone – apparently coming from PayPal (see pic below), with the title subject: “PayPal Alert!!”. The message informs that you just sent a payment to a company. It could be any name, but the most common ones are Evolution RC Ltd – about a payment of $47.05, and ASDA Direct – payment of $192.00 for a Blue-Ray Home Cinema System.
After providing a fake transaction number, the email continues with the following call-to-action: “If you want to cancel the transaction, click here and follow the instructions”. Obviously, knowing that you didn't send any money to anybody, you click on the link provided in order to cancel the tranfer. Little do you know that the link will open a PayPal look-alike website, which will ask you to log in by providing them your real email address and password.
Once you give scammers that information, you can rest assured that your account will be compromised soon.
PayPal Alert Scam: How To Avoid
If it's an alert from PayPal, the message should never start just with “Dear”, without addressing your full name. Also, the notification of sending the money to a company is different than a real alert, in which PayPal informs you they noticed unusual transactions on your account.
Do not click on the link provided. The best thing to do in this case is to log into your account straight from PayPal's website, by typing paypal.com in your browser first.
Another good thing to do is download the PayPal mobile app on your smartphone. In a case of an unusual transaction on your account, you will get a legitimate pop-up notification on your cell. Just make sure your app settings allow that.
Since we are on the subject of exposing PayPal scams, make sure you avoid a few other fraudulent practices that are making their rounds these days, such as the Fake PayPal verification, PayPal order scam, and the fake PayPal Transaction. Oh, and the PayPal Money Generator trick, which has been making some victims recently.
PayPal Alert: How to Report a Scammer
Make your family and friends aware of the PayPal Alert scam by sharing it on social media using the buttons provided. You can also officially report the scammers to the Federal Trade Commission or to Paypal using the links below:
How to protect yourself more:
If you want to be the first to find out the most notorious scams every week, feel free to subscribe to the Scam Detector newsletter here. You'll receive periodical emails and we promise not to spam. Last but not least, use the Comments section below to expose other scammers.
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https://www.istabuy.com
THIS SITE IS A SCAM!!!! They take your money, and then they don t send you your order or refund the money. Note that, and put them on SCAMERS LIST!!!
Didn’t I say trust nobody, not even this site… ?
is usps2018.com a scam? They are selling Stamps on the cheap?
How do I spot fake Money making games/apps
Text received from +44 7919 271089. ‘PayPal: We have limited your account due to safety concerns. Please visit https://paypal-login980.com before we are forced to close your account. No abnormality showing on my account.
It’s really simple to avoid these things. If you get email or call or text or whatever from PayPal… DON’T CLICK ANY LINKS. Go to PayPal yourself either through your PayPal app or website. Then talk to someone through there. Never call someone or click a link. If there’s a problem, you’ll see it on the app or website… if you don’t see it and aren’t sure, use the PayPal contact us page to contact them directly.
Received email today as if came from PayPal thanking me for purchasing bitcoin for $499.98 from their exchange. Gave a phone number to call if I wanted to dispute it. 209-813-1985, I did call and raised the roof. A person I could hardly understand said they would cancel my order. I immediately went to PP to change passwords, security questions etc.
Me too. Forwarded message to [email protected]
got the same Paypal fraud alert text message
Received this text from 1(410) 200-503:
FRM: PayPalAlerting
MSG: http://www.guarantee74.com
I’m sure that link is a scam so I wouldn’t click on it!
Wow is so nice website
I received this email today, beware:
Dear [my full name],
We have concluded the verification of the proof of Money Transfer received from you for the transaction between you and Jesse Poland with the amount of $2,350.00 AUD which was verify and confirmed.
This message is originated from PayPal company, your funds will be dispatched for delivery into your Paypal Account provided and this will be received shortly. Unfortunately there is a minor problem about the payment sent to you, Our Accounting Department has detected an error with your account which occurred while we were crediting the payment into your account, the payment was excessively credited to your account.
The payment was credited to your account excessively, we were supposed to credit the total sum of $1,650.00 AUD and according to the status of the transaction you have with us, it shows that the Payment deducted from the buyer’s account is $2,350.00 AUD which shows an extra $700.00 AUD added to your account. We were unable to get the payment credited to your account due to the excess funds your account is receiving.
After several investigations regarding the cause of this melodrama, we have discovered that the fault was because your account is a new Personal account with us and normally, Personal accounts do not receive up to figure of huge amount but because we have set your account to auto increase your account limit, an error 404 from the auto increasing limit software now caused your account to attract more funds from your buyer’s account.
After the efforts of our experts, we are very glad to let you know that your account has now been fixed but still showing the outstanding payment and this fault happened from your own account and after we fixed your account, we could not be able to credit the payment to your account due to this mistake.
The deduction of the extra $700.00 AUD has shown out of the buyer’s account and we have already contacted the buyer in regards to this and we will really appreciate if you can co-operate with us so that we can settle this transaction amicably, We understand that you have sent forth tracking number but the cause of this problem is from your own account and we have already helped you to solve the solution but the payment won’t get credited due to the outstanding payment of the excess $700.00 AUD.
According to our safety policy rules and regulations, we have been able to reach an agreement with the buyer that you the seller must first refund the excess $650.00 AUD and he agreed you use $50.00 AUD for the Western Union charges which which is already pending on your account and we want you to know that there is nothing we can do if this is not solves and we really understand we promised you that we will be crediting your account after the last payment but this problem cannot allow us to do anything because we have to unlock your account with the transfer details and the MTCN. The reason why we requested that you must first send the $650.00 AUD is because the money has already been removed from the buyer’s account and it is now waiting on your account. As stated by your buyer, the refund must be made through Western Union Money Transfer to the supplied address stated below.
Refunding Information:
Here is the Receiver details you need in sending the money to and please do not make mistake with the name spelling
Name- Kianna Bailey
Address-Lot 10 block 8 villa elena,
Subdivision
City-Dasmarinas
State-Cavite
Country-Philippines
Zip code-4114
WOW, just wow. That message is an epic scammer that has lost all sight of logic and reason. The sad part, most of all these scammers are committed by very smart people with University Education in Network Administration, Security, Computer Programming, MBA, Accounting, etc. etc. So, all of the nomenclator in the message that says the complete opposite is epically embarrassing for them, no if they are indeed of the professional gone rouge class it is outright sad and telling of why they do such work to fuel such pain, suffering and vices I would imagine, all of which would be expensive on earth. Thank you for sharing for all to see.
Recieved text re transaction ID: 19G7741T90421A. pLEASE CANCEL
I received this scam:
Today’s review
PayPal Security Team ([email protected])
Add to contacts
Attachment
4:27 PM
[email protected]
From: PayPal Security Team ([email protected]) Your junk email filter is set to exclusive.
Sent: September-11-15 4:27:34 PM
To:
Attachments: 1 attachment | Download all as zip (38.3 KB)
verify.html (38.3 KB)
This message is here because your junk email filter is set to exclusive.
Wait, it’s safe!|I’m not sure. Let me check
Dear Valued Member,
Reason for Limitation: Suspicious activities have triggered our security system which shows that an unauthorized user tried to access your PayPal account without your consent.
An account may be limited for a variety of reasons; One of them is unauthorized access (another person trying to use your account without your consent).
Furthermore, we have sent you this email in hopes that you would provide some information with us, verifying that you are the legitimate account holder.
Please open the form (attached) that we have provided for you.
After doing so, our security team will immediately review the information you’ve provided with us and your account should be restored back to normal.
Thank you in advance for the information you may provide with us.
Regards,
PayPal Account Security Team
I received this scam email today (claiming to be from PayPal), with the subject line that someone is trying to log into my account from an unknown device. Beware!
Dear (e) client (e)
We identified several unacceptable intrusion attempts on your account
online, someone tried to access your account from mini iPad named
"enric ipad".
Ipad adress ip : 41.21.88.10
Date: March 20, 2015.
This is the last reminder to log in to Paypal as soon as possible. Paypal will
provide measures to restore access to your account:
[scam link] VERIFICATION LINK
I know of an expert you can contact