Gmail and Paypal

[PaulV2017]

I live in the UK.

Someone in the US has just made a payment to an evangenical church of $100 using their credit/bank card but they provided PayPal with my e-mail address.

The thing is, my e-mail address is a Gmail address and as such, I have an infinite number of variations of my e-mail address so I can't got and provide PayPal with all the different variations, it's just not practical.

https://gmail.googleblog.com/2008/03/2-hidden-ways-to-get-more-from-your.html

The question is, what can I or PayPal do to prevent people making this mistake? I now have a receipt that was clearly intended for someone else because they didn't know their own e-mail address.

[PayPal_DavidR]

Hi there,

Welcome to the PayPal Community.

It sounds like your email address may have been used in error. As it is not uncommon for people to make mistakes with their email I recommend you just delete the message.

If you would like PayPal to look into it to ensure a PayPal account was not created with your email address yuo should reach out to our customer service.

-David R

[PaulV2017]

... and it's OK that I now received the personal details of another Paul Vernon in my mailbox?

Really? is that secure?

Surely when a user enters their e-mail address, if it's recognised by PayPal they should be required to login to verify their identity.

This particular user just donated $100 to an organisation and used my e-mail address to do it without being challenged as to their identity being valid.

I very much doubt that's the way it's meant to happen.

Paul

[PayPal_DavidR]

You do not necessarily have to have a PayPal account to make a payment using PayPal. The smallest of details in the email need to be exact. If it is causing you an inconvenience I recommend contacting PayPal customer service as this is a user to user forum.

-David R