Whats up with account being limited

madrat
Contributor
Contributor

Ok in a nutshell last night oh about 10pm I get this wild email that says the following

------------------------------------------

We want to check with you to make sure that no one has logged in to your account without your permission. 

 Please take a moment to change your password and create new security questions. You should also take a look at your account information and recent transactions. Make sure that your account information (address, phone number, etc.) hasn't changed and that you recognize all of your recent transactions 

We want to check with you to make sure that no one has logged in to your account without your permission. 

-------------------- 

So I go about logging in and it says verify my bank account info, my ssn, my email,  and oh yes change my passwords.

I also check history and yes all the transactions I recognize.   So now we come down to it.  Why did this happen to my account,  did somebody try a brute force hack, or what.    The only thing I could come up with I had not used my account in a couple of months, and bought a new computer that was expensive but that was too weeks back.

So I have to ask what's the deal here, and why.   Not having done anything strange that I can think of other than a large purchase.

 

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9 REPLIES 9

BonnieB11
New Community Member

The same thing happened to me.  I just got an email that says:

Notification of Limited Account Access Dear:

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. We recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your account.We requested information from you for the following reason:

We recently received a report of unauthorized credit card use associated with this account. As a precaution, we have limited access to your PayPal account in order to protect against future unauthorized transactions.

Case ID Number: PP-253-309-582

In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement, your account access will remain limited until the issue has been resolved. Unfortunately, if access to your account remains limited for an extended period of time, it may result in further limitations or eventual account closure. We encourage you to follow our verification procedure as soon as possible to help avoid this.

Once you log in, you will be provided with steps to restore your account access. We appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure account safety.

This is a final reminder to log in to PayPal as soon as possible.

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

I am weary about using the link from my email.  I logged into my Paypal account and I find no problems there, no restrictions, no messages.  Someone explain?????????????

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi madrat and BonnieB11,

 

You are smart to be wary! If the email received has a link to click, you should not click it. You can always log into your account by opening up a new browser and typing www.paypal.com in the browser.

 

madrat - the snippet of your email actually looks like it is probably legitimate. Did it have a link or did it instruct you to go to PayPal and view your Resolution Center? If you logged into PayPal without using a link in the email, you were probably challenged to verify identity and check your transactions and change your password and security questions, which would have resolved the requirements of the limitation. Your thoughts about why the limitation was placed may possibly be correct. Our system protects you when it detects activity that is inconsistent. If you go to the Resolution Center and select to view All Cases, do you see a limitation case matching the one referenced in your email?

 

BonnieB11 - your email looks much more suspicious. You should forward that to spoof@paypal.com. You did exactly the right thing by not clicking the link, and instead logging directly in, without the link. It looks like someone was trying to scare you into clicking blindly and possibly divulging private information.

 

Good work fighting fraud! For more tips on keeping yourself protected, check out https://www.paypal.com/securitycenter

 

If this post or any other was helpful, please enrich the Community by giving kudos to its author, accepting it as a solution, and/or coming back to assist others. Members make this Community great!
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Melissaz5116
Contributor
Contributor
I received the same email as BonnieB. I clicked on the link and it was asking me to change password etc..also wanted me to verify my debit cards. I did not do this. I did go directly into Paypal and to the resolution center and there was no case open. My Case ID number on the email is PP-721-670-558. I back into the email and clicked on the link. It said paypal site was down for maint. and was going to send me to Bank Of America who I bank with. It wanted my personal bank account information password and user id info. I felt very concerned then and went into my paypal account and removed one of my debit cards. My only concern is that I made a purchase recently and the money came out of the account that I deleted. I need to know is my account limited or what. Maybe I should contact Paypal by phone? Although when I tried to call it said the number was not working now. I did send email to paypal but would like to talk to them by phone but how can I call if the number doesn't work?
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PayPal_Adrian
PayPal Employee
PayPal Employee

Melissaz5116,

 

Did you get the phone number from the same email?  Our phones are still working.  Smiley Happy

 

It sounds like the email you received is a fake (phishing) email; please forward it to spoof@paypal.com.

 

In the meantime, do a virus scan on your computer.  Once that is complete (and any threats are resolved), log back into PayPal and change your password and security questions as a precaution. 

 

If you entered any financial information into that link, you'll want to switch out those account numbers.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Adrian

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madrat
Contributor
Contributor

Well my email was legitimate.  There was no clickies, it said to go to the center.  I did and my account was indead limited.  

 

Just when you see emails like that it makes you skin crawl,  and I filed a ticket to find out why.  I got a canned responce saying my issue had been resolved and they were glad they could help me.

 

Yes my account is back to normal, but I would still like ot know why it happened in the first place as there were not any unusual things going on, and still had to question why my account got limited in the first place.

 

All they had to do was check with newegg and could see that the shipment went to my verified address.   So I still wondering about whats up.  Especially since I saw the other guy with an email that looked exactl like mine except his had a link.

 

Scarry stuff.

 

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi madrat,

 

I can definitely understand that skin-crawly feeling at the thought of the possibility of someone accessing your account. That's why our security measures are so important. If we see activity that is inconsistent (like inactivity for some time and then a sudden big ticket item purchase), we want to make sure that you're you!

 

Olivia

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MrsB
Contributor
Contributor

Daily emails, claiming limited access to Paypal account, "click on link and give information"...NOT

....forward to  spoof@Paypal.com...

How do we put a stop to this??

 

 

 

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MrsB
Contributor
Contributor

tenant13
New Community Member

I too have received similar email: 

 

"We need your help resolving an issue with your account. To give us time to work together on this, we've temporarily limited what you can do with your account until the issue is resolved.

 

We understand it may be frustrating not to have full access to your PayPal account. We want to work with you to get your account back to normal as quickly as possible.

 

What's the problem?

 

We want to check with you to make sure that no one has logged in to your account without your permission.

 

Please take a moment to change your password and create new security questions. You should also take a look at your account information and recent transactions. Make sure that your account information (address, phone number, etc.) hasn't changed and that you recognize all of your recent transactions.

 

If you see a payment that you don't recognize, let us know by going to the Resolution Center.  Click "Dispute a Transaction" to report an unauthorized transaction.

 

Case ID Number: PP-xxx-...-...-...

 

How you can help

 

It's usually pretty easy to take care of things like this. Most of the time, we just need a little more information about your account or latest transactions.

 

To help us with this and to find out what you can and can't do with your account until the issue is resolved, log in to your account and go to the Resolution Center.

 

Thanks,

PayPal

 

There is no link to click/follow so I wasn't terribly suspicious - I'm outside of US and was trying to use the account to purchase something from Japan; it could look weird 🙂 But when I logged into my account the first thing I was asked to do was to provide full credit card and bank account numbers. I couldn't proceed to any other page, email PayPal help center or even post a question on this forum without sending that info out (I have access to another PP account that is not blocked and am using that to post here). 

I'm very wary about situations like that and will not use this account until I can be sure this is not a scam - is there a way of verifying this without calling PP? Since I'm out of the country, it's not very practical at the moment.

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