Conversation w/Seller on Marketplace via Messenger was Hacked and a Fake Payment Request was Sent

[CarolynMorgan]

While using Facebook messenger, I received a payment request that I thought was from the person I was communicating with - it was not, she doesn't even have a PayPal account. The reason I feel like my conversation was being monitored was because the payment request was for $210.00 which was not the asking price on Marketplace. The payment request came immediately after mentioning the final price of $210.00 via messaging. The Request for Payment had the name of the Seller connected to it. I'm not sure if the scam also includes forming a dummy facebook account with the seller's name.  

I have only found 1 example of this happening to someone via google...how is this possible? Has this happened to anyone else?

P.S. Paypal's security stopped my payment from going through! I'm not sure how they knew it was a fraudulent request, but they did. THANK YOU.

[sharpiemarker]

@CarolynMorgan 

I don't understand...if it was a request, steps have to be taken to make the payment on the request so how can payment be taken from your account or was your facebook/paypal is set up so payment goes through automatically once someone mentions an amount in messenger? Or the payment request itself was the hack and it processed a payment once the request was sent? Spooky.

[CarolynMorgan]

It appears I didn't reply properly to your message. See my other comment posted below. First time caller!

As an additional note...The following is from a post on PayPal's Community Forum that is almost identical to my situation. She is out $75.00, but the concept seems to be the same. She had 0 responses to her post a year ago. 

"Facebook Messenger snooped on my conversation and sent a fake payment request

While using Facebook messenger, I received a payment request that I thought was from the person I was communicating with - it was not, she doesn't even have a PayPal account.  I paid it and am now stuck as it shows as 'Processed'.  It was as though, our conversation was being monitored, because I had mentioned that I owed her $75 and immediately a payment request appeared.

Now what?"  

Again, that is not my post, but it is the only other example I could find with a similar story anywhere.

[CarolynMorgan]

Thank you for asking. I don't understand how it all happened, but I can tell you what it looked like on my end.

I am the buyer. As soon as I mentioned a final price in Messenger, I received a pop-up from what appeared to be the seller (it had the seller's name and the amount that was negotiated - not the list price).

I accepted the Request from Payment from this Hack. Then, it automatically had me log into my PayPal account. I logged into PayPal and provided a 2 step verification process and I attempted to pay this Hack. Fortunately, PayPal stopped the payment and did not let the payment go through. 

So I believe the Payment Request was this Hack and I believe this Hack was able to READ the messaging via Facebook between the real seller and me on Marketplace. Once the Payment Request was made to, I said "ok".  The attempt at a Payment from my account was made because I accepted the Payment Request. However, no money was taken from PayPal because of security stopped it.

It is hard to explain. Unfortunately, I can't find anything on Facebook about the "Request for Payment" from this seller. It is very possible that it came outside of Facebook, but the Hack had all the information so that it seemed like it was from Facebook. I don't know. This is why I'm asking if anyone has heard of this type of scam.