I received and invoice from Direct Relief for $35 to help those affected by California wildfires.

SF_RodT
Contributor
Contributor

Hello Community,
I received an invoice from Direct Relief for $35 to "help those affected by wildfires". I did not order anything from anyone in the US. I live outside the US. It is marked as pending, and I have no intention of paying it willingly. Is this fraud? A scam? I tried to open a dispute and was not able to. What is this? Am I obligated to pay it? Thank you all for you help. Has anyone else received this invoice? I changed my password immediately.

Login to Me Too
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
Solved

PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your posts. We are very sorry for the confusion and frustration you may have experienced regarding the recent unsolicited donations invoices you may have received. Our teams are actively working to detect and remediate this fraudulent activity. Our customers should never pay an unsolicited invoice.

Customers may also cancel unwanted invoices from your account by following these steps:

· Log into your PayPal account
· Navigate to the “Activities” tab from the header options
· Locate the invoice and hit “Cancel”

After locating the invoice, if you see that it is already canceled, no further action is needed. If you have any questions about your account and wish to speak with a representative, please visit the Contact Us page to find contact options.

 

Olivia

 

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!

View solution in original post

Login to Me Too
73 REPLIES 73

ted321
Contributor
Contributor

You can go into your paypal account and cancel the pending invoice.

Login to Me Too

WindyWeather22
Contributor
Contributor

My daughter has tried and can't and Paypal won't do it for her either, so she's going to cancel her account as she feels that the account isn't safe

 

Login to Me Too

Sheaness
Contributor
Contributor

Once reading her to go to the website vs the app I did that and was able to cancel the invoice.  It was not clear at first how to cancel and I am not happy that Paypal has let this happen and am thinking I need to close my account for a while. 

Login to Me Too

casselantiques
Contributor
Contributor

How do you cancel these?  I've received two.

Login to Me Too

Mastergunner
Contributor
Contributor
I was surprised to find the same thing. I had to use a laptop computer to get into PayPal and found a "cancel" button on the full website. I clicked on it and the invoice was cancelled. I hope that helps you.
Login to Me Too

SF_RodT
Contributor
Contributor

I found a void option on the Paypal website on my Activity list and voided it. I suspect an email list has been hacked and used for this purpose. Demanding charity is shameful.

Login to Me Too

sjkst14
Contributor
Contributor

I had the exact same issue, and was able to cancel the invoice.  Either Direct Relief is sending unsolicited invoices or a hacker is using their name to scam people, either is unacceptable.  

Login to Me Too

Temp20200923a
Contributor
Contributor

Why isn't Paypal shutting this down immediately? Surely it is illegal to send an invoice for a 'product' you never requested? I'm assuming this is a total scam and the money is going directly into someone's pocket. If it is a legitimate charity, it should be shut down for criminal business practices. Preying on people who might want to help and trying to get them to think they promised something when they didn't is a scam, pure and simple, no matter who is running it.

Of course, individually, we can cancel the invoice, but that isn't a solution. It seems as if Paypal is willingly going along with this. I tried reporting this through the usual Paypal channels and the system breaks down at some point in trying to report it, so you can't even do that!  SHUT THIS SCAM DOWN NOW!

Login to Me Too

srrosey
Contributor
Contributor

Based on my prior experiences with Paypal, then tend to protect the fraudulent party over the inconvenienced user.  At the start of "safer at home" the number of merchants that took advantage buyers and Paypal forced us to go through our banks instead of refunding the money outright.  

Login to Me Too

Haven't Found your Answer?

It happens. Hit the "Login to Ask the community" button to create a question for the PayPal community.