Random money received.

[GetGoodSenpai]

I have have money sent me from a random person which is still in my account currently, any advice?

I have had money sent me on four occasions on the 27th March. One was cancelled and 3 have been refunded. I still have £147 sitting in my account. This is from a random person I do not know but they have two different address for them according to these random payments and one email address. I also received a text asking me if I was trying to spend money so it would seem to be a scam. Any advice with what to do with this final sum of money would be great. Thank you and stay safe.

[sharpiemarker]

@GetGoodSenpai 

Click on the transaction in your PayPal account, then click "Refund this payment" so the money will go back to wherever it came from.

[GetGoodSenpai]

@sharpiemarker 
Hello!

Annoyingly they have been a bit weird on the amounts they refunded back to themselves. They have made it so I cannot refund the exact amount remaining to any of the transactions they made.. if that makes sense? So he requested lower and higher quantities back due to the fact he sent 3 different values 3 different times then refunded them in different amounts. The 4th payment does not match the remaining amount, its actually higher then my current amount. It's very strange so I cannot completely return the entire amount using his payments. It is quite frustrating I cannot show you photo evidence.

[sharpiemarker]

@GetGoodSenpai 

Did all the payments that was sent to you, say "Payment Received" as the status? Or Money Received? 

Sender cannot refund back to themselves. You, as the recipient has to issue a refund, and the best way to refund is through the "Refund this payment" button within the received payment transactions. Are you saying that the sender is sending you money requests and you pay them to return the money they sent you? 

If they sent goods and services payments PayPal takes their fee and the difference in fees come out of your pocket if you refund in full. If friends and family payments were sent, just refund from within the transaction and there would be no fee.

Some people are bored due to what is currently happening in the world and is trying to get into some hi-jinx and try to swindle some money off a victim.

[GetGoodSenpai]

Hello @sharpiemarker 

Let me try and write it how I see these processes in my account, this will be in order from bottom to top. Bottom being the first process, top being the last process that happened:

I am left with £147.75 and I cannot refund this to any of those transactions. I hope this shows it more clearly for you.  Also note I have not refunded any of these processes myself, this happened over night whilst I was asleep.

"User Name" - £147.31 (£154.90 - Fee reversal £7.59).

Refund Sent 

"User Name" - £147.31 (£154.90 - Fee reversal £7.59).

Refund Sent 

"User Name" + £148.65 (£156.62 - Fee £7.97)
Money Received 

"User Name" 20,698 JPY - CANCELLED

"User Name" - £148.61 (£156.27 - Fee reversal £7.66)

Refund sent 

"User Name" + £147.01 (£154.90 - fee of £7.89)
Refunded - Money received

"User Name" + £147.01 (£154.90 - fee of £7.89)
Refunded - Money received

"User Name" + £147.01 (£154.90 - fee of £7.89)
Refunded - Money received

[sharpiemarker]

@GetGoodSenpai 

These 3 transactions below are the original transactions that were refunded:

"User Name" + £147.01 (£154.90 - fee of £7.89)
Refunded - Money received

"User Name" + £147.01 (£154.90 - fee of £7.89)
Refunded - Money received

"User Name" + £147.01 (£154.90 - fee of £7.89)
Refunded - Money received

and when you refunded them, each of the above should have a corresponding 'Refund Sent' transaction listing, but there is only 2:

"User Name" - £147.31 (£154.90 - Fee reversal £7.59).

Refund Sent 

"User Name" - £147.31 (£154.90 - Fee reversal £7.59).

Refund Sent 

This "Refund Sent" transaction below doesn't have a corresponding "Refunded - Money Sent" original transaction listing, surely it can't be associated with the 3 at the top:

"User Name" - £148.61 (£156.27 - Fee reversal £7.66)

Refund sent 

(I wonder if forex has anything to do with it but it doesn't explain the gross amount being different, £156.27 and not £154.90. Or does it. Its a mystery. Was there a currency conversion when you received the money? Click on the transaction for details on that.) 🤔

So now, you need to refund this but you only have £147.75, off by 90p:

"User Name" + £148.65 (£156.62 - Fee £7.97)
Money Received

Very odd. Take a chance and add 90p or heck, just refund only £147.75 and be done with it.

[GetGoodSenpai]

Hello @sharpiemarker 

Just to let you know, I did not issue these refunds.. so did that user have access to my account and refund these themselves? I have now changed my password and set up 2 factor auth (I thought I had this originally).

Regarding to the conversion query, all was sent to me and refunded in GBP which is my countries currency so no conversion took place.

The fee's again, I am not sure, all I know is that the user sent these payments from two different USA addresses in total so it could be that or they sent it as goods and services.

I am not sure why the values are all so different from one another regarding to your latest reply.. again this is very confusing to me.

I guess I will just refund that amount back to him as you suggested and be done with it, just really concerned why all this happened though.

Thank you for the help with this.

EDIT: I cannot refund this amount using the PayPal balance.. it wants to take the refund from my bank account.. Guess I am going to have to wait to hear back from PayPal.

[sharpiemarker]

@GetGoodSenpai 

"Just to let you know, I did not issue these refunds.."

What? Really?! Hmmmm. Spooky. That or PayPal did it when sender go a hold of them. Man, I dunno. Good move with changing passwords.

You're welcome. Do a sweep of your devices with a powerful antivirus software.

[sharpiemarker]

@GetGoodSenpai 

The more I look at it, the more I think forex fluctuations has to do with. I mean how do you receive £147.01 and then when you refund, its £147.31?