Email Confirmation, but Payment is Missing

[ParkerHoyt]

Hi, I recently sold something on Facebook Marketplace. I sent the buyer a money request and he "fulfilled" it. I received an email with a subject saying "you've got money" and an email saying I've been sent the money. The only problem is that it doesn't show up in my activity or my wallet. I thought maybe it just took a little while, but it's almost been a day now and it's still not there. My email is confirmed, but I'm not even sure that could be a problem since I sent him a money request. Same reason I don't think he could have sent it to the wrong email. (I have since changed my email after joining PayPal). I guess it could be a scam, but the email saying I have money was sent by the same "person" that sent me an email after I requested money from the buyer, and the buyer sent me a picture showing that he paid the money. Any ideas on what the problem is? Do I just need to wait longer? Thanks in advance.

[ParkerHoyt]

One more thing I forgot to mention: If I click on the "Get the Details" button in the " You've got Money" email, it takes me to a PayPal page that says "Oops, that page doesn't exist"

[Oregon11]

@ParkerHoyt

Try this PayPal link from a desktop browser and see if the payment shows in your balance and/or in the activity section.

https://paypal.com/history

[ParkerHoyt]

It stills says I have $00.00. Thanks for the response

[Oregon11]

@ParkerHoyt

One way to tell if the email is fake; is if the sending address does not end with the legitimate paypal.com domain. The domain of a fake PayPal email will be from somewhere other than paypal.com. No matter how good someone is at making a fake PayPal email, they can never fake the paypal.com domain.

Also, emails from PayPal will always address you by your first and last names or business name.

You should contact PayPal support before shipping anything if the payment doesn't show in your account.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @Oregon11,

Thank you for your post! As always, it's very helpful. Are you certain about the appearance of the actual domain in the email? I could be mistaken, but I believe there have been ways in the past to mask the sending email address, to make it appear that a different domain is the sender, especially if you're not looking at the raw headers of the email and relying only on what immediately appears. Unless that's changed, it may be possible to trick the casual observer. Additionally, there are sneaky tricks that fraudsters can also employ, like using an uppercase letter i instead of a lowercase letter L, and so forth. To be on the safest side, I always suggest to examine any email critically and if in doubt, to open a fresh browser window and log in to paypal.com by typing the domain in the address bar instead of clicking a link. 

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[Oregon11]

@PayPal_Olivia

That's right, Olivia. A fake email can be set up so it looks like it was sent from the real paypal.com domain when you first look at the sent address. The format from one email provider to another can make it so that these details are not so easy notice or find.

@ParkerHoyt There are fake PayPal emails where the address is spoofed to make it look like it ends with the paypal.com domain, at first glance. There should be a type of drop down box tab, or show original tab in the email, where you can see the full and actual sent from email address.