Text message from <removed>

Rutro
New Community Member

I received a txt from <removed> asking the following is this from paypal?

Msg from PayPal: Transaction of -$**.00 USD with The **** **** on May 9, 2017 has been marked as suspicious. Reply "Yes" if authorized or "No" if not authorized.

 

I did make the transaction but have never received this before and in todays world, one never knows.

 

THX

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75 REPLIES 75

Rujiao
New Community Member

I just received a similar SMS from the same number. After confirming with Paypal through their customer service number, the number was confirmed as official number and the message was sent by PayPal.

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marstar
Contributor
Contributor

That seems odd that the number is actually Paypal number because I received two texts regarding sums of $1382.66 and one for $1486.23... both transactions which I did not attempt.... When checking my activity, nothing is reflected... When I received the  first text, I got scared and quickly answered no... The second text made me suspicious, so i didn't reply at all... So wouldn't you think some kind of activity would be reflected??? Super odd.

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Mynock77
New Community Member

This morning I got a phone call at 7:06 in the morning from "Paypal Inc" at Go to https://www.paypal.com/help and click "Call Us". It was an automated recording claiming to be "Paypal Automated Confirmation Service" and asking me to input my confirmation number. Since this was completely out of the blue I had no confirmation number for anything to enter. I had not done anything at all with Paypal in days. Therefore, I hung up. After googling the number, at least according to the info I found, it indicated that it was ligitimate, but it rarely calls people. Typically it is just the number displayed on a person's bank account when Paypal charges them for overdrawing. However, I did not overdraw, as I have not even purchased anything using Paypal in ages.

 

This all alarmed me enough that I changed the password and security questions on both my Paypal account and my bank account. A few minutes later I got a text messge from <removed> again claiming to be from Paypal and giving me a "security code" that it claimed would expire in 10 minutes. I did not request a security code to be sent to me. So, again suspicious, I went to Paypal and put in the new password I had created minutes earlier. It logged me in fine without even asking me for a security code.

 

No idea what any of that means in terms of ligitimacy of either number, but that was my experience.

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TXGRunner
Contributor
Contributor

Interesting...what a hamfisted way to handle confirmations and security. No notification via email, no notification within the account, and then the cryptic and illogical (the second text is sent to a number they claim is invalid...so how would that work?) second text suggesting we should blindly send an action message to ...what number?

 

Worse, the message was in error. The transaction completed without issue, no confirmation required.

 

Whoever thought this confirmation procedure was a good idea was drunk, stupid, or both.

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Karen1346
New Community Member

I called PayPal Support to ask if <removed> is their valid Txt Msg number, and they verified that they do used this TXT number whenever certain info is temporarily not available at the time of the transaction, such as the user's current location.  For example, I had used a new iPad, that I had not previously used for Paypal, so I received an email verification, followed an hour later with a text msg verification request (I had never received a txt msg verification, before).  So <removed> is a valid Txt Msg number for verifying PayPal transactions.

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jd72067
Member
Member

I too have been receiving these messages EVERYDAY - sat on hold with paypal to CONFIRM that no activity has been attempted on my account - this is a scam and DELETE the message.  DO NOT RESPOND...

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NorMol
New Community Member

I just received the exact text message. And it's weird I haven't used paypal in quite some time and my payment options are not linked. Scammers.

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mrgamartin
New Community Member

I received a similar message and also got a 2 phone calls from Go to https://www.paypal.com/help and click "Call Us". I called Paypal and talked to them, and both numbers are not theirs. Don't reply to them or give them any information. 

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scottishmike
Contributor
Contributor

I've just received this text message. If its a scam, how do they know the transaction time and amount I made this morning?

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VinceM
New Community Member

I just got it too, but the amount was missing:

 

"PayPal: Di you recently attempt to make a payment for ?" and then the rest of the message.  Reeks of scam.

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