Received invoice from one seller which I didn't make any purchase. Is it a scam?

MichaelCHK
Contributor
Contributor

Hi all. I received a notification from PayPal that someone sent me an invoice to make a payment of USD 500 for purchasing a anti virus software which I didn't make. Could I just leave it like that with out paying or how do I cancel or report this?

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jbane
New Community Member

The only issue with canceling the request is the sender is notified. Then the scammer knows at the very least they have hit a legitimate account. PayPal should offer a way to report these items or an option to silently cancel them. 

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Susanfarm
Contributor
Contributor

Same issue. 3 invoices for $499 on 5/10/22. 

Tried to cancel but reply is "invoice no longer available."

Wondering if somehow Paypal will acknowledge my attempts to cancel. 

 

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Gmitchell
New Community Member

I guess I got lucky, the $499 one I got for "services" was able to be cancelled.

I would suspect that the reason you're getting "unavailable" instead is because it has already been identified/flagged from one of the other recipients they scatter-bombed, and that you would get the same message if you tried to "pay invoice".  I definitely wouldn't count on that, especially given that the only communication from PayPal is that they don't allow you to report this "type of item".. for more information please consult our terms of service--a document that does not describe item types at all, specify what you're permitted to report, or contain the word "invoice" once.  In fact, given those things, I have very little faith in PayPal at all.  So if you find a way to contact a customer service person over it, that's probably a good idea for your own peace of mind. Perhaps we also should throw in a suggestion that they start allowing that type of fraud to be reported instead of requiring that it sit on your account as a pending item forever. Sure seems like a reasonable request for even a halfway functional company..

I'm not sure if anyone has suggested otherwise or not, but I also would very strongly discourage anyone from contacting the sender of the invoice, or using any of the links or phone numbers it contains.  Those may in fact be the true payload of the scam, getting people to call their fraud center and opt-in to further scamming.

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ksanchez0817
Contributor
Contributor
I actually contacted PayPal they said we can just ignore them, and we are not obligated to pay. I have gotten about 3 more invoices saying they same thing. I think they need to do better at flagging these and deactivating these scammers accounts because it’s just annoying lol
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kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@ksanchez0817 

 

Mentioned that 3 posts up from yours.


Advice is voluntary.
Kudos / Solution appreciated.
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BratnCute
Contributor
Contributor

ive called paypal twice to remove 2 invoices both for 619.99. there was a link that said cancel invoice but when i do the page screen says SOMETHINGS NOT RIGHT TRY AGAIN. I even got a phoney email with this invoice. I forward it to phishing @ paypal.com and that was over a week ago and still the 2 invoices are in my account saying 2 bills due. What do i do? I want to use my account but i'm now afraid for anyone to send me money or i send them.

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Temp20220716B
New Community Member

This exact thing happened to me as well. And Paypal wont let me cancel via the drop down menu next to the item - I also have an emailed invoice which is fraudulent for another 600 dollars but is not showing up in my pay pal account. The pay pal message bot is not helpful. And I've now been on hold for an hour trying to reach Pay Pal customer service. yes. I could probably ignore it, but I don't trust it. This has started happening in the last couple of months. Not sure if I need to change my password. By the way! The first time I got the email re the fraudulent charge I called the number on the email and the woman told me that they were Pay Pal and our call was being monitored by the FCC. She also told me to download anywhere desk app to share my screen with a code the app gives out. I thought Pay Pal wouldn't do that. And she's lying about the FCC. I was a consumer journalist for years. This is a terrible scam. I hung up and called the real pay pal and had it removed. 

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TJCat
Member
Member

Did you ever manage to get it removed?

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Smotbug
Contributor
Contributor
I have a simple and great idea for PayPal inorder to stop all these scam sites. Or at least minimize them. That will save them (and us) a lot of time money, and headache dealing with all these new scam sites that constantly bombard the internet. What PayPal should do is similar to what After pay does. Is to hold the funds and dont give it to the seller until after the buyer recived and verified the item. But give the buyer a week or so after shipping arrival date before sending funds to seller. In order to give the buyer time to verify they received it or not and it is the correct item. Once buyer verified or a week has passed then release funds to seller. If they make a dispute then it will give the seller more incentive to resolve the case. Also if the seller has a good standing reputation and customer service. Then at PayPal disgression can reduce the time it holds or immediately releases the sellers money. That way it not only will protect PayPal from losing money from buyers protection. Also reduce the amount of escalated disputes as sellers will be more opt to resolve and will just about completely stop all these scam sites using paypal all together once they realize it doesnt work anymore. When they try to scam and steal money from people, paypal and credit card companies trying to recover funds already sent to the criminals. ( Asking a criminal for your money back, obviously wont work!) Its like the old " Give me the money first!No, give me the item first". Its the typical Stalemate scenario if you dont know or trust the other guy yet! Just eliminate the trade directly between the two as a third party holding money until the seller builds trust. Because we all know the money is not fake, but question is, "what about the items". Its a simple solution for an age old problem.
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Rbatten
New Community Member

Me too. I’m ready to cancel my PayPal account. They should do better than allow this to happen. Not a user driven company.

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