Email from PayPal regarding BBC iplayer charges

[Jjjetplane25]

My friend received this email and she is very worried (she's a student with limited funds) and she's considering deleting her PayPal etc. I told her I'm 99% sure it is a scam but she isn't sure. I messaged PayPal on twitter but don't have a reply as of yet so thought I would ask here. It is regarding a BBC iPlayer charge of 33.40. The email address is: xit_fqzn_e4 homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk - the email address doesn't seem to be a legit PayPal email address however th home office and gov.uk has her worried. She doesn't check her bank transactions as she doesn't have online banking and there is no transaction on her PayPal account. However she is also worried someone may know her password or account details and could or already have hacked her. The email also has a link for a cancellation refund but when she clicks on it nothing loads I don't think this is in the right section I struggled to find the write section for my query. Thanks so much

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@Jjjetplane25

The scam is that cancellation link, they want you to be worried and to cancel it.

If you clicked on the link (which you should NEVER do) then normally it would ask you to log in so they can capture you log in info or bank details.

Paypal would NEVER tell you to cancel a transaction in this way. If there was a suspect transaction they would tell you to log in normally and go to the message centre or the resolution centre.

Also paypal emails for payments do not include cancel links.

But as she clicked on the link i would advise her to run an anti-virus scan on her computer and also change her paypal password and security questions just to be on the safe side.

Also read this  >>

https://www.paypal.com/selfhelp/article/FAQ2061/2