Felt very uncomfortable with call received from a "PayPal" Fraud specialist.... was this real?

[Dee1414]

I received an email purporting to come from Paypal that I had a money request and that I was to call a number within the email to check on the validity of this request.  I logged into my PayPal account and saw that indeed a $500 request from a person who I do not know was on my dashboard.  I never use PayPal to send money to individuals.  I tried to call the Fraud phone number on the website but there was no reply but I did leave a message.  After this call I "cancelled" the fraudulent money request.  A few seconds later a call fro[Removed. Phone #s not permitted]came in from someone saying that they were from PayPal.  This man appeared to know about the transaction and told me that the money had already been sent but that it would take 10 days before it would appear on my credit card.  He demanded that I open a new tab and type in a URL so that he could "help" me secure my account.  I explained that I was not comfortable following his instructions as I did not know who he was as it was an incoming call for me.  He became quite belligerent and said that I will loose the funds if I don't follow his instructions.  I hung up.  I would like to avoid anything like this happening to me again.  How can I go about doing this?  Thank you. 

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@Dee1414 

Scam money request or invoice that shows in your Paypal account..

Scammers harvest email addresses and send out money requests or invoices hoping that some of those email addresses are linked to an open Paypal account.

The unsuspecting recipient is given a fake Paypal phone number in the 'notes' section added by the scammer.
If you did call that number (DO NOT) to query the transaction the scammer tells you that they need to access your computer / Paypal account to cancel that transaction for you.
They will then hack your computer or Paypal account.

Paypal never put phone numbers on emails or in money requests/invoices, they tell you to contact them via help/contact bottom of their website pages.

If there is a cancel option then cancel it, if not ignore it and it should time out at 30 days.
As long as you don't click to pay it then no money would be transferred.

[Dee1414]

Very clear answer and advice. Msny thanks. I received a 5 a.m. call today from someone who said they were from Paypal but they hung up most likely was incoherant. If they call again I will $@&%$÷! to them.