Have been sent a fairly large sum of money in error. Is this a scam?

[Penny83]

Hi I've been sent money by someone who is claiming I have a similar name to their family member and so they sent it in error. They've asked me to send the money back. The family member has also asked for it to be forwarded to them. I don't want the money and it isn't mine, but I've seen online that this can be a scam where the money was sent from a stolen bank card. If I refund the money, the stolen card company weeks later can take the money from me as well. Has anyone heard of this? PayPal are saying just refund it. But that doesn't protect me from it being reclaimed later on if the person is using stolen money?

[kernowlass]

@Penny83 

If you 'refund' a payment then no one can take it from you.

Its easy enough for someone to make a typo and the funds go to another person.

Check on the details page of the transaction to make sure you were not charged a fee, if not then click on the refund option and send it back again.

If you were charged a fee then tell them that you will do a part refund minus the fee element as it was not your error so you should not have to pay any fee.

[Penny83]

Hi thanks for your reply. I've googled though and someone thinks that if the original money was sent from a stolen bank card, that I'd be liable to repay that back to the card (as well as then having refunded to the scammer). I just want the whole thing to go away as I'm getting emails from them but don't want to be out of pocket if it's stolen money and I have to repay it again one day.

[kernowlass]

@Penny83 

If you refunded then you would not be liable.

However if you don't refund then the sender may be able to raise a dispute OR do a chargeback in which case you may well end up paying the fee and having a dispute on your record.

I have had 2 payments over the years from accidental sending of funds, I just hit refund, end of.

But if you prefer to believe incorrect google information then feel free to do so OR go double check with customer services who will tell you the same thing.