I received an email saying that I needed to upgrade to business

[Stenia7]

I received an email saying i needed to upgrade to business to receive my money and then asked to refund the person with 50 euros even though I didnt receive any money from them. Is this a scam? I already sent the money and paypal emailed me that i need to wait for 24 hours to check the transactions and then I will receive my money.

[PayPal_JonK]

Hello @Stenia7, 

Welcome to the PayPal Community. I'm glad you reached out regarding these emails you've been receiving. Unfortunately, this does not sound like standard PayPal practices. We normally do not require our users to upgrade to a Business account or send a refund to receive funds. Please cross-check the info in this article with the emails you've been receiving: How do I spot and report a fake PayPal email or website?

I'm sorry if this ends up being a fraudulent situation. If you sent the funds as Friends and Family, unfortunately there's not an option to dispute this transaction through PayPal. I would recommend reaching out to your bank or card company if you funded the transaction with them to see what options - if any - are available. 

If you sent this as a Goods and Services transaction, I'd recommend opening a dispute to see what course of action is available.

I hope that helps!

 - Jon K
 

[Dangkimoanh]

I had the same problem and I lost a lot of money. So how do I get my money back? I transfer money through friends and family

[gillyarch]

Just been scammed.. well nearly! 

I was selling a dress on facebook market place. Said to the chap I only accept paypal. 

The dress was £75 - and postage about £15. He said what is your best offer? I said I have literally only put the item up for sale. If no one else is interested, then I shall knock it down to £65. He then comes back and says ok, I will offer you £100 including the postage. I was deal! (could not at first understand why he would bargain with me then go up higher than my initial price). But now I have realised it was all part of the `trusting me` ploy. He then said I have sent it to you. I had no received it. He said that he had received an email saying that as my account needed to be upgraded to business or else the money would not go through and had I also received that email. After 10 minutes the email came through. I said yes it had. He literally was pestering me for me to send a screen shot. I said hold on - i have 3 monitors and need to crop out information! he was insistent. He then said that he would pay the £100 to upgrade to business account, if I paid him straight away the money. Within minutes, this upgrade had been set up and sure enough an email came through. He kept saying you can now send me the £100. I was.. but hold fire.. something does not like right.  He was - what do you mean, I paid the money. You can transfer it to me, so you can `claim` you £100 for the item!!! 

I was quickly looking onto paypal community and saw about this being a scam and I also have a friend who works for the special fraud squad, so I sent her the email - she said it is a scam and to block him - which I have done.

These people make you think you are their `friend`. They are not. They are scammers. From now on I am not trusting anyone. 

[Temp20231218A]

I received email from buyer saying they would pay for something I am selling through PayPal. I then received what looked like legitimate email from "PayPal" saying I had been upgraded to business account and I needed to refund buyer money before I could be credited. I quickly realised I was potentially being scammed when buyer became defensive when I questioned this, and refused to pay. I checked PayPal info and forwarded screenshot to buyer stating this was not normal PayPal procedure. Thecbuter quicly stated they were not a scammer, quoted acts from the bible and swore on their childrens lives. Up to thIs point I was nearly taken in as conversation had been flowing. I quickly ended chat and blocked the buyer. I then received another email saying my personal information and photos would be forwarded to federal law enforcement agencies. I live in UK so jit concerned by this, but again confirmation I have been scammed. I have forwarded all emails to PayPal phishing address. But I am worried as scammer has my email address, PayPal user account details and stupidly I shared my home address during conversation as they asked where pick up was before I realised it was a scam. So obviously I am worried about identity fraud. Can hackers gain access to bank account details through PayPal? I have quite robust security on my online banking I have also changed my PayPal security settings. Feel very sad fraudsters are out their targeting trusting people. Annoyed as well as they said they were in hospital and I kindly wished them to get well soon. grrrrrf!!!!

[PayPal_Ayesha]

Hello @Temp20231218A,

Welcome to PayPal Community Forum and thank you for posting!

I am glad that you have forwarded the email to our concerned team and I know this kind of situations will be concerning. Whenever you receive email make sure that you're not clicking on any links. Here's how to spot fake emails through this Help center Article. Since you are worried about the identity theft and suspect that someone would steal your personal information, it's very important to act as quickly as possible to minimize potential harm. Here's what I suggest to do: Change your passwords, PINs, and security questions on all your online accounts immediately. This includes email accounts, because fraudsters can use these to gain access to other online accounts. Review your account information. Make sure that your contact information is up-to-date on all your online accounts and no unknown phone numbers or email addresses have been added to your accounts. Review your recent account activity. Check all your online accounts, including your email accounts. Look for anything suspicious, because this can help identify how long ago you may have been compromised and will prepare you for conversations with your financial institutions and law enforcement if needed. Contact PayPal and your financial institutions immediately, if there are any unauthorized activity found on the account.

Regards,

Ayesha

[ianclare1]

I have just had the same experience selling a golf trolley for £100 and receiving an email saying I need to ask for another £250 which I can then refund. The email came from [removed] Not the PayPal email address I would be expecting to see.

[The1963Doctor]

I had this email today after trying to sell something on Facebook marketplace. I asked the buyer to use friends and family but they instantly sent is as a business. Then I received the email stating the funds (£200) were pending until I upgraded to a business account. It said to ask the potential buyer to send another £200 to me to unlimit my account then I would have to refund them the original £200.  Didn't sound right so I told them to forget it. Funnily enough the message on marketplace initially came through as spam - that's never happened before from a genuine buyer. I still don't see how that one would work though. I would have the money and the goods???

[MozaDeer]

Well yeah, same. I was doing a small art commission and then when they sent me the money suddenly a email showed up that i had reach the limit. The name of the mail was suspicious tho, it told me to the buyer to add another 400$, when they did it came another mail. It still pending but it said i have to refund the 400$ to them. I didnt do it btw, i keep searching on those community post and it was a scam. I was like hold on, why my money isn’t came on my paypal yet? So i decided to ignore it for now

[kernowlass]

@MozaDeer 

SCAM
You never pay any upfront fee as a seller or to receive payments into a Paypal account.

Ignore scammers that send fake Paypal emails telling you that you need to pay an upfront fee to verify/upgrade to a business account/or any other reason to accept a payment.

You would certainly never have to send funds especially via another payment processor/bitcoins/ or tokens/vouchers of any sort.

Any fee is auto deducted by Paypal at the same instant the remainder of the payment is credited to your Paypal account balance.

No funds in your balance = you have not yet been paid, even pending/held payments will still show in your Paypal account activity.