Is this fraud, why are Paypal phone support asking for secret answers?

[markpalmos]

Hello all,

See the screen grabs. I got this email saying there is a £750 "estimate" on my account... it seems to come from paypal.

I followed the link to "view your estimate" and it took me to the second screen grab page, also looked official, from https://www.paypal.com...
I phoned the number at the bottom of this page [removed], and got through someone who I could hardly hear, and who asked me to tell him the code he sent me, which I did, and then asked for the answer to one of my secret questions... so I became suspicious and asked him how I was to believe who he was... he put the phone down!

Screen grab 3 shows the balance on my account, 0.00... so I don't know what this is, real, fraud, whatever... I have changed my password and secret questions now, so hopefully this nonsense will stop, but I want to know if this site on Screengrab2 is correct, and if the number I spoke to [removed]is really Paypal or some scam.

It's very frustrating that Paypal make it so difficult to speak to someone to place a block on anything to do with this transaction, annoying I have to just wait for some unknown period for something to happen before I can then report it as a fraudulent activity.

Thscreen grab 1screen grab 1screen grab 2screen grab 2anks, Mark.

[kernowlass]

@markpalmos 

If its a spoof then NEVER USE ANY LINK OR ANY PHONE NUMBER.

Firstly if the email/text addressed you as ''Dear Member'' / ''Customer'' / ''Client'' OR your ''email address'' then that confirms its a spoof as paypal would address you by your full name eg Dear John Smith.

Secondly if there was a link OR attachment in that email/text to ''cancel'' any transaction or ''confirm'' any details then again it would be a spoof.

Or if it was an estimate or pending invoice and they ask you to call the number in the email then it would be fake paypal agents trying to scam you for money to 'fix' something. 

If there was a problem with your account Paypal would not ask you to click on an unsafe link in an email / download an attachment OR phone them on a number in an email, they would direct you to log in normally and go to the resolution or the message centre for more information.

More info here >>
https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/how-do-i-spot-and-report-a-fake%2C-fraudulent%2C-or-phis...
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/security/suspicious-activity

[markpalmos]

Hi @kernowlass thanks for your response.

For some reason 2 of the 3 images I uploaded were not visible, so you'd have seen a bit more... I have re uploaded them.

The email I got was addressed to Anni [removed], I have no idea who she is!

But the View Your Estimate button does link to https://www.paypal.com ... so that does not seem dodgy.

The phone number you are asked to call, is that a REAL PAYPAL SUPPORT NUMBER? that's the main question, if this phone number is really a paypal support team number... 

[removed]

Thanks, 

Mark.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @markpalmos,

Thank you for your posts and welcome to the Community Forum!

I'm sorry to hear that you have spoken to a fraudster and provided information that they might use to access your account. Good move changing your password and security questions! If you find any unauthorized activity in your account, be sure to report it right away.

As @kernowlass stated, calling numbers and/or clicking links in a fake email will only lead to to a fraudster's phishing phone numbers and/or websites. If you ever receive an email that you were not expecting regarding your PayPal account, you can log into your account using a fresh browser window and visiting paypal.com. If you ever have further questions about anything you see in your account, contact PayPal Customer support using the instructions in that linked article or the Contact link at the bottom of the PayPal website. Never use any numbers that you found by searching in a search engine or from an email you received.

The images and information in your posts that were removed were removed in compliance with our Guidelines for the safety of all. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Olivia

[markpalmos]

Hi Paula, thanks for the response, 

Unfortunately there was no way to know whether the email was fraudulent or not as it was from paypal, and the link in it linked TO paypal.com... so the only reason to suspect it was that it addressed some other person, not me!

Also, very unfortunately, the paypal support pages are completely useless, and almost impossible to speak to someone. I spent ages trying that, and this is why I am her on this forum, the "phone support"  takes you round in circles, you don't get to speak to anyone, and the "message" service is just a search system which spits out generic responses based on your search... really very poor customer support. All I wanted was to EASILY speak to a real person so they could verify that there is no PENDING dodgy sale which does not yet show on my account, and also to trace and block this person who is trying to scam me. Sadly I do not leave this issue with good feelings towards Paypal, they have done the very minimum to help and it has taken hours of my time.

Regards,

Mark [removed].

[kernowlass]

@markpalmos 

Scammers harvest email addresses and send out those requests hoping some email addresses are linked to paypal accounts and the unsuspecting recipient 'may' pay them not realising they are scams.

If there is nothing in your paypal account then just ignore it, sometimes its just a scam wanting you to phone them so that they can scam you over the phone. 
Other times its a pending invoice but no one you know or owe so then If there is a cancel option then cancel it, if not ignore it and hopefully it should time out at some point. 

As long as you don't click to pay it then no money should be transferred.