PayPal business account

[tiikopapas]

Hi, everyone!

I was trying to receive a payment, but I received an email saying that there was a problem crediting the account because the status of may account is not a business user.

Also, it says that, to expand my limit, I have to contact the sender and request send 200 USD to my account and I have to refund that money to that person.

The sender did it, and I got another email saying that I'm a business user now. Also, I have to make the refund and notify to PayPal to get the initial transaction complete.

Is this true? Do we got scammed? 

[DKell]

This exact scenario happened to me yesterday but for $300, which I paid. After submitting the payment I realized it was a scam. PayPal says that because it was through friends & family they cannot cancel the payment and that I need to ask the recipient to refund it to me. The $309 ($300 + $9 fee) payment is pending on my account with my credit union. I can file a fraud claim with them but have to wait until it clears to do so. I don’t know what else to do! 😞

[PayPal_Bindu]

Hello @tiikopapas and @DKell,

Welcome to our community help forum and thanks for posting!

I understand you're looking to receive payments to your PayPal account. PayPal will never ask the receiver to request money or to upgrade to Business account in order to receive payments. It sounds like the email you have received was not from PayPal. In a greeting, PayPal emails always use the customer's name. If you receive any email about activity on a PayPal account, the safest way to confirm the email’s validity is to log in to a PayPal account via the PayPal website (not using the links in the email received). Any of the activity reported in the email will be available to view. You can learn more information about handling fake, fraudulent, or phishing PayPal email or website here.

@DKell Unfortunately, Personal payments are not covered under our protection policy. When there's a problem with friends and family payment, we strongly encourage the sender and recipient to work together toward a resolution. If a resolution can't be met and you paid via card or bank, you may want to reach out to your financial institution to seek other dispute options. 

To avoid such issues in the future and to avail of PayPal's purchase protection, always send your payment as Goods & Service (instead of friends & Family). So if you have any issue with the transaction, you can dispute it with us and we can help you with a refund if eligible.
 

I hope this information helps!

Bindu

[Ryee100]

It's definitely a method of scam. First off, the email that I received had inconsistent titles. They were from 'PayPal' instead of starting with 'Service'. That alone I should've been able to tell it was from an invalid cooperation and definitely wasn't PayPal. I have a random person reach out to me in Instagram asking me to do an art commission for him. In my experimce, It was my first time using PayPal, and I failed to pay attention to the small details that I was a scam for 200 dollars. To the guy who claimed that he payed 200 dollars in addition to the 300 dollars he was paying me in order to upgrade my PayPal account into a Business account and what not. I was naive for believing that at the bottom of the additional fee email stated: "Note: Failure to make the refund means your Name and Address will be forwarded to the Law Enforcement Agency, which may result in an Arrest." Along with everything else in the payment confirmation email it all sounded too real and sincere. Anyhow this Is the sender email you should look out for: [removed]

[hano123]

What happened after this incident? We are now being threatened by someone in instagram with the same reason. i am an artist who live off of commissions so i was really excited with the transaction even I was not familiar with this app. Now I am stressing about going to jail because I did not give a refund. I don't know what to feel.

[CliffWeissman]

I also had the same situation and glad I checked with this community before sending $300 to the scammer.

Many thanks for confirming I did the right thing by not sending him any money. I also tried to get him to prove he was for real by offering a painting at a low price and of course it's sitting as an unpaid invoice.

[ariannac1]

It just happened to me the same. Thanks to this community I could learn and avoid the scam! I received multiple emails from [Removed] (notice the double 'a' in paypaal), by saying the same. The person told me that they sent me 250$ and then 300$ to reach the limit for the business account. In my Paypal, there is no transaction and I should refund 300$ to this person and trust them. Also in my case they specify that I should send the money via 'family and friends'. I forwarded this page to them and they are not replying anymore.