Received invoice from one seller which I didn't make any purchase. Is it a scam?

MichaelCHK
Contributor
Contributor

Hi all. I received a notification from PayPal that someone sent me an invoice to make a payment of USD 500 for purchasing a anti virus software which I didn't make. Could I just leave it like that with out paying or how do I cancel or report this?

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kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@Sarathehealer 


Sounds like a scam money request or invoice.

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 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.


Advice is voluntary.
Kudos / Solution appreciated.
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Sarathehealer
Contributor
Contributor
Thank you. I cancelled the order and blocked them too. 👍🏽 All the best, Sara
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hernanjg
Member
Member

@kernowlass wrote:


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.


That's what I'd expect. But in my case, I received a mail today that alerts me about a suspicious money request, and asks me to phone to cancel it:

It seems that the default action (if I do not take action) is to approve the transfer (!!!)

> please call us at toll free number [Removed. Phone #s not permitted]to cancel and claim a refund. If this is not the case, you will be charged $699. 99 today
 

 

The mail seems legit, I logged in my paypal account and found the same notification.

Scary.

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hc13
Contributor
Contributor
Thank you for the reply I’ve had two requests in 24hours for €599 from different email addresses. I’ll just ignore them.
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jedi4ce
New Community Member

If you have received a scam/fraudulent invoice like many others have, including myself, here are the steps to cancel the scam/fraudulent invoice as PayPal doesn't have an easy way to do it with a button or something similar.

 

Step 1:  Log into PayPal

Step 2:  Click on the invoice to open it (DO NOT CLICK PAY)

Step 3:  Once the invoice is open on your screen click on the URL bar at the top of your webpage and add "?action=cancel" without the parentheses to the end of the web address and hit enter.  This will bring up another screen allowing you to add notes/comments to the scammer and click to cancel the invoice.

 

It will still show up on your Dashboard but it will have a line through it and it will say canceled.

 

Hope this is helpful to some.  I just received one for $600 for 3x Target eGift Cards from [removed].  Stay frosty folks. 

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jhips
New Community Member

Thank you so much. 

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rhonc
New Community Member

Thank you

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PleaseFixIt
New Community Member

PayPal should take proactive action on these fraudulent invoices.  There should be a mechanism to report these invoices and categorize them as fraud.  Simply cancelling them is not an issue.  The emails these fraudulent invoices are sent from should be blocked.

 

To the Community...please note the last one I received the fraudster used the notes section of the invoice to include a message which appeared to be from PayPal with an 877 number to call to resolve this matter.  Clearly a phishing attempt.

 

To PayPal...you've taken a very lazy approach to dealing with this scam and I suspect we will see incremental increases in fraudulent invoices until you build out the types of security features the community expects, particularly on a pay platorm.

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DesertRat-1
Member
Member

Thanks for the advice. I wish the "fix" had worked but it didn't. What is extremely infuriating is that there is no way to actually DELETE this $500 invoice from my account so I'm constantly afraid I'll accidentally hit "Pay" and be **bleep** for it. I did submit a fraudulent transaction request and was told it was considered an "unauthorized transaction."

 

SO WHY DOES PAYPAL LEAVE IT UP ON MY ACCOUNT TO ACCIDENTALLY PAY? 

 

My husband created a separate bank account just for PayPal and moves just enough money into it to pay for his transactions. I'm not about to do that so, unless PayPal removes it, I'm going to delete my account. 

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vicky221
New Community Member

I have received two fraudulent payment requests for large sums of money from two different people this week.   Both times Paypal has picked up on these and warned me and I declined the payments.  How is this happening and what can I do to stop it in the future?  One of them stated that I only had 12 hours to decline the payment or it would have gone through and I'm worried about missing one.  I have already changed my password but i'm wondering if i should close my account and create a new one.  I don't use paypal very often.

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