Money appeared in my Paypal account without any traces of its origin and fake Paypal email

[Heartweaver]

I received what I believe to be a forged email from Paypal, claiming that I have sent money from my bank account to my Paypal. The flaw is that, I do not have that much money in my bank account in the first place, and my bank balance has not gone negative, which is suspicious. The login time is also at a time when I was not online at all, so I couldn't have done the transfer.

I believe it was the work of a scammer, who claims that he wants to buy my Chromebook on Craigslist, yet he refuses to meet up and insists on paying with Paypal. I have found suspicious login activity in my Gmail account, which is linked to my Paypal and bank account, which is apparently "authorised". I have changed all the passwords for all my online accounts. I asked the scammer for his email address so I can return the money, but he has not replied. A few days ago, there was a suspicious login notification from my Facebook, but I brushed it off as my husband was messing around with my tablet, which has my FB account connected to it. Perhaps all these might be linked?

[PayPal_Conor]

Hi Hearweaver,.

Thanks for making us aware of this.

This does sound like the work of scammer and I suspect that although an email you received said you got a payment, no such payment was ever sent through the PayPal system: http://ow.ly/WseKf

You were right to be suspicious. Did you ever reply to one of these emails and disclose your Paypal login details? If not, your PayPal account should still be nice and safe and you would be best to break off all communications with this individual.

I'm glad you were so vigilant and changed the passwords for your online accounts so quickly and I hope this will ensure the security of your online profiles 🙂

Conor