Paypal Prenote Transaction

[kcw4]

I recently saw a $0 Paypal Prenote transaction posted to my linked checking account.  I have never seen this before.  As I understand it a prenote is a way of validating account information. I did not recently setup any kind of direct deposit. Is this normal or some sort of phishing/fraud attempt?

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @vworthing10,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the community! It sounds like you may have added the bank account to your account, possibly for the purposes of account verification, at some point. If it's not showing in your account's Wallet, you can contact Customer Service to ask a representative to search the system using the bank account number to see if you ever added it on a different account. Click Contact at the bottom of the PayPal website for contact options.

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[vworthing10]

We already called PayPal to confirm that no bank account has ever been linked to any PayPal accounts we have. Are you an actual PayPal employee or one of the people running the scam?

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @vworthing10,

Thank you for your caution. You can read about how to differentiate PayPal employees from other posters in this post.

I recommend contacting one more time and ask them to search using the bank account number, in a kind of backwards search. That way if there any old accounts that you don't recall that are associated with the bank account, they'll come up. Sometimes people don't recall older connections.

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[vworthing10]

I tried to call and look up the account number but because it is not associated with MY Paypal account I cannot get the information on who is on the account tied to MY bank account. The representative was very unhelpful and refused to forward my call to a supervisor. There was no notification that the bank account was going to be credited and there is no information on any log-ins tied to said bank account from any log in associated with my personal use. If Paypal is doing a mass ACH test on all bank accounts, whether tied to open active Paypal users or not, shouldn't at least the banks be made aware of this type of mass test so that their customers don't immediately close their accounts? I am very unhappy with the fact that my bank account has been pinged by your service and there is nothing your company can do to provide HOW they obtained that number.

[chpis]

Why don't you'll inform if you are going to send a Prenote. how do we know if its authentic.. Reading online , i have found these are also scammers as they send a Prenote to validate your account 

Is there a link from PayPal which you can share has all information regarding prenote.

This is the first time i am seeing a Prenote 0f 0.00 : ACH Electronic Credit PAYPAL PRENOTE ###########.

[robatino]

Exactly. PayPal's help page https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/why-am-i-seeing-a-zero-dollar-deposit-or-prenote-from-pa... says that these prenotes should only happen every 6-12 months so it would be easy to send an email. In addition, it could be listed on the PayPal website under Activity when logged in.

[GiniasGems]

I am a bank employee- when we were alerted to these transactions we contacted paypal (several times) and our clients- there is no record of the transaction in people's paypal accounts, some are closed accounts and deceased  people.  Paypal could not see the pre-authorizations coming into my bank and client's accts.  Some clients have never linked their accounts to paypal only their cards, others have not had paypal in excess of 5 years.  Also we ran system verifications and there were no previous occurrences of "paypal prenote" or "paypalprnt".  2 paypal supervisors stated they use small amount tests and do not perform 0.00 tests.   Once we showed the fraud supervisor the ach screen details they were alerted and concerned as the internal data does not match other paypal transactions, stated they were escalating the issue.  Once we began flagging and returning the 0.00 Pre-authorizations they stopped coming to our institution-  Furthering my suspicion that this maybe a third party impersonating paypal to defraud people.  

Please be careful as a portal into a checking account is also a portal out of the account.  A 0.00 or small transaction is usually a test for larger fraud to come later once they know it is an open active account.....  Then bigger fraud happens.  If you see anything suspicious please contact your bank and get a new account- If you have outstanding items they can help you to forward them to your new safe account.  It is less work to switch to a new account than to get money back from fraud- if you know save yourself the hassle and be proactive.  

[JTnKC]

Why hasn't Paypal informed their customers is this is a test for us all? And why dont the representatives or even their Supervisors know of this? Because i even spoke to a Supervisor yesterday, who was oblivious

[DavidK14]

I don't have my account liked to Paypal.  So I have to assume this is a scam. 

[Jillowell]

@PayPal_Olivia so you as a board moderator are saying that the paypal prenotes are legit, yet PAYPAL's own fraud team is not able to tell me that it is legit? This doesn't make sense. I just spoke to a "member of the paypal fraud team" (that's what they called themselves) and they could not confirm that PayPal uses 0.00 prenotes. How are you able to confirm this information if the fraud team cannot?