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What to do if you receive a suspicious invoice: Report any unwarranted invoices or money requests by logging into your PayPal account on our website or the PayPal app. To report a suspicious email or website, forward it to phishing@paypal.com and we’ll investigate it for you.
- Hari Ravichandran
- Fake PayPal “payment confirmation” emails. Phishing emails, in which scammers pretend to be from PayPal, are among the most common email scams. There are many different PayPal phishing scams, but they all follow a general strategy.
- Scammers sending fake invoices from real PayPal email addresses. This is a sophisticated scam in which an email is sent from a validated PayPal email address.
- Emails and texts claiming your PayPal account is locked or suspended. Another common phishing tactic is to send an email claiming that the recipient’s PayPal account has been locked for some reason [*].
- Fake PayPal “Fraud Alert” text messages. Phishing can also take place in the form of voice or SMS messages. Known as “smishing,” these scams occur when scammers send fraudulent text messages containing a bogus number or link [*].
- Paul Bischoff
- Advanced fee scam. One scam PayPal users should be wary of is more commonly known as Advanced Fee Fraud. This type of fraud, of which the infamous “Nigerian Prince” or 419 scams fall into, are designed to trick victims into sending a comparatively small amount of money with the promise of a much larger return.
- Scam email: “A problem with your account” One PayPal scam comes in the form of an email that erroneously states that there’s a “problem with your account”.
- “Friendly name” or display name spoofing. Another form of email scam, “friendly name” email scams use a feature of email systems that allows the sender name to be hidden behind a “friendly name” that can be made to look legitimate.
- Phishing websites or social media posts (fake PayPal website or social media scams) Many popular websites get spoofed in various ways. When scammers create a fake PayPal website and try to collect user information through, they are usually part of a phishing scam.
- PayPal tech support or customer service scam. Customer service and tech support scammers sometimes pretend to be PayPal employees to lull users into a false sense of security.
- PayPal verification scam. Fake verification scams mostly use phishing emails. In a fake verification scam, you’ll receive an email that looks like it’s from PayPal.
- PayPal invoice scam. In PayPal invoice scams, cybercriminals create realistic invoices to trick users into paying for products or services they didn’t want or receive.
- PayPal debt collection scam. In PayPal debt collection scams, cybercriminals trick people into paying money they don’t owe by threatening them with legal action and other serious consequences.
Aug 18, 2022 · Quick Links. Every Type of Phishing Scam. 419 or Advance Fee Scams. Shipping Address Scams. Overpayment Scams. Dealings With Compromised Accounts. Fake Invoice Scams. Proof of Postage or Payment Pending Scams. Fake Charities, Causes, and Fundraising. How to Avoid PayPal Scams.
Report any unwarranted invoices or payment requests by logging into your PayPal account on our website or the PayPal app. To report a suspicious email or website, forward it to phishing@paypal.com and we’ll investigate it for you. After you send us the email, delete it from your inbox. Was this article helpful?
