While nothing online is 100% safe, PayPal is committed to ensuring maximum security for its users and has policies in place to help get your money back if you’ve been scammed. Scammers overpay for an item “by accident” (often using a stolen account or employing hacking techniques to make it appear as if the money is in your bank account) and then ask for the difference back through a payment form that is non-reversible. A type of social engineering attack in which scammers impersonate PayPal representatives or other authoritative figures to trick victims into sending money or revealing sensitive information. The victim is promised a large sum of money that will be released after paying scammers a fee in advance. While PayPal scams come in different shapes and sizes, the most common angles include: In fact, scammers are most likely to cheat customers out of money by using PayPal, according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB). With over 300 million account holders, PayPal users are compelling targets for scammers. PayPal scams include numerous different strategies and schemes that scammers use to convince PayPal users to send them their money and personal information or give them access to their accounts. In this guide, we’ll cover how PayPal scams work, show examples of the latest scams to watch out for, and explain what you should do if you’ve been scammed on PayPal. If you’re one of the millions of people who use PayPal, or if you’ve received a suspicious-looking email claiming to be from the company, you need to recognize the warning signs of a scam. It was a scam.Įven worse, the company recently disclosed that : Close to 35,000 PayPal users had their accounts hacked by a credential-stuffing attack in January of 2023. Worried about being stuck with an unexpected bill, the user called the phone number listed on the invoice.īut it was only when the person on the phone asked to remotely access the user’s computer that it started to become clear they weren’t actually dealing with PayPal. įor one Reddit user, all it took was a couple of legitimate-looking emails claiming to be “PayPal invoices” for Bitcoin purchases that the user hadn’t authorized. Online payment fraud on platforms such as PayPal is expected to surpass $48 billion in 2023.

PayPal scams are becoming increasingly common - and sophisticated.

Paypal phone number.