Possible scam on Paypal?

[Speicher]

I have received an e-mail "pretending" to be from Paypal. It tells me that I have spent x amount on Paypal, and that once I reach £2000 of spending on Paypal my account will need to be verified.

It then gives me a link to follow. That is where things appear rather strange. The email says I will be asked to enter my Bank Account details on this link. They will then send me two small amounts of money directly into my bank account. After two or three days, I am supposed to check that the money has arrived. This will alledgedly prove to them that they have the right bank account details.

It has taken me about three years to rack up x amount, and on that basis it will take another year to reach the "alledged" limit. My paypal account is linked to my Credit Card, not my bank account. I smell a rat!

I am taking the attitude that in the two days I wait for the arrival of said small amounts, surprisingly enough, my bank account will be raided for its contents. I have tried to wade through the information on the Paypal site to alert someone to this e-mail, without success. The automated "Customer service" programmable person responded that they could not understand the question.

Has anyone else had a similar e-mail? It looks very clever, but somehow alarm bells are ringing very loud and clear, and I will not be responding to it. Can anyone suggest how to alert the relevant people.

 

[potsy]

What is the address of the supposed paypal e-mail?
I have just opened a PP account and have an e-mail similar from-service@paypal.co.uk should I be worried or is that standard?

 

[longers]

On the log in page there's a contact us option and it brings up a list of options and I'd select Report Spam and Suspicious Email for this. Unless that's the same as the Customer services thing you already tried.

I had to do similar with Amazon recently as I got three or four phishing emails for gobbledegook orders.

 

[Speicher]

I thought that Paypal was at Paycom dot com not dot co dot uk

The e-mail is from service@paypal as your seems to be.

Is your paypal account linked to your bank account or your credit card?

I do not recall going through that palaver when I opened my account. Have you replied to that email yet.

Potsy,I am very sorry if I am worrying you unnecessarily, but something does not seem right to me.

 

[bikepete]

Just IGNORE any emails purporting to be from Paypal or any other bank. And on no account click any links in them, however legitimate they look.

Really, that's it. Don't give it two seconds thought. Don't waste your time on them. Just delete.

If you bank want to tell you anything remotely important it will be in the post.

If you are worried about Paypal messages type "www.paypal.com" in the address bar on your browser and press enter. Log in, and if anything is important a message will come up when you're logged in.

 

[Speicher]

Longers I will have another look for that link.

 

[redddraggon]

The standard plan in such a situation - you get an email from ebay/paypal/bank that you don't think is 100% kosher but it could be true, is to log into the relevant site using the sites standard logging page, and once logged in safely you'll probably find the directions in there if the email was kosher.

The email is probably dodgy though.

(service@paypal.co.uk is the official paypal uk address though, and anything that comes from that should be legit)

 

[mark barker]

If you log into your paypal account (not via the link), you'll find all the info on verification on there. paypal do verify the bank by adding two sums of money (about 15p in total when I did mine).

 

[Speicher]

Just IGNORE any emails purporting to be from Paypal or any other bank. And on no account click any links in them, however legitimate they look.

Really, that's it. Don't give it two seconds thought. Don't waste your time on them. Just delete.

If you bank want to tell you anything remotely important it will be in the post.

If you are worried about Paypal messages type "www.paypal.com" in the address bar on your browser and press enter. Log in, and if anything is important a message will come up when you're logged in.

Yes, that confirms what I thought. A message would be flagged up when I am on the Paypal site itself. However, I am concerned that it looks very clever, and people may fall for it. Why would paypal need my bank details when my account has been run without hiccup for two or three years.

 

[zacklaws]

I had this a long time ago where I had to verify my paypal account in exactly the same way that you have described, I cannot remember what happened exactly but I had no problems. they put some money in, and they took it back out, I may even have emailed or telephoned paypal to verify that it was genuine as I recall I was suspicious too.

If you do a search on line regarding paypal verification, there is plenty of info on it, but I agree, you do have to be careful and vigilant online for scams, I know, I've been done twice all ready, in unknown circumstances, but I've always been able to claim my money back.

 

[potsy]

I thought that Paypal was at Paycom dot com not dot co dot uk

The e-mail is from service@paypal as your seems to be.

Is your paypal account linked to your bank account or your credit card?

I do not recall going through that palaver when I opened my account. Have you replied to that email yet.

Potsy,I am very sorry if I am worrying you unnecessarily, but something does not seem right to me.

No probs Speicher I'm not that worried,yet. Mine is linked to my debit card and I'm in the process of linking it to my current account which is what the e-mails refer to,I have been asked to watch for 2 small payments to my bank which I then have to use as a security measure to complete the set-up.
All the e-mails came on the day I opened the account so am pretty sure they're kosher.

 

[mark barker]

Why would paypal need my bank details when my account has been run without hiccup for two or three years.

IIRC its something to do with the total amount of money going through the account. If it exceeds a certain amount they insist on verification under the rules of "money laundering".

 

[bikepete]

Yes, that confirms what I thought. A message would be flagged up when I am on the Paypal site itself. However, I am concerned that it looks very clever, and people may fall for it. Why would paypal need my bank details when my account has been run without hiccup for two or three years.

Quite.

As to other people falling for it, I'm afraid my pragmatic view is that (a) that's not your problem (b) there's nowt you can realistically do about it anyway © Paypal already know perfectly well about these emails anyway - they've been going on for years (d) and there's nowt Paypal can do about them either.

Just delete and move on.


(EDIT - just to be clear, verification can be legit as others have said - but just ignore unexpected emails on principle :-)

 

[Speicher]

As suggested, it may be legit, but I am still very wary. I will delete it, and see if a message is flagged up when I next use my account.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Yes, you need to verify your account at some point. It's quite possibly genuine, or it could be a scam.

To be safe...type "www.paypal.com" into your browser, not copying or pasting or clicking any links at all, and log into your account. Alerts emailed to you will also be obvious when logged into your account - deal with them from within your account and never by clicking any links in emails.