Paypal fraud attempt, beware!

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

A word of warning to Paypal users. I had an email apparently from Paypal this morning advising me that a request for payment had been received from some Italian sounding bloke for 699 pounds, and on checking my Paypal account the request was there awaiting approval. The Paypal fraud line number in the email turned out to be the fraud itself! After a long and increasing fraught conversation with some woman I decided that this probably wasn't Paypal's number despite the payment request appearing in my Paypal account. Eventually I cancelled the invoice request via my Paypal account, cancelled my credit card pinned to my PP account, and changed my PP password.
The lesson is do not call the fraud line given in the apparent Paypal email if you get one. It's a clever scam and I nearly fell for it. The origin of the email was apparently Paypal and the links contained in it were to Paypal, not some gibberish address as is usually the case when you hover over them.

A bit of research suggests this is new and the real fraud is the fraud line number which puts you through to what you assume is the Paypal security centre.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

The give away is they gave you a phonr number and a person answered!

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

I have never had cause to phone them before so I didn't know whether to expect the usual "we are receiving an unusually high number of calls at the moment..." Suppose I should have though.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

My only experience of that part, is needing the combined investigative power of MI6, GCHQ, the NSA, CIA and probably NASA to actually find a phone number to them that worked!

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

[jeff oakley]

Fraud is the new highway robbery with less risk. A few years ago I took some customers for dinner in Wembly. Two days after I went to fill up my motorhome with fuel and the guy said that he had to call American Express. The card was approved but it felt wrong, so I called AMEX and they told me that may card had been used fraudulently. They knew immediately as £7.5k was spent in LA and Delhi at the same time.

 

I assumed it had been cloned or such in Wembly, but the security guy told me that this was not the case. Apparently, the details of many of our cards are available on the dark web for sales for years and they then get picked up. 

 

Furthermore when I asked him how they had got past everything including my credit limit, he said that as fast as they block security holes, they find new ways of getting around them.

 

I only ever have a small amount in my current account and use one card regularly changing passwords. I also have a special holiday abroad card with a low limit just incase.

 

If you get caught in a scam banks are not that keen on admitting, it is their fault

 

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

Yes, Jeff, it's a constant battle mitigated by sheer numbers of details available. I have usually too much in my current account so \i don't need to fret about direct debits being declined, but I ought to reduce it a lot.

[MR.C]

i like the old classic, when your credit/debit card number  doesn't work and they say you've been hacked 

and they've saved you thousands.

Instead of admitting  they've blocked it  because you haven't used it recently (or they've messed up)  and you've got 

to receive a new  card and  make a new password.

So they get thanks, instead of anger.

ingenious.