Steve Weisman is a lawyer, college professor, author, and one of the country’s leading experts in cybersecurity, identity theft, and scams. See Steve’s other Con Watch articles.
PayPal is very popular and, as I always say, anything popular with the public is very popular with scammers. There are numerous scams that use PayPal as a hook. Here are a few to watch out for.
PayPal Friends and Family
One scam that we are seeing most often now relates to one of PayPal’s payment options. When you buy something using its Goods and Services option, PayPal offers an excellent purchase protection program: If you are scammed by a phony seller, PayPal will refund you the full amount of your purchase. This warranty can give you great peace of mind when using PayPal.
But PayPal also has another payment option called Friends and Family, which is intended to be used in situations such as making a gift, splitting a lunch tab, or sending money to someone you know very well. It is not intended for commercial purposes. When you use the Goods and Services PayPal option, you are charged a small fee. But when you use the Friends and Family option and pay from your PayPal account or the bank account tied to your PayPal account, there is no fee. However, when you use the Friends and Family option, you do not get purchase protection. Scammers will offer something for sale on PayPal and then ask to be paid using the Friends and Family option to speed up the process and eliminate the fees. Many people comply with this request without thinking and end up losing their money when they get scammed.
The lesson here is a simple one. Whenever you buy anything using PayPal, you should use the Goods and Services option. Only use the Friends and Family option for small gifts or payments to friends and family. Even then, you shouldn’t use it for purchases from friends and family because scammers may pose as your loved ones.
PayPal Phishing Emails
Phishing emails, where crooks attempt to lure you into either clicking on links with malware or providing personal information that will be used to steal your identity, are nothing new. They are a staple of criminals for good reason: They work.
What makes a recent PayPal phishing email particularly insidious is that it actually comes from a PayPal account. The email contains a phony invoice that really does come from PayPal and a link in the email to “View and Pay Invoice” that takes you to PayPal. The email has a phone number for you to call if you have a question about the invoice — and the phone number is the scam. If you call, you will be advised to download a tool that gives the scammer remote access to your computer — purportedly to help find the problem, but in actuality to give the scammer access to your computer and the passwords to all of your accounts.
This is how it works: Scammers open a PayPal business account that enables them to send real invoices from PayPal.
If you get an invoice from PayPal, don’t click on links or call the phone numbers on the invoice. Rather, call the real customer service number, which is 888-221-1161. Note that if you call the real customer service number for PayPal, you will have to go through a number of prompts before you get to speak to a real person. However, the scammer’s customer service number is immediately answered by a person.
PayPal is a popular and legitimate digital payment platform. But like anything that is popular, criminals will use it to prey on their victims. When using any online payment service, you must always be vigilant.
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