The ingenuity when it comes to online scams seems to be almost limitless. New scams are constantly sprouting up like mushrooms – always with the aim of stealing your data or your money. There is also a new form of fraud at PayPal.
PayPal has become one of the most popular payment processing platforms. But PayPal is not only very popular with consumers. Because this is also the case with fraudsters.
They use PayPal fraud to steal money from innocent users. There is currently another new scam that can rob you of your money on the platform.
PayPal fraud continues to take on new forms
It is estimated that losses due to online payment fraud in e-commerce amounted to around $41 billion worldwide in 2022. The year before it was 20 billion, and 48 billion is estimated for 2023.
Despite buyer protection and other security measures, you can still encounter fraud with PayPal. With a new scam, the fraudsters are trying to enrich themselves through your willingness to help.
You should be alert if you receive an unexpected payment in your PayPal account. And even more so if that payment comes from a person you don't know at all.
This is how the scam works
If this is the case, you may well receive a message from this person just a short time later. She then apologizes to you, saying she sent the money to you by mistake.
Of course the person wants their money back since it was – supposedly – just an accident. She asks you to send the money back using the “Send Money to Friends” option so that there are no fees.
But that's exactly what you shouldn't do, because there's a risk that you'll never see your money again.
This is the trick behind the PayPal scam
If this is a scam, the person actually sent you the money using the “Pay for item or service” option. PayPal typically provides this option for payments from a purchase of goods and services.
Because the payment you received in error on your PayPal account was sent using this option, it is covered by buyer protection. This means the sender can easily request the money back via PayPal.
However, since you sent the amount using the friends and family option, this is not possible. So your money is lost and it is very unlikely that you will ever see it again.
What can you do instead?
If you ever find yourself in the situation where you receive such a payment, you can send the money back another way.
To do this, click on the payment in your PayPal account. The platform offers you the option to “Send Repayment”. PayPal will now take care of the return process and you don't have to do anything else.
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Source: https://www.basicthinking.de/blog/2024/04/18/betrug-bei-paypal-neue-betrugsmasche/
