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Criminals have a new scam to take money out of Internet users’ pockets. Watchlist Internet warns against fraudulent invoices sent to supposed victims via a Paypal payment service.
This is possible because merchants can send invoices or payment reminders via Paypal. All they need is an email address linked to a Paypal account. Criminals take advantage of this and use it to smuggle fraudulent invoices into the Paypal system.
Customers are then reminded to pay the supposedly outstanding invoices via an email from the payment service. The invoices also appear in the Paypal account of affected persons and the Paypal app. They appear to be genuine, but they are not.
There is a second trap built into the scam. Because the scammers expect queries, a “Seller note to Customer” is attached to the invoice. You can find a phone number that is supposed to belong to Paypal. But this is not the case either. According to the message, you should call this number to cancel the received invoice.
Only below that is an actual message from Paypal. In it, the payment service advises you to ignore invoices that you cannot classify or that come from sellers you do not know. Because automatic debits without the customers’ consent do not occur with Paypal.
What to do if you have fallen for it?
If you did not follow this advice and paid the bill, Watchlist Internet advises contacting Paypal customer service and claiming buyer protection. Then the money will be refunded. If it is already too late, the best thing to do is to report the matter to the police.
Anyone who has called the phone number attached to the invoice should check what data they have given. If any login data was included, it should be changed immediately.
- source: futurezone.at/picture: Watchlist Internet
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