Scammed on My Pay Pal Account-Important Reminder to Pay Attention March 22, 2016 17:05

Several days back I received an invoice from Pay Pal on something, I did not purchase. On the invoice there was a note asking: This isn't You?, Resolve it Now.

Without thinking, I pushed this button and ended up on what looked like Pay Pal. It told me that my account had been limited because of suspicious activity and that I needed to provide pertinent information to get my account back up to normal. Since the invoice was indeed suspicious, without thinking again, I filled out the forms which asked for my banking information, all my secret security questions, routing number, account number, personnel information etc.

The site looked absolutely 100% real, so I submitted all of my information and Pay Pal thanked me and told me my account was back up to normal which made me happy.

On a bad feeling, I logged back into my Pay Pal account to see if the suspicious charges on the invoice had been removed. Imagine my surprise when I did not see any mention of the chargers. I immediately called Pay Pal and they asked that I send them the original email with the invoice, which I did. Within 5 minutes they got back to me, telling me the invoice was fraudulent  and that it was part of a phishing effort.

While still on the phone, I told the Pay Pal representative that I only responded because the request and forms looked so original. To which he responded, yes they are getting very good at this and it is getting very hard to tell the real requests from the fraudulent ones.

I then asked him, when was Pay Pal going to let everyone of their clients that this scam was going on. He apologized and told me that the scam, I had fallen for was new, and that the information I had supplied them would be passed on to the FBI for their use in trying to track down the culprits involved.  

In the end, I was pissed and had to change all of my account info, cancel cards, etc which cost me a good part of the day, since I had to show up in person to the bank to make the changes.

A word to the wise, when you get an invoice from Pay Pal, that is not yours, do not use the Resolve It Now Button. It caused me a great deal of frustration and anxiety which I could have avoided, if I was just paying a little more attention to what was going on at the time. If you have any questions about what happened to me and want more info, please let me know.