Over £7 million lost this year in PayPal fraud.
There have been 21,349 Action Fraud reports featuring fake PayPal phishing emails recorded between January to September 2020, with a total reported loss of £7,891,077.
Online marketplace sellers have received a fake email that appears to be from PayPal, stating that the fraudster has made a payment for an item. A follow up email requests the shipping tracking order
reference, prompting the seller to dispatch the item. The fraudster relies on the seller not verifying that the payment has been received in their PayPal account, before shipping the item leaving the seller at a loss.
The reporting to Action Fraud does not suggest that PayPal are implicated or complicit in any fraud, either directly or indirectly; the use of the popular brand may be exploited by fraudsters to commit fraud.
What you can do:
➡️ Verify the payment: If you’re selling goods on an online marketplace, such as eBay, don’t post the item to the buyer until you have verified, using the official app or website, that the payment is in your account.
➡️ Report suspicious emails: If you’ve received an email you’re not quite sure about, you can report it by forwarding it to: report@phishing.gov.uk
For more information on how to protect yourself from scams see our website in the link below:
To report scams such as this contact:
If you receive a call like this then you can report it to Action Fraud.
If you feel you may have been scammed in this way and have paid money during such a call please report it to your local Citizens Advice team who will pass the details on to our Trading Standards team.
For details of how to report to Citizens Advice see below:
