Paypal is popular for making payments conveniently and quickly from your cell phone.
Scammers take advantage of this again and attack directly through the app.
Kassel - "On the safe side with Paypal", it says on the website of the online payment service.
According to handelsblatt.de,
around 30 million users
rely on this security in Germany alone .
However, the independent information platform
Watchlist Internet
is now warning PayPal customers of a particularly insidious scam.
Not good news for the provider, which only recently reported a data leak affecting thousands of customers.
In the past, the platform has often been the victim of fraud, in which the perpetrators tried to get confidential user data via email.
This is now reported by the
HNA
.
As the technology and consumer portal
chip.de
reports, many users are currently reporting that they have received fake invoices from Paypal.
According to
Watchlist Internet,
these are Coinbase invoices.
Coinbase is a US public company that operates a cryptocurrency trading platform.
The perfidious thing about the scam: Those affected do not receive the fake invoices via their private email addresses, as is so often the case.
Rather, these are displayed directly in the PayPal account and in the PayPal app itself.
This can have fatal consequences.
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Fraudsters are using a perfidious scam to get money from PayPal customers.
(icon picture)
© IMAGO/aal.photo
Perfidious fraud: Criminals send fake invoices directly to their victims via PayPal
Most bills sent with fraudulent intent can be unmasked by logging into the appropriate banking app.
If the bill received cannot be found there, the bill in question can usually be unmasked as an attempt at fraud, explains the information platform on Internet fraud
Watchlist Internet
.
In the current case, however, the criminals send the invoice directly to their victims via PayPal.
It is sufficient for the scammers to have found the e-mail address of their victims.
This not only appears in the e-mail inbox, but also in the open Papyal invoices in the app.
This increases the likelihood that those affected might mistake the fake invoices for real.
In addition, the fraudulent invoice contains another trap, as
Watchlist Internet
warns.
For example, merchants and invoice issuers can add a "Notification from the seller to the customer" or, in English, a "Seller note to Customer" to every message in Paypal.
The fraudsters add a note to the messages in which a telephone number is given in order to clarify misunderstandings or to be able to cancel the bill.
Only underneath is the official warning from Paypal that it could be an attempt at fraud, no phone call is necessary and no automated debit will take place.
Those affected should act immediately in the event of fraud via fake PayPal invoices
If a user is affected and has already paid the bill,
Watchlist Internet
advises contacting PayPal customer service.
In this way, the PayPal buyer protection could possibly be asserted.
However, if the money can no longer be retrieved in this way, the website recommends going to the police to report the fraud.
In addition, if data subjects called the number found in the fake "seller's message to customer," they should consider what information was disclosed during that call.
Any login data that may have been issued should then be changed as a matter of urgency.
When providing bank details, users should contact their bank directly and discuss how to proceed.
Only invoice received but not yet paid: | Invoice received and already paid: |
ignore the invoice unless an order is placed | contact PayPal customer service |
DO NOT call the phone numbers provided | possibly claim buyer protection |
possibly change login data | otherwise report it to the police |
Contact the bank if you provide bank details |
But whether through fraud or purchase, with Paypal you can not only lose money, but also win money with a few tricks.
(Niklas Mueller)
List of rubrics: © IMAGO/aal.photo
