Greg's Corner

PayPal scam targets the elderly

By Greg Collier

Yesterday, we talked about Venmo has been used in various scams, but today is all about Venmo’s big brother, PayPal. For those who may not know, Venmo is owned by PayPal. Anyway, PayPal is also no stranger to scams. Scammers have been fleecing PayPal users before Venmo was even a thing. Historically, PayPal was used as a scamming tool by shady eBay sellers. This was around the time when eBay owned PayPal, but has since spun off the payment app. We’re not saying that PayPal is responsible for the scams, but since PayPal has become so common in internet commerce, it has become a major avenue of scammers.

A report out of Southern California says that there is a PayPal scam going around targeting elderly users of the platform. Most PayPal users get an email every time they make a purchase using PayPal. PayPal users will be most familiar with the email that comes with the PayPal logo that tells you where you made the purchase and how much the purchase was. A 67-year-old woman from San Diego received one of these emails, but it was for a purchase she didn’t make that was for an exorbitant amount. Legitimate PayPal emails also contain PayPal’s customer service number. This scam email also contained a phone number, but it went to a scam call center instead of PayPal.

The phony customer service representative asked to log into the woman’s account in order to reverse the charge. The woman was also asked for banking information, since PayPal accounts are required to be linked to a bank account. Thankfully, the woman caught on that this was a scam and did not give up any of her information.

If you are a PayPal user, and you receive an email that claims you were billed for a purchase you didn’t make, the first thing you should do is log into your account. Then check the transactions to see if the fraudulent purchase is there or not. If it’s not there, you can delete the email and forget about it. If a fraudulent transaction is there, call the customer service number listed on PayPal’s website or the back of your PayPal debit card. Whatever you do, don’t Google for the phone number, as that could lead you to a fraudulent call center. Also, avoid using any phone numbers contained in emails, as they could also direct you to a group of scammers as well.