Money unexpectedly in my PayPal account..

Zaphan58 said:
It was around £150, I think £150 something and a few pence.

Another update anyway. I decided to ask PayPal about it again, they say they have looked at the account and there is nothing suspicious about it and they have no reason to believe it's not a genuine mistake on the senders part. They asked me to send it back using personal transfer friends and family to avoid fees. Got to be honest I'm not comfortable doing that. I expressed that to them and they said they guarantee it is safe to do. If something were to happen though their word means nothing.
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So hang on, Paypal are asking you to refund either in a way that costs you money, or in a way that offers no protection if this is one of the well known scams where you are left responsible for the charge back when the original deposit turns out to have been from a stolen account/card?

I'd just sit on it and let them sort it out at their end. Paypal want to be so much like a bank, they should act like it and sort out these kinds of mistakes behind the scenes without expecting innocent customers to do it for them and end up exposing themselves to well known frauds.
 
Steampunk said:
So hang on, Paypal are asking you to refund either in a way that costs you money, or in a way that offers no protection if this is one of the well known scams where you are left responsible for the charge back when the original deposit turns out to have been from a stolen account/card?

I'd just sit on it and let them sort it out at their end. Paypal want to be so much like a bank, they should act like it and sort out these kinds of mistakes behind the scenes without expecting innocent customers to do it for them and end up exposing themselves to well known frauds.
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That about sums it up yes. I won't be sending it back with no protection.
 
Everyone has told you to ignore the emails and not reply, and you even said you would not yourself, yet you have now replied. Stop engaging with them - this is not your problem. Leave it in the account and let PayPal sort it out with the sender. Do not engage further and most certainly do not send them anything back.

Having received an email from them is of zero relevance to any innocence - it would be of no suprise to me if their email address was compromised.
 
Zaphan58 said:
Ok it sounds a little less fishy to me now. They have emailed again and said they have been in contact with PayPal. They say PayPal have asked that I open a ticket with them and ask to cancel the transaction. So long as this goes through PayPal I can't see there being a problem?
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You have already contacted PP, so now I wouldn't do anything - let them raise the ticket and just keep the funds in place ready for PP action.

It may be a genuine mistake or a scam, i'd let them and PP sort it out among themselves.
 
Do not send a payment back to the sender using "friends & family" or otherwise as it will be classed as a separate transaction. PayPal may say to you it's safe but all that means is it is say for you to send them £150. They obviously haven't dug deeper and it could still end up being charged back further down the line leaving you out of pocket.
 
make a new paypal account and send the money to it.

ask paypal to close your old account and freeze it at 0 balance.

profit

if someone does a charge back isn't it technically against paypal and not your personally? but paypal debit your own account anyway to cover their own losses?

It's almost like someone breaking in to your bank, stealing some money from the vault, putting it in your box, taking it back out and the bank claiming you owe them money?
 
Zaphan58 said:
They asked me to send it back using personal transfer friends and family to avoid fees.
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I find it amazing that this is PayPal's advice?!?! Are you sure it's a genuine email? Does it have a persons name on it as I'd be wanting to report them for such poor advice!

Don't most transactions have a 'Refund' button? (Or is that just me as some how I have a business PayPal account...) I think I'd be tempted to just hit that and move on. They can't claim it back later as it's been returned already.
 
I had this (although sadly just £50) a number of years ago. I later got a private message (i forget how paypal messages work) requesting that i refund the money to XXXX. I just ignored it, the money became absorbed into my accounts and i figured that it may get reversed one day. I never did hear anything else. I figured that if it was genuine then someone may have lost £50 (not the end of the world, their fault), but that in any event this should be up to them to query with Paypal and dispute, not me, and i clearly would accept a chargeback and cooperate with paypal if they messaged me to explain.
 
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