You wake up and there's £1904 in your PayPal account. What do you do?

Feek · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:06

You wake up and there's an email from PayPal saying you've received a gift from an email address you don't recognise that's made up of random numbers and letters.

Rather than follow any links, you log into your PayPal account via the app and find this.

What would you do?

/edit - Update here.

Skidder · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:09

I see a most excellent weekend in your future.

x-st · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:09

Send Paypal a message about it? Not sure what else you can do to ensure this isn't some complex scam. Or else maybe wait a month or two and see what changes.

Freakbro · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:09

Find the nearest cookers and hoke dealer and have a blast of a day!

GravyMonster · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:09

All on red. Or green if you're feeling REALLY lucky.

Feek · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:11

x-st said:
Send Paypal a message about it?

This is a most excellent suggestion. You do this and they reply saying they can see nothing suspicious about the transaction.

Roar87 · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:11

Most likely it's a criminal who's committed fraud and is using your account some how to make the money look legitimate, that's not to say you couldn't some how keep the money if you were smart

Maccy · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:12

Spend it on 1080's and then sell them for profit in the MM and wonder why you get banned.

beachBOYken · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:13

Send it to me, I will try to spend it, see if it's legit.

Schizo · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:13

Maccy said:
Spend it on 1080's and then sell them for profit in the MM and wonder why you get banned.

And i will be waiting

Rifte · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:18

Withdraw immediately, and unlink any card attached to your paypal account to avoid the guy trying to reverse it to 'clean' it up.

aardvark · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:19

wait a while and see if someone realises their mistake?

If it was an error and you spend it then thats theft i think.

Rifte · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:21

aardvark said:
wait a while and see if someone realises their mistake?

If it was an error and you spend it then thats theft i think.

Actually this is a more optimistic way of looking at it, and should probably be followed.

If it doesn't get queried after a few days follow through with what I originally said.

ttaskmaster · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:30

Feek said:
You wake up and there's £1904 in your PayPal account. What do you do? What do you do?

Shoot the hostage. Take her out of the equation.

It must say where the payment came from, or summat? Can PayPal not tell you who/where it came from?

Check all your accounts on eBay, Amazon, Steam, Origin and the like, make sure there's absolutely no suspicious activity anywhere. Same for banking and all that... and also to see if there's something, anything, you've somehow forgotten about. Maybe a competition you entered?
Also make sure that's 1,904 GBP and not Lira, Zloty or Dong or something that equates to a £5 refund...

If after all this, you are 100% certain it's not yours, tell PayPal this and just leave it... But keep an eye out for any more odd activity until it's resolved.

brendy · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:31

If you withdraw £1 and remove links to your own cards, can this be reversed if the full amount isnt available? I take it it just goes into negative?

RoboCod · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:32

100% withdraw it right now. Hold on to it a week or so before spending it though

Rifte · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:40

brendy said:
If you withdraw £1 and remove links to your own cards, can this be reversed if the full amount isnt available? I take it it just goes into negative?

Hits a negative, then Paypal start sending you scary letters that you ignore.

Efour · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:52

Half on red half on black rest on grren.

Freakbro · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:53

Rifte said:
Hits a negative, then Paypal start sending you scary letters that you ignore.

They're not in red ink are they? :eek:

MooMoo444 · 23 Mar 2018 at 10:53

I'd withdraw it and just keep it to one side for a while. Worst case they realize and you can just pay it back in. Best case, it's written off and you've got a nice little bonus in 2019.