Coinbase Paypal Phishing Email : Coinbase Would Like To Remind You To Pay Invoice
I received an email titled “You’ve sent a payment” which included the statement: “Your Payment was sent to Coinbase Global in exchange for 0.014 Bitcoin. Thank You for using PayPal to complete your purchase of $649.99. Please note that the transaction may take up to 72 hours to reflect on your bank statement.”
It listed PayPal Support at: [Removed. Phone #s not permitted]which is not in the typical US format and does not correspond to the number on the PayPal site, so I’m thinking this is a scam. There is nothing listed as recent or pending in my PayPal account corresponding to this purchase, which I definitely did not make. The return address is a gmail account.
Has anyone else received something like this and do I need to be concerned for my PayPal account? There are no links to click and I obviously haven’t called the phone number.
Coinbase Paypal Phishing Email :
If its a spoof then NEVER USE ANY LINK OR ANY PHONE NUMBER.
Firstly if the email/text addressed you as ”Dear Member” / ”Customer” / ”Client” OR your ”email address” then that confirms its a spoof as paypal would address you by your full name eg Dear John Smith.
Secondly if there was a link OR attachment in that email/text to ”cancel” any transaction or ”confirm” any details then again it would be a spoof.
Also if they ask you to call the number in the email then it would be fake paypal agents trying to scam you for money to ‘fix’ something.
If there was a problem with your account Paypal would not ask you to click on an unsafe link in an email / download an attachment OR phone them on a number in an email, they would direct you to log in normally and go to the resolution or the message centre for more information.
It sounds like you received a phishing attempt from someone trying to get your information. If you log directly into your PayPal account, you’ll be able to see any completed transactions, and dispute them if necessary. There’s no way to remove a transaction record from your PayPal account history, so you’ll be able to see all transactions for the past 2 years in your Activity tab. I hope that helps!
How does the scam work?
This scam hinges on the fact that these fake invoices aren’t technically fake at all: they are real PayPal invoices, created by fraudsters to mimic an invoice from a real entity like GoDaddy or the World Health Organization (WHO)
The idea is that, because the invoice appears to come from a well known and reputable organization, you may believe the invoice is legitimate and pay up without thinking. Because the invoices are real PayPal invoices (albeit created fraudulently), once you click “Pay” your money will be automatically transferred via your PayPal account to the fraudster
I fell for this scam! What do I do?
While it may not be possible to retrieve your money, the best chance is to file a dispute with PayPal for fraud:
- Go to PayPal’s Resolution Center at paypal.com/disputes/
- Click Report a Problem
- Scroll through your list of transactions until you come across the fraudulent invoice. Click the white bubble next to the listing and click Continue in the bottom-right corner
- Follow the onscreen steps to complete your dispute
How to spot a scam
No matter what form they take, scams often have common warning signs you can watch for, including:
- Requests for money or personal information
- Not being addressed by name
- Spelling and grammatical errors
- The promise of easy rewards (or harsh penalties)
