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Scam with PayPal invoice for payment

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Scam with PayPal invoice for payment

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flag Coochchilli
Posted: May 12, 2025 at 16:30 Quote
Curious about a couple things. Was recently messaging someone who turned out to be a scammer. Sadly, I gave them my name/email/address associated with my PayPal account. How concerned should I be about identity theft? Is it possible they can do any damage with that?

My other question is how the scam was going to happen. They wanted payment through PayPal invoice which seems to offer the goods and services protection. So how would they have benefited from the scam?

Thanks for any info!
flag JoshuaColeNCMG
O+
Posted: May 16, 2025 at 22:17 Quote
I just had someone try to scam me in the same way - images were pulled from European bike sale message boards (and text google translated from them as well) posted by a user claiming to be in Nee Brunswick, Canada.

Bike price was good, but the quoted shipping price was WAY too good to be true!

Anyway, I think the invoice scam involves getting your personal info via the fake invoice but I’m not sure how they can keep the $ using the goods and services designation unless they can somehow block or disconnect their bank grom paypal prior to be reported?

Anyone else have better guesses?
flag dotcodotuk
FL
Posted: May 17, 2025 at 10:05 Quote
All speculation, but this is what I surmise.

- PayPal accounts being used are either compromised and have a history of being seen as 'safe' by PayPal or they have been created with the sole purpose of scamming and had some history ran through them for a while and then were sold on.

- You can withdraw funds from your balance if the item was paid via G&S as only new or newer accounts have limits placed on payment withdrawal. PayPal will come after you if someone disputes the delivery, but by then you've got the money.

- Scammer will upload fake delivery details with tracking that shows as being delivered and that puts the onus on you to disprove, while they get the money out from PayPal and keep using the same account until it has been flagged or blocked by PayPal.

It may be possible for a brand new PayPal account using G&S can scam someone with fake delivery information, but I would like to think PayPal are wise to this.

If anyone knows differently, let us know.
flag BikerGavin
Posted: Jun 4, 2025 at 4:02 Quote
dotcodotuk wrote:
All speculation, but this is what I surmise.

- PayPal accounts being used are either compromised and have a history of being seen as 'safe' by PayPal or they have been created with the sole purpose of scamming and had some history ran through them for a while and then were sold on.

- You can withdraw funds from your balance if the item was paid via G&S as only new or newer accounts have limits placed on payment withdrawal. PayPal will come after you if someone disputes the delivery, but by then you've got the money.

- Scammer will upload fake delivery details with tracking that shows as being delivered and that puts the onus on you to disprove, while they get the money out from PayPal and keep using the same account until it has been flagged or blocked by PayPal.

It may be possible for a brand new PayPal account using G&S can scam someone with fake delivery information, but I would like to think PayPal are wise to this.

If anyone knows differently, let us know.

This is also my theory on how scammers do it.
The grace period of 10 days before disputing PayPal payment is way more than enough time for scammers to cashout their Paypal balance.
flag offshores72
Posted: Jun 4, 2025 at 5:26 Quote
I think you guys nailed it and those were my exact thoughts. I recently fell for a scam bike ad that I paid for using PP G&S. Not long after I paid I realized it was a scam and opened a dispute. The scammer used a UPS tracking # that shipped from an Amazon hub in Atlanta when their PB location was listed as Iowa. I was able to contact a friend who is management at UPS and got all the details re: the tracking #. It was addressed to a lady that lives about 3 miles from me in the same town and zip. I noted all that in my claim and when the Pic was uploaded from the ups driver it showed a small box on a porch that wasn't my house. Way too small to be a bike. I got my money back, but it took about 3 weeks.
Made me wonder how sophisticated these scammers are and that they must have inside help from people that work at Amazon to be able to get a tracking # for a shipment that is that close to my house. It's smart on their end because it buys plenty of time. Then again, maybe they just buy something on Amazon and have it shipped to a random person that lives close by?
I have no idea if the scammers got away with the money or not, but I suspect they did and PayPal ultimately took the hit. I got pretty frustrated because it took so long and I sent them so much evidence early on that proved, without a doubt, it was a scam.
flag BikerGavin
Posted: Jun 4, 2025 at 7:58 Quote
Offshores1 wrote:
I think you guys nailed it and those were my exact thoughts. I recently fell for a scam bike ad that I paid for using PP G&S. Not long after I paid I realized it was a scam and opened a dispute. The scammer used a UPS tracking # that shipped from an Amazon hub in Atlanta when their PB location was listed as Iowa. I was able to contact a friend who is management at UPS and got all the details re: the tracking #. It was addressed to a lady that lives about 3 miles from me in the same town and zip. I noted all that in my claim and when the Pic was uploaded from the ups driver it showed a small box on a porch that wasn't my house. Way too small to be a bike. I got my money back, but it took about 3 weeks.
Made me wonder how sophisticated these scammers are and that they must have inside help from people that work at Amazon to be able to get a tracking # for a shipment that is that close to my house. It's smart on their end because it buys plenty of time. Then again, maybe they just buy something on Amazon and have it shipped to a random person that lives close by?
I have no idea if the scammers got away with the money or not, but I suspect they did and PayPal ultimately took the hit. I got pretty frustrated because it took so long and I sent them so much evidence early on that proved, without a doubt, it was a scam.

These scammers are sophisticated and continuously evolving. That’s why we need to be very vigilant on cracking down possible scammers here on pinkbike.
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