Strange Activity in PayPal Account

[bennotbill]

Yes I know it's not exactly an ebay question but I'd appreciate the input of the clever people here.

Over the last three weeks or so I've had ten payments from China each for .01 and I have no idea what that's about.

I suspect it's related to an item I bought off a Chinese seller on Amazon. After I bought it I got the usual please leave feedback, and the offer of we will give some money back more than a third.

So I left my genuine feedback in that it did the job of branded items at less than half their price. To get the offered money back I gave them a PayPal email address. And yes I got that money.

This was followed by another couple of emails - would you like to test some items and get them for free. But reading between the lines it basically looks like offering to pay me for fake reviews. Not interested so I've never replied to any of those.

Just in case it's building up to something I've since deleted that particular email address from PayPal, to see if the penny payments stop.

Maybe I'm just being overly suspicious.

[bennotbill]

Well this panned out much as I expected. A week ago I had an email from PayPal saying your account is permanently restricted. That's over a month after I removed the problem email address from that account. So as far as PayPal was concerned the .01 cent/penny/euro problem stopped a month ago.

Tried X and Facebook and they all refer to PayPal phone help. I bet you can guess what happened when I phoned. I could barely hear what was being said over what appeared to be Indian market noise in the background. I was tempted to ask the rep if they also work for eBay. I asked would the one cent emailers be looked at and they said they would be investigated. Yeh right of course they would wouldn't. Zero action apart from usual phone rep platitudes. Zero action because even now that non PayPal email address is still receiving those emails from PayPal telling me to open a PayPal account to claim your money.

Like I was saying much as I expected as these big companies take the easy route in looking after themselves first even if it means penalising and blaming the victim.

According to the AI on X the .01 payments are a test which could lead to to larger payments and chargebacks.

You would think that PayPal would crack down and immediately close any accounts that engage in this sort of thing. Because as I said to the rep if I know someone’s PayPal email address what's to stop me and a few others sending one cent payments to that address to get the account closed.

One good thing is the days of PayPal being a necessity for many things online is long past. At best they are now merely just a  minor convenience.

[angelno9]

I have no idea.

Perhaps agreeing to receive a kickback for feedback violated a PayPal policy? 

In addition to removing the email address from PayPal, did you also check to see if you had any PayPal AutoPay subscriptions you did not recognize? 

Last time I cleaned up my PayPal account I found 25+ billing agreements to remove. 

[fbusoni]

@bennotbill 

My first thought was that those were micro deposits that banks usually make to validate ownership of a new online Paypal or other electronic payment account.

If so... perhaps the guy in China was attempting to hack in??

PS: I had something similar happen to me several years ago.   I think it was with Zelle... I contacted BoA immediately and they blocked the person involved (also from China btw).

[bennotbill]

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@fbusoni wrote:

If so... perhaps the guy in China was attempting to hack in??

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It started with what looked to be two different accounts. After I ditched that email in PayPal it looked like maybe four different accounts. Then a couple of Spanish accounts joined in. Averaging six emails a day, once had nine. Just checked and already four in my gmail spam folder.

[a_c_green]

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@bennotbill wrote:

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@fbusoni wrote:

If so... perhaps the guy in China was attempting to hack in??

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It started with what looked to be two different accounts. After I ditched that email in PayPal it looked like maybe four different accounts. Then a couple of Spanish accounts joined in. Averaging six emails a day, once had nine. Just checked and already four in my gmail spam folder.

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I have a theory, which is plausible in my IT experience, though how likely it is, I have no idea. Let me adjust my tin-foil hat first, for a snug fit... 

First, anyone can send a payment of 1¢ or more to anyone else on PayPal, totally unsolicited, as long as they have that person's email address (or other unique account identifiers). This much you have seen already. What I'm thinking is, if you have picked up a keylogger virus on your machine, it may be waiting for you to log in to PayPal to see what's going on, and that can reveal your PayPal login password. (They already have your email address.)

I'm not sure whether having your password stored in Google will guard against this (since you're not actually typing in your password, but pulling it from encrypted storage instead), but I would be optimistic that it does since no keystrokes would be involved. My only suggestion at this point would be to give your machine a thorough going-over to be sure that it's up to date and clean of malware. Good luck.

[tex-421]

"So I left my genuine feedback in that it did the job of branded items at less than half their price. To get the offered money back I gave them a PayPal email address. And yes I got that money."

You exchanged feedback for money?

[bennotbill]

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@angelno9 wrote:

Perhaps agreeing to receive a kickback for feedback violated a PayPal policy? 

In addition to removing the email address from PayPal, did you also check to see if you had any PayPal AutoPay subscriptions you did not recognize? 

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No regular subscription payments in the account.

They just said please leave feedback and we will refund £20. I only left genuine feedback. Nothing was mentioned of having to leave good feedback.

Nothing was actually mentioned in their testing offer part below........... But though I had no intention of replying to the offer I was already thinking you don't get something for nothing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m Molly, thank you for purchasing tablet from our Amazon shop and leaving a positive review.

We have recently launched new products. In order to improve product quality and provide customers with a better product experience, our store is looking for excellent partners to help us test new products. You have previously left a true and objective positive review of our products, so we invite you to help us test the products.

You will get the tested products for free. You only need to test the products after receiving them and then leave us a true and objective positive review.

[bennotbill]

And looking back the item arrived with a card simply saying please leave feedback and get £20 refunded.

[bennotbill]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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My only suggestion at this point would be to give your machine a thorough going-over to be sure that it's up to date and clean of malware. Good luck.

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Clean machine to the best of my knowledge, and I did have that two factor business where PayPal gave me a number which I had to key into my phone when they called.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@bennotbill wrote:

According to the AI on X the .01 payments are a test which could lead to to larger payments and chargebacks.

You would think that PayPal would crack down and immediately close any accounts that engage in this sort of thing.

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And that's exactly what they did to you! 

I'm always suspicious of any messages that seem "odd." 

"I suspect it's related to an item I bought off a Chinese seller on Amazon. After I bought it I got the usual please leave feedback, and the offer of we will give some money back more than a third.

So I left my genuine feedback in that it did the job of branded items at less than half their price. To get the offered money back I gave them a PayPal email address. And yes I got that money."

I'd also report them to Amazon. I'm sure Amazon doesn't want buyers leaving fake or solicited feedback and I doubt they want sellers paying for it in whatever way. 

[bennotbill]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:You would think that PayPal would crack down and immediately close any accounts that engage in this sort of thing.

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And that's exactly what they did to you! 

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I was on the receiving end, not the sending. If you get mixed up in an armed robbery you wouldn't expect the police to arrest you because you were on the receiving end of several bullets, while allowing the perpetrators to continue.

And those accounts are still sending their one cent emails to my now non PayPal email address. PayPal have taken no action against them

As for feedback it's fairly common practice even on ebay for some sellers to leave a note in their parcels saying please leave feedback. Some even adding a free gift. Another common ebay practice is a partial refund which often goes through PayPal.

Yes I know I'm saying the obvious but it seems it needs saying.