PayPal is a multinational financial company, and with finances come scammers. However, PayPal does its best to protect its consumers, both buyers, and sellers.
If you use PayPal often and are worried about getting scammed and wondering how to protect yourself? I did the research and here is what I found!
Can You Get Scammed on PayPal In [currentyear]?
You can get scammed on PayPal in [currentyear]. Most of these scams happen through email. Therefore, ensure if you get an email from PayPal, the address is legitimate, and you avoid clicking any links to log into your account. However, if you do get scammed, PayPal has policies in place to protect you and refund your money.
If you have already been scammed through PayPal, and are wondering how to refund your money, or you want to learn how to protect yourself against scams, and more, then keep reading!
What Happens If You Get Scammed on PayPal?
Fortunately, if you get scammed on PayPal, there are regulations and policies set in place for your protection.
PayPal has refunds, disputes, claims, Purchase Protection, and Chargeback Protection all in place to protect its buyers and sellers.
First, the refund policy works if you have paid for an item and never received it, or if you suspect you are being scammed for any reason.
If either of these circumstances occurs, you can cancel a payment on your own.
However, you can only cancel a payment if it is still pending. Most PayPal payments are processed quickly, especially scams, so this may not be an option.
In this case, you should contact the seller directly and request a refund.
Unfortunately, if you are dealing with a scammer, requesting a refund will probably not solve the issue, but it’s worth a try.
If a refund does not work, however, the next option is to open a dispute, and if you still need help, escalate to a claim.
Another policy in place to protect consumers is PayPal’s Purchase Protection.
PayPal’s Purchase Protection works if you notice a charge you didn’t make, your order was never received, or your order arrived but is not in the correct condition.
If you notice an authorized charge, you have 60 days to file a dispute. If your order never arrived or your order was not in the correct condition, you will have 180 days to file a dispute.
If you file a dispute through PayPal Purchase Protection for any of these reasons you will receive full reimbursement of the payment, including shipping fees.
Also, you will not be held responsible for any unauthorized charges.
PayPal’s last policy in place to protect its consumers from scams is Chargeback Protection.
Unfortunately, Chargeback Protection is only available for business accounts with advance credit and debit card checkout.
Through Chargeback Protection, PayPal will help protect business credit and debit card transactions by monitoring all charges and declining any charges that seem fraudulent.
Furthermore, if a fraudulent charge is not caught and declined, you are protected, and PayPal will refund your money once the company has the information it needs.
How Do You Know If You Are Being Scammed on PayPal?
Unfortunately, if you are being scammed, the scammers will usually try to contact you through email.
To tell if the email is a scam, you can check the email address.
An email address may look “friendly” and real, but if you hold your mouse over the email address or click “Reply,” you should be able to see the real, full email address.
However, if the scammer knows what they are doing, they may be able to make the entire address look real.
Along with checking the email address, you need to make sure any links are real as well.
A good way to avoid clicking on a bad link is to hover your mouse over it, and it will show you where it will take you before clicking on it.
Another good way to avoid clicking on a bad link is to avoid clicking any links at all.
When checking your account online, make sure you always enter “www.paypal.com,” and never click a link through an email.
Furthermore, if you do click any links through an email, make sure the URL is legitimate and you aren’t logging in to a copycat site.
Additionally, you can report any suspected email by forwarding it to spoof@paypal.com.
Here is also a list of other common scams on PayPal:
- “Your account is about to be suspended”: a scammer will try to get you to log into your account on a copycat site to try to save it.
- “You’ve been paid”: the scammer wants what you are selling for free, so they will try to trick you into thinking you were paid already. Therefore, always check your account before shipping anything.
- “You have been paid too much”: the scammer will say they have paid you too much, and ask you to ship them the item and refund the extra money. In this situation, you have either not been paid at all, or as soon as the scammer gets the money back, they will cancel their original payment to you.
- Fake Charities: some scammers use disasters and other events to come up with “charities” to trick people into donating money. Always do your research before donating to a charity.
- Advance fee fraud: a scammer will contact you, saying you have some amount of money, but they can’t send it to you until you send them a smaller fee, such as for taxes, legal fees, etc. After you send the fee, they will disappear, and you won’t receive your money.
For a list of more scams and what to do when faced with one, you can read the FBI’s Common Scam and Crimes.
To know more, you can also read our posts on how long do PayPal refunds take, how does PayPal make money, and if you can cancel a PayPal payment.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, where money goes, scammers follow, and because of this, you can get scammed through PayPal. Luckily, PayPal has several protection policies in place to protect us as buyers and sellers.
PayPal will protect you through refunds, disputes, claims, Purchase Protection, and Chargeback Protection.
