PayPal customers attacked by worrying scam text message - 'nearly caught!'

PayPal is used by millions of people, and as a result, this gives cybercriminals who are fraudulently using this name a higher chance of defrauding an innocent person. Recently, these

criminals have been attacking via text, using the popular medium in a clever and deft way, before making off with Britons’ hard-earned cash. The scam text in question tells Britons there has

been “unusual activity” detected on their account.

Deliberately vague, this kind of text could worry individuals who may think their account has been compromised, or money has been spent by someone who is not them.

It then prompts Britons to click the link contained within the message to “confirm your information” and resolve the supposed issue.

Individuals may not see this as anything out of the ordinary, as the text mimics real messages a person would receive from PayPal.

However, this is merely a scam devised by unscrupulous people for their own gain.

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By clicking the link, a person is redirected to a fake website which is likely to ask them for their information as the text requested.

But these details are, instead, sent on to cybercriminals who can use them to commit identity fraud.

This may result in the loss of funds by unsuspecting individuals who believed themselves to be doing the right thing. 

The matter has been highlighted by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) which said it had received reports of the issue over recent days and weeks. 

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She said: “Many millions of people now use PayPal as a payment method and the surge in online shopping due to COVID-19 restrictions make this scam particularly dangerous in its potential

impact.

“The public should verify with PayPal directly before engaging with any message, and they should forward scam texts to 7726, a free reporting service run by Ofcom.

“The public should report scam such as this so that authorities can get a complete picture of the scale of this problem.

“So many people are bombarded by scam messages at this time, and we must inform our friends, family and social groups about this to mitigate the impact of these scams.”

A number of people lamented receiving texts messages of this kind, but warned people to stay alert to the correspondence. 

One person penned: “I get so many scam texts pretending to be PayPal, my bank, tax people, even the post office sending me weird links coming from a weird number.

“I never used to get any until the pandemic started - it’s crazy.”

A second said: “Of the 100s of texts, calls and emails I’ve only ever nearly been caught once.

“‘PayPal’ asked me to verify my details and I had put everything in except for my postcode.

“It was only after they asked me to put in my postcode that I realised it was a scam.”

And a third wrote: “Anytime I get an email or text saying anything about my PayPal I skip clicking any links in those communications and go to PayPal directly to log in. So far every ‘issue’

has been a scam.”

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