I received an email that says it’s from service@paypal.com, the subject “Your claim has been paid.” On preview it says “Opia US Inc has sent you $20.00 USD.” Later it says “Please note it may take a little while for this payment to appear in the Activity section of your account.”
I do not remember filing for any claim of $20.00. A Google search on “Opia US Inc claim” yielded nothing relevant.
So, is this an actual claim? If so, shouldn’t I receive something from Opia or whoever telling me about it? If not, what’s the point? Are they trying to get my Paypal password if I click on “Get Details”? If that’s their plan, if someone is foolish enough to click on the link, would they have any recourse when a large payment is made from their credit card for nonexistent goods or services?
Opia appears to be a sales marketing firm. The $20 is a discount off the price of whatever they can sell you. There was never any claim. Delete it and go on with your life.
Whatever you do, don’t try to access your PayPal account thru a link in the suspicious email. If you want to check your account, enter it thru a browser URL that you typed in manually. Better yet, use another computer and browser if you can.
If you click the link, you’d be taken to a fake PayPal login page that would first ask for your PayPal login details, then your personal details, bank account, credit card etc - which would be used to steal your identity and your money, and hijack your account for the purposes of money laundering, ebay feedback farming scamming more people, etc.
They’re looking to establish a dialog with you, and to extract useful information. This could be a bogus link to a fake Paypal, EBay, Amazon, or Google site, getting you to give them personal info to “facilitate” getting you your refund, or just infect your PC. The hook is irrelevant, they just want to get your attention.
I didn’t establish it was from Paypal, and assumed if it is as appears a scam, that it was not indeed from Paypal. Which is why I was wondering why Paypal isn’t taking action against the perpetrators.
I would be surprised if there were any effective way of Paypal preventing scammers from spoofing their site. I’m not at all clear how they would do that. The actual email address of the scammer/spoofer would have no connection to Paypal.
I’m not sure what action you think Paypal could take?
Force some anonymous fraudster somewhere on the internet to stop sending out scam emails using their Paypal name in vain? Lotsa luck with that.
That’s the point of these scams: they come from some anonymous, untraceable source. The money might be traced, but it disappears into some country where the government/banking regulators allow it to hide (or are even a part of the scam).
Rule of thumb: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true. Even something as mundane as $20 is most likely a scam. If you haven’t already done this, set up your email so that scams like this get sent directly to the junk mail folder, so you won’t even be tempted to open it.
PayPal will take action to disable the spoof page that the link in the phishing email points to.
They’re actually pretty good at it - I have been researching this for a video I am making about what happens when you click on a phishing email link - the i get dozens of the fake PayPal messages in a spam trap mailbox I use solely for this purpose - and in most cases I have been looking at, the phishing site is gone in a small number of hours after the timestamp on the email.
Other phishing sites stay up for longer, but PayPal is pretty responsive and effective on reported phishing.
I got an email from Paypal saying I have money in my account. So I went to my browser and logged into Paypal, and sure enough there’s $20 from Opia US Inc.
Please forgive me for being suspicious (if everyone’s out to get you, being paranoid is just good thinking). But did you log in to your Paypal account in a manner which is legitimate and safe, i.e.; entering the URL manually, not clicking on a questionable link?
There used to be a semi-scam where a company would offer to give you a small amount ($1 or less) . But accepting this amount created a ‘business relationship’ between you, so they were now free from Do-Not-Call restrictions. (This was back in the day when the Do-Not-Call list meant something. Now every scammy company just ignores it.)