Nearly £8million of losses have been reported due to fraudulent emails pretending to be from PayPal.
Action Fraud, the UK Police’s National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre, received 21,349 crime reports about fake PayPal emails between January 2020 and September 2020. That’s a third of all online shopping and auction fraud during this period. The reports were filed by the victims of the fake emails, who lost a total of £7,891,077.44 as a result of them. These victims included people selling various items via online marketplaces; jewellery, furniture and electronics.
It’s not just that these victims are stupid people. The problem is that the fake emails can look so convincing. And, of course, an awful lot of us DO have PayPal accounts, so
it doesn’t seem unbelievable; PayPal currently has 286 million active users, after all! If you are frequently buying or selling using PayPal, you wouldn’t be instantly suspicious to receive an email from them.
This sort of fraud was happening a year ago, accounting for around a fifth of reports to Action Fraud and more than £1 million in losses, in the last quarter of 2019. But since Coronavirus arrived, people are using online marketplaces more than ever, and the problem has escalated.
Pauline Smith, Head of Action Fraud, said: “We know that criminals will go to great lengths to target people on online marketplaces, especially now many more people are selling items online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Criminals have taken advantage of the coronavirus outbreak to commit fraud and will continue to do so. We are working hard, together with our partners, such as PayPal, to raise awareness of the types of scams being committed and prevent people from falling victim.
Make sure you don’t fall for this type of scam. As Pauline Smith says, “It’s really important to follow our advice to help protect yourself. If you receive a suspicious email claiming you’ve received payment for an item you’re selling, take five minutes to check directly with PayPal that the communication is genuine. If something feels wrong then always question it.”