Scammers are at it again! This time, they are targeting PayPal accountholders. A PayPal invoice request for $450 lands in your email. What to do?

PayPal money request via invoice is more commonly utilized by freelancers. The PayPal accountholder transmits a custom invoice to the seller who in turn,  clicks pay. The process is effective but now, it is being targeted by scam artists.

Omar Laguna

A close acquaintance received an email with a PayPal money request from Omar Laguna. A note was embedded in the invoice that warned of a hack. The message reads, “Your PayPal account has been accessed unlawfully.”

Laguna sent the invoice from his PayPal account, requesting $450 to cover an electronic gift card. The message warned that $450 would be deducted from the customer’s account within 24 hours.

Assuming the included phone number, (888) 242-9523, was legit, the customer called PayPal. The answering system was a replica of PayPal, requiring the customer to hold until a representative was available. The customer informed the representative, who she believed was a PayPal employee, her account had been hacked.

The representative responded by saying, “Let’s get this taken care of so the bastard goes to jail. The FBI will be notified…..”

The response is a red flag because no PayPal representative would say something so unprofessional.

The representative then asked if she utilized the PayPal app to access her account. She accessed her account from a laptop, not the app. He tells her to go to https://ihelps.info/, which is a remote access support. Legitimate tech support like Lenovo utilize similar software to repair their customers’ computers. Microsoft Edge blocked the domain for containing “potential malware.” It may be available through other browsers but best to avoid.

PayPal Didn’t Respond

The customer notified PayPal of the scam but never received a response. Anyone familiar with PayPal’s customer support should know it’s lacking.

The customer described the background noise as being similar to that of a call center. The representative appeared to be of Indian descent. The customer’s son contacted the provided phone number, pretending to be a recipient of the PayPal invoice. When he called the representative out, the call was disconnected. The invoice disappeared, possibly canceled, from the customer’s account.

Not An Automatic Withdrawal

PayPal invoices aren’t processed unless the customer approves it. There is no 24-hour payment deadline.