Tennesseans Fall Victim To PayPal And Bitcoin Scam

Image Credit: Jorge Franganillo / CC & Public Domain

The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

Tennesseans are falling victim to a newer scam involving their PayPal accounts. For one Middle Tennessee woman it all began with an email that looked like official PayPal communication. 

The spoof email said that someone had opened a PayPal credit card on her account and had bought thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoin with it. Upon calling the phone number contained in the email, she was directed to go to Target and purchase a $500 gift card in order to “recover” her PayPal account. Once she shared the gift card number with the man on the other end of the telephone line masquerading as a PayPal representative, she was told that her account was “30% recovered” and that it was going to “take some time” to get her account back in good standing. 

The victim of the scam shared what was happening with her husband who talked with a friend later the same day. Upon hearing the story, the friend immediately alerted him that his wife was being scammed. By this time, several gift cards had already been purchased, and the victim was out $5,000. Fortunately for her, because she had purchased the gift cards with a credit card, she will get her money back but not everyone is so lucky.

This victim later found out that she was not alone in getting scammed in this manner. Another friend also fell victim to the same scam, losing $60,000 in the process.

Spoof emails will commonly be addressed to “Dear Member” / “Customer” / “Client” or even your email address instead of your full name. The fake communication will often include a link or attachment and direct you to click through so that you can cancel any transactions or confirm details on an order.

In this particular scam, a phone number is listed to call if you wish to “dispute the transaction” within 24 hours.

To check on the veracity of an issue with a PayPal or Venmo account, it is always advisable to go to the website and log in to your account where you may access any pressing communication from the company.

Another common tactic is the “problem with your account” scam where you receive a phishing email claiming there is an issue with your account. The email will include a link with a request that you click through and log in but the link will take you to an imposter site. Once you enter your username and password on this site, fraudsters have everything they need to access your real account.

If you’ve fallen victim to a scam that involved buying gift cards, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and also to the state attorney general. If you lost money, also report it to local law enforcement as a police report may help when you contact the card issuer.

You can learn more about trending scams by signing up for consumer email alerts from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). 

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.