The Student Room Group

I fell for a scam SMS!

Hey guys, so I received a text earlier from 'PayPayl' saying my account was being reviewed and I had to log in. I clicked the link, logged in and filled in all my information including my full name, birthday, mum's maiden name, card details and address. The website looked identical to the normal PayPal website and had a lock next to the URL so I assumed it was legit.
I assumed wrong. 30 minutes or so later I received another text but from my bank this time, asking me to confirm a £200.00 transaction from an online men's designer clothing store. I have never purchased from this store in my life so I know this wasn't me which led me to do some investigating. I now believe the PayPal link was a scam and have now frozen my card, changed my PayPal password and security questions. I have also mailed both my bank and PayPal as it is too late to call, whilst also reporting the number to the EE scam text service. Thankfully, the transaction does not appear to have gone through as I did not confirm it on my end but the fraudster now has ALL of my details. What will happen now? Will I have to have my bank details changed and get a new card? Please help, I've got an exam tomorrow and this was the exact type of stress I didn't need the night before!
Hey JellyFox,This sounds like a typical Keylogging scam, make sure you clear your cache and browser history just in case. This is a typical scam, they are becoming more smarter in ways on contacting people. PayPal usually have an excellent protection scheme. Also was there a address on the PayPal transaction?. To be on the safer side, I would get the card cancelled and do a charge back. Speak to your bank and explain you have and unauthorised transaction. - kind regards
(edited 4 years ago)
Reply 2
Original post by PizzaBoi
Hey JellyFox,This sounds like a typical Keylogging scam, make sure you clear your cache and browser history just in case. This is a typical scam, they are becoming more smarter in ways on contacting people. PayPal usually have an excellent protection scheme. Also was there a address on the PayPal transaction?. To be on the safer side, I would get the card cancelled and do a charge back. Speak to your bank and explain you have and unauthorised transaction. - kind regards


If it was a text, do I clear the history on my phone? I use a private browser on my phone anyway. Thank you for your advice - the transaction was unable to go through so it doesn’t actually show on my transaction history, I only know because of the text where Nationwide gave me a verification code for a purchase. I have messaged my bank to see what they say and in the mean time my card is frozen - will they still be able to use it?
when you say it is "too late to ring".... the bank & paypal would have 24/7 phone lines for fraud.
Original post by JellyFox
If it was a text, do I clear the history on my phone? I use a private browser on my phone anyway. Thank you for your advice - the transaction was unable to go through so it doesn’t actually show on my transaction history, I only know because of the text where Nationwide gave me a verification code for a purchase. I have messaged my bank to see what they say and in the mean time my card is frozen - will they still be able to use it?

You wouldn’t need to delete the text or anything. But may be worth clearing browser history if it’s a keylogger. If your card is frozen no transaction can be made on it. As you said the term “frozen”, personally I’ve never had to freeze an account. Worse case call the bank and explain to them the situation, they would be very helpful and direct you to the right departments.

As little as the fraud was, it’s still a crime and may be worth reporting at: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk

Hope you get it sorted.
Reply 5
Quick update:
Thank you for your advice guys. I rang the bank and they confirmed a number of purchases that appeared to be fraud, then cancelling my card. They sent me a new one and acted super quick.

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