In this video, I am going to share the text message alert I received from PayPal. In addition, I’ll share the conversation I had with the PayPal Imposter so you can protect yourself from scams & fraud. If you prefer to read it, scroll down below the video.

I want to share a text message I received from a PayPal imposter. An imposter is someone who claims to be someone they are not. I’ll also share the conversation that followed it.

Why share this information?

This is not just for your protection, but also because sometimes scammers will use clever tricks in order get your personal information or take control of your laptop or cellphone (like the example below) to steal your information.

So here’s how it worked: I received an unsolicited text message claiming there has been a transaction from Wish.com on my PayPal account. So you’re wondering if this is a scam? I figured it was so I verified that there were no transactions from Wish.com for $450  on my PayPal account.

I am going to be doing a presentation on Scams and Fraud and thought this would be a great learning opportunity for my audience.

Another reason I feel this is so important to share is that there were 5.7 million reports of fraud in 2021. Imposter scams were the second most reported type of fraud. Along with 1 in 5 people lost on average $1,000 to these types of scams. Here is an example of an Amazon scam and TV service scam.

With social media exploding, it has given space for people taking advantage of younger generations – 41% of people, ages 20 to 29 reported losing more money, more often than older people.

I decided to do this as educational purposes and contacted the phone number to help protect others.

Here are the questions the PayPal imposter asked me.

• Did you make the purchase on Wish.com?
• Are there any unauthorized people that have access to your device?
• Is there anybody else that uses your phone?
• Have you ever shared your PayPal username or password with anyone?

Makes it seem legit, right?

How the imposter was going to help me

Then, the imposter told me that there was under unauthorized people who actually accessed my device, and that there are hackers that are connected to my device.

go to your home screen on your cell phone and open the app store. Then on the right hand side, click on the magnifying glass and type in the search bar, AnyDesk.

Any desk remote app So i’m just gonna show it to you here, so you can see it.

This is the any desk remote app that they wanted me to open.

Next, the imposter told me to tap on, Get. (to download the app). I asked what it would do? the imposter said that this application is going to help you and provide the PayPal securities from our server and help you to verify that you log inaccurate billers who are connected to your device and who hacked you.

So they wanted me to open up the you know the screen or the app, AnyDesk, and they wanted me to tell the imposter the 9 digit verification code (which was the address of the app on my phone).

And so when you get in there, you’re gonna see a verification code on there when you tap on get And tell me that number.

I was ready to end the call and then…

When I said I didn’t want to continue the conversation, the imposter said “Okay, So what we’re going to do is charge you for $450, and we’re going to disable your account.”

But at this point I did hang up and then I Googled the AnyDesk.

To report fraud, go to reportfraud.ftc.gov. If you would like to know how to report fraud and see it step-by-step, check out “How to report fraud & Scams“.

So. any questions for me certainly reach out to me. I would be more than happy to help you.