[Finance] PayPal/Facebook Scam - Advice please?

[junior]

A few months ago my Facebook Messenger got hacked and sent a message to all of my contacts. I can't remember the exact wording, but it was basically to my friends, pretending to be me and asking to borrow £300 until the next morning as i had to pay something but was having a problem with getting cleared funds in PayPal. It asked my friends to pay £300 to this 'fake seller' and then i would transfer my friends the £300 back in the morning once the funds cleared. Something like that anyway.

All but one of my friends told the 'scammer' to jog on, except for one who actually went along with it. He has since shown me a log of the messages that went back and forth between 'me' (only it wasn't me) and him, and it's very believable with nothing that would ring alarm bells.

Obviously i felt very bad and guilty that this had been done in my name. If i had the £300 I'd give it straight back to him, but i don't have that sort of money. I advised him to raise a complaint with PayPal and assumed he'd get him money back. That's the last we talked about it until today.

He's just told me he's received an email from PayPal saying if he doesn't get in contact with them then they may give his details to a Debt Recovery Agency. I asked him what gone on since and he told me he's raised a complaint with PayPal but basically they have told him it's not a fraudulent payment. He's been to his bank who have told him it's nothing to do with them. He is going to contact PayPal after work tonight.

In the mean time i thought I'd ask on here if anyone has any advice? Has anyone heard of this sort of thing before?
I feel so bad that this has happened to a friend of mine in 'my name' that I'd love to be able to offer him some suggestions or advice.

Since this happened i have personally 'unlinked' my bank account from my paypal account. I'm getting so disillusioned with Social Media that i will also be closing my Facebook and Messenger accounts once i close down my business at Christmas time.

By the way, my friend is a Police officer.

 

[Springal]

Confused, why would they give his details to a debt recovery agency?

 

[junior]

Confused, why would they give his details to a debt recovery agency?

Yes I'm not sure. Obvious i don't know the EXACT details of the communication he's had with PayPal, he just told me that "he hasn't got anywhere" with them and that they haven't been "helpful".

To be fair it just looks like a standard email asking him to get in touch with them, it just contains one line in it which is something like "failure to make contact could result in your details being passed to a third party debt recovery agents". I assume it's just a standard email they send out for all cases where they are trying to contact someone. As far as I'm aware he's not in debt as he told me the £300 went out that night from his bank account.

 

[Springal]

I think your friend might be best off writing it off unfortunately. Knowing PayPal the fact he paid a contact regardless of the circumstances isn’t really their problem and even if they could get it back, I’m not sure they will.

Might be worth filing to the police as fraud but unless there is information they’ll also not help

 

[Da Man Clay]

If your friend is a police officer he should know better. This sort of thing happens day in and day out. Tell him to get in contact with Action Fraud which will provide him a crime number and they will have some practical advice around Pay Pal. Don’t go to the police as they will just tell him to contact Action Fraud (which again he should know anyway)

 

[Lush]

Unless he never gave them any money and he's scamming you for the £300?

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Nothing to do with you at all. Your friend got scammed, not you. Just change your password and make sure it's not the same as any other websites. These bots get your password from hacks/leaks over the years and try them in a variety of services. When they get a hit it goes over to real people who actually run the scam.

I would imagine that if he contacted Paypal/the bank and you hammered them hard enough, they'd reverse the transaction no? It's fraud after all.

 

[FatSuperman]

I would imagine that if he contacted Paypal/the bank and you hammered them hard enough, they'd reverse the transaction no? It's fraud after all.

This is my expectation as well. If your friend makes a massive fuss and continues to do so, they will eventually just issue a refund to get rid of the noise. However that amount of time and effort is probably a lot more than is worth for £300. Despite that being a decent amount of money.