Quick PayPal Fraud Tip
Posted on 27. Oct, 2008 by $haz in General, fraud
This is a quick fraud tip that I would like you guys to be aware of. If you have a paypal account you have the ability to add an extra email account(s) to the primary account. So I can have Shaz@yada.com as my primary account/email and attach AndrewChung@yahoo.com to the same account.
When I was starting out in this industry I would send payments to many people and not keep track of my paypal transactions. One day I decided to take a look just to make sure there was nothing wrong going on and I saw something weird. I saw multiple transactions to a user’s name in one day. I was pretty confused because I know I didn’t send any user multiple payments on the same day.
I checked the details of the transactions and saw that the user’s emails were different, but they were linked under the same name, which means they were linked under the same account. So being the great detective I am (better than Sherlock), I said “Ah Ha!,” and then I went and banned these user’s permanently.
Basically, most scammers from Vietnam, China, or anywhere will have one primary bank account/email in paypal and have other emails attached to that same account. The other emails are able to receive paypal payments from anywhere also so it looks like you are actually sending the payments to different users. The way to catch that is to look at your transactions and make sure that the same name is not appearing twice in one day if you have not sent multiple payments to the same person.
I hope that makes sense, if anyone needs help clearing this up don’t be shy to comment below! We have many great readers who are willing to help, and of course I am willing to help also.
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Gabriel3
27. Oct, 2008
I noticed that when I did a little selling on ebay, its a very popular way of hiding your identity.
I’m actually surprised that there isn’t a system in place for paypal to monitor that.
If a primary account email along with the additional ad on emails receives multiple payments from one user, there is obviously something going on there. Seems to me like its a very simple thing to check if I was paypal, a little codding could notify paypal or that particular user of what’s going on.
I’m actually going to give paypal a call, it never occurred to me how simply this could be fixed by paypal.
Don’t worry Shaz, I’ll give you the credit if they create some crazy new security tool (I’ll share the credit but not the profits I’m afraid, haha)
$haz
27. Oct, 2008
Let me know if it works
. To me paypal is just another big corporation that doesn’t care about the little guys.
easydolla
27. Oct, 2008
Thanks , great tip
Bash
27. Oct, 2008
Every time I pay someone, I check the PayPal verified seal, and take note of the *primary* email address. I have a pretty good memory so I can recognize if I have seen it before. There’s another couple of tips I could give related to this, but I don’t want to help out any scammers that may be reading
Bash
27. Oct, 2008
Since I can’t edit my post, let me add to that. You should always check the Verified seal *before* approving an order
It doesn’t hurt to keep a record of any frauders’ primary PP emails as well.
$haz
27. Oct, 2008
@Bash
Great point, that’s something I was planning on talking about next!
YoungMoney06
27. Oct, 2008
Great tip. Also, I cannot remember if it does, but I believe on the “Payment Confirmation” page (the page confirming your about to send a payment) it tells the name of the person who your sending to.
Another tip I’d suggest to reduce fraud is to only send payments to PayPal Verified Accounts. These accounts are basically ones that are verified by having a credit/debit card on file with the same address that match the address given on the PayPal account.
Just a useful tip for anyone wanting to reduce fraud a little bit more. This small deterrent will make users think twice on whether its worth the time to do the site. Not to mention, I’m sure you can match the address on their PayPal account to what they provide on your site!
Gabriel3
28. Oct, 2008
I completely agree, but there is a problem.
Some people (especially if we’re dealing with pure traffic) are not experienced buyers on the internet. They simply just get a paypal account for the sake of completing a site or maybe buying one or two things of ebay or the internet in general.
To them, verification isn’t that big of a deal. But then again, its not very hard to get verified. And if its stressed to your customer that only accepting verified customers for mutual security, everything should be fine.