Consumer Protection has received a report from a consumer who thought he had been paid by a buyer of his goods, but in fact hadn’t.

The seller received an email which looked to be from PayPal that advised him that he had received funds, but the funds weren’t going to be released until the tracking information was sent through.

He sent the goods and provided the tracking information, but when he checked his PayPal account later, he noticed that the money was not there.

The email from 'PayPal' has been identified as a fake email, with confirmation coming from PayPal directly.

PayPal provided the following advice and tips:

• The account is not addressed to the customer instead it is addressed to an email address. PayPal’s emails always address the customer by their first and last name.
• The email address that the email came from was shipmentsupdate@consultant.com this is not a PayPal email. The person who sent the email manipulated it to look like it came from PayPal by entering the name as service@paypal.com but actually the email address is came to is  shipmentsupdate@consultant.com, which is definitely not a PayPal email address. In the body of the email the sender has also said to use that email address if they have any issues with the transaction and that looks suspicious to me as well.
• The email is riddled with grammatical errors, which PayPal’s emails are not.
• Sometimes PayPal does place payments on hold but the funds would ALWAYS appear in the account balance. They recommend customers always log securely into their PayPal account and view the activity, and if they are not sure to contact PayPal directly.
• Customers can report suspected phishing or fake emails to phishing@paypal.com. They will investigate the email and respond to the customer. In addition, they can always contact PayPal's Customer Service Centre on 1800 073 263.
• For more information see https://www.paypal.com/au/webapps/mpp/phishing.