A New Canaan business owner is warning people after she says her company was the target of a fake invoice scam involving PayPal.
The reports began coming into BBB’s Scam Tracker on February, 26.
Better Business Bureau received more than 150 reports in less than a week and as of today, has close to 200 Scam Tracker reports from across the country, including one that states an entire Pennsylvania school district was hit with this scam.
The email, which appears to come from PayPal, states there is an unpaid invoice from Palomino Bazaar, LLC for around $1,000. It instructs the recipient to call a number if they don’t recognize the charge. There are links to “view” or “pay” the bill. The phone number is not the actual number to PayPal but the link did lead to a cloned Palomino Bazaar PayPal account to accept payments, according to consumers who reported the scam to BBB.
Kate Ferguson, the owner of Palomino Bazaar, says the vintage furniture resale business was inactive. Ferguson believes the password to the email address associated with Palomino Bazaar was exposed in a data breach and says that it was a password shared with the business’s PayPal account, an account she has since closed.
Ferguson says her interior design business, Palomino Interiors, has been inundated with phone calls and messages from people who’ve received the fake invoice, impacting her business’s reputation.
“Palomino Bazaar, LLC. has been the victim of a recent phishing PayPal scam. Invoices that were sent that appear to be coming from our business are illegitimate. We are deeply concerned about those receiving those invoices. We have reported this to the authorities and encourage consumers not to respond to these emails,” Ferguson tells BBB Serving CT. “We’re taking every stop possible to further protect our business and our customers.”
Invoice and money request scams are one of the most common frauds associated with PayPal, according to the company’s website.
These scams can happen in numerous ways:
• You receive an invoice or money request through PayPal, but for a product/service/crypto you never ordered. Don’t pay it.
• You receive an invoice or money request through PayPal, and the bad actor has included an alarmist note. The note asks you to call their fake customer service number.
• You receive a fake invoice or money request by email, designed to look like a real PayPal email.
These scams are trying to trick you into sending money to a fraudster or providing your personal or financial details to them. Be wary of any messages that are alarmist, warning you to call them quickly to resolve an “issue” on your account,” PayPal states online.
BBB tips for businesses to avoid impersonation scams:
• Maintain and regularly inspect your online presence
• Do regular searches on your business and its reviews
• Monitor any similar businesses that may overlap with your brand
• Use reverse image search if you believe someone has taken pictures from your website
Report this and other scams to BBB’s Scam Tracker, even if you don’t lose money, to warn others.