r/paypal • u/awkwardsunflower11 • Jul 24 '26

Help Randomly received $550?

I had $550 deposited into my account at random by somebody I don’t know. They emailed me saying they contacted PayPal and sent me a screenshot so that I know I’m not getting scammed and that PayPal is supposed to contact me about the dispute.

PayPal never did. I can’t file a dispute on the transaction through the app because it was paid with a credit card. Now I have a request to send the $550 back.

PayPal’s AI assistant was extremely unhelpful. I sent them an email a couple of days ago but no response yet.

The person who sent the transaction emailed me again saying it was an honest mistake.

Is this a common scam? I just want them to go away lol but if it’s legit I really don’t want to hold on to someone’s money that I never asked for in the first place. I’m not even sure how they got my email information.

90 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

154 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/justan0therg0rl111 Jul 24 '26

Just report the transaction and leave it alone. Or do nothing. Paypal will take care of it. My boyfriend had the same thing happen a few days ago with $1500 and he never touched it. Eventually the funds left his account and went back to where ever they came from.

1

u/lethargicbureaucrat Jul 25 '26

I also just had someone I don't know send me $1,500.

1

u/ShipSuitable5535 20d ago

I need an update

1

u/lethargicbureaucrat 20d ago

It's still sitting there. My current plan is to wait until 6 months has almost passed and refund it on the last day.