If you got a “reminder” from Paypal that you still need to claim a payment from someone, there is a very good chance that it is legitimate, and not a scam. This seems to be triggered mostly when you get a payment from another country, in another currency.
Unfortunately, Paypal has to contend with lots of scammers who make it tough for them to distinguish their email from scam email (or even to distinguish their legitimate transactions from scam transactions, as evidenced by the fact that well over 100,000 people have found their way to our mystery charge from Paypal article).
So, this entirely legitimate email from Paypal may throw you – and, to be fair, they could do a better job of explaining it so that it seems less scammy. Because you see, the email “reminder” will likely be the first email that you get about the related transaction that actually calls to your attention the need to accept the payment.
That is because the first email you get about this transaction will look just like any other payment acknowledgement:
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Looks like any Paypal payment notification, doesn’t it? So there is a very good chance that you won’t even open the email. But if you had opened the email, you would have seen:
“To complete this payment, you must accept or deny it within 30 days by clicking here.”
Which may or may not have, on its own, caused you to think that it was a scam.
Assuming, however, that you didn’t read what you’d assumed to be a routine notification of a Paypal payment received, the ‘reminder’ email may well have have raised a red flag.
As it turns out, however, it is likely a legitimate reminder, which will read in main part:
This is a reminder that a payment of (amount) from N———- Products (INT) LTD is still waiting for you.
We’ll automatically cancel this payment and return the money to N———– Products (INT) LTD’s account on (date), so you should claim it as soon as possible.
Of course, as we always caution you to never click on a link that you think may be suspect, what you should instead do is log into your Paypal account and look for the transaction. It will be easy to spot because it will have this “accept/deny” button that will stand out:
Once you choose “accept” from the dropdown, you will be offered several choices for how to deal with the payment, including accepting the payment and converting it to your local currency (in this case US dollars), accepting the payment and keeping it in the original currency, or denying the payment and returning the money to the sender.
So, to summarize, if you get an email from Paypal that says you need to accept or claim a payment, it is probably legitimate. But to be sure, don’t click on the link, log into your Paypal account instead, and look for that accept/deny option in your account.
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