An electronic mail rip-off is abusing abusing PayPal’s “Subscriptions” billing function to ship official PayPal emails that include faux buy notifications embedded within the Customer support URL area.
Over the previous couple of months, folks have reported [1, 2] receiving emails from PayPal stating, “Your computerized fee is now not energetic.”
The e-mail features a customer support URL area that was by some means modified to incorporate a message stating that you just bought an costly merchandise, resembling a Sony gadget, MacBook, or iPhone.
This textual content features a area identify, a message stating {that a} fee of $1,300 to $1,600 was processed (the quantity varies by electronic mail), and a cellphone quantity to cancel or dispute the fee. The textual content is full of Unicode characters that make parts seem daring or in an uncommon font, a tactic used to attempt to evade spam filters and key phrase detection.
“http://[domain] [domain] A fee of $1346.99 has been efficiently processed. For cancel and inquiries, Contact PayPal assist at +1-805-500-6377,” reads the customer support URL within the rip-off electronic mail.
Supply: BleepingComputer
Whereas that is clearly a rip-off, the emails are being despatched immediately by PayPal from the deal with “service@paypal.com,” main folks to fret their accounts might have been hacked.
Moreover, because the emails are official PayPal emails, they’re bypassing safety and spam filters. Within the subsequent part, we’ll clarify how scammers ship these emails.
The purpose of those emails is to trick recipients into pondering their account bought an costly gadget and scare them into calling the scammer’s “PayPal assist” cellphone quantity.
Emails like these have traditionally been used to persuade recipients to name a quantity to conduct financial institution fraud or trick them into putting in malware on their computer systems.
Due to this fact, in the event you obtain a official electronic mail from PayPal stating your computerized fee is now not energetic, and it incorporates a faux buy affirmation, ignore the e-mail and don’t name the quantity.
If you’re involved that your PayPal account was compromised, log in to your account and ensure that there was no cost.
How the PayPal rip-off works
BleepingComputer was despatched a duplicate of the e-mail from somebody who acquired it and located it unusual that the rip-off originated from the official “service@paypal.com” electronic mail deal with.
Moreover, the e-mail headers point out that the emails are official, cross DKIM and SPF electronic mail safety checks, and originate immediately from PayPal’s “mx15.slc.paypal.com” mail server, as proven under.
ARC-Authentication-Outcomes: i=1; mx.google.com;
dkim=cross header.i=@paypal.com header.s=pp-dkim1 header.b="AvY/E1H+";
spf=cross (google.com: area of service@paypal.com designates 173.0.84.4 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=service@paypal.com;
dmarc=cross (p=REJECT sp=REJECT dis=NONE) header.from=paypal.com
Acquired: from mx15.slc.paypal.com (mx15.slc.paypal.com. [173.0.84.4])
by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id a92af1059eb24-11dcb045a3csi5930706c88.202.2025.11.28.09.14.49
for
(model=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256/256);
Fri, 28 Nov 2025 09:14:49 -0800 (PST)
After testing numerous PayPal billing options, BleepingComputer was in a position to replicate the identical electronic mail template through the use of PayPal’s “Subscriptions” function and pausing a subscriber.
PayPal subscriptions are a billing function that lets retailers create subscription checkout choices for folks to subscribe to a service for a specified quantity.
When a service provider pauses a subscriber’s subscription, PayPal will robotically electronic mail the subscriber to inform them that their computerized fee is now not energetic.
Nevertheless, when BleepingComputer tried to copy the rip-off by including textual content apart from a URL to the Buyer Service URL, PayPal would reject the change as solely a URL is allowed.
Due to this fact, it seems the scammers are both exploiting a flaw in PayPal’s dealing with of subscription metadata or utilizing a way, resembling an API or legacy platform not obtainable in all areas, that enables invalid textual content to be saved within the Customer support URL area.
Now that we all know how they generate the e-mail from PayPal, it is nonetheless unclear the way it’s being despatched to individuals who did not join the PayPal subscription.
The mail headers present that PayPal is definitely sending the e-mail to the deal with “receipt3@bbcpaglomoonlight.studio,” which we consider is the e-mail deal with related to a faux subscriber created by the scammer.
This account is probably going a Google Workspace mailing record, which robotically forwards any electronic mail it receives to all different group members. On this case, the members are the folks the scammer is focusing on.
This forwarding could cause all subsequent SPF and DMARC checks to fail, for the reason that electronic mail was forwarded by a server that was not the unique sender.
When BleepingComputer contacted PayPal to ask if this concern was mounted, they declined to remark and shared the next assertion as an alternative.
“PayPal doesn’t tolerate fraudulent exercise and we work laborious to guard our clients from constantly evolving rip-off ways,” PayPal instructed BleepingComputer.
“We’re conscious of this phishing rip-off and encourage folks to at all times be vigilant on-line and conscious of surprising messages. If clients suspect they’re a goal of a rip-off, we advocate they contact Buyer Help immediately via the PayPal app or our Contact web page for help.”
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