PayPal Invoice Scam: What It Is and What to Do If You Get One

A PayPal invoice scam is a fake bill or money request sent through PayPal’s own invoicing system, so the email genuinely comes from PayPal. It usually claims you’ve been charged for something you didn’t buy, such as crypto, antivirus software or a device, and gives a phone number to call if you want to dispute it. Don’t call the number and don’t pay. An invoice or request doesn’t take money from you unless you pay it. Log in to PayPal yourself, by typing paypal.com or opening the official app, to check your account and report the invoice.

This scam catches careful people precisely because the usual advice, “check the sender address”, doesn’t help. The sender address is real. The content is what’s fake.

How the PayPal invoice scam works

Anyone can open a PayPal account and send an invoice or a money request to any email address. Scammers use that ordinary feature. They create an account, sometimes with a business name designed to sound official, such as a “billing department” or “security team”, and send you an invoice.

The invoice itself is not really the trap. The trap is the note written into it: something like “Your account has been charged for a purchase. If you didn’t authorize this, call our support team,” followed by a phone number. Because PayPal delivers the invoice, it arrives in your inbox looking completely legitimate.

When you call, you reach the scammer, not PayPal. The “agent” then tries to get money or access, usually in one of these ways:

• asking you to log in to your PayPal or bank account while they “cancel” the charge, so they can see or capture your details
• asking you to install remote-access software to “process a refund”
• pretending to refund you, then claiming they sent too much and asking you to send the difference back by gift card, wire, crypto or a payment app
• asking for card numbers, one-time codes or personal details to “verify” your identity

If you’ve already called, don’t worry about having done something foolish. The whole scam is designed so that calling feels like the responsible thing to do.

Common versions

• The fake purchase invoice: a bill for crypto, a laptop, a phone or a gift card order, with a number to call to cancel.
• The fake subscription renewal: an invoice for antivirus, tech support or a streaming service that “renewed automatically”. This overlaps with the Geek Squad scam and the Microsoft scam, which use the same scripts.
• The fake security alert: an invoice or money request whose note says your account was accessed or will be suspended.
• The money request from a stranger: a payment request with a story attached, such as a refund owed, a shared bill or a “mistake” to correct.
• Look-alike emails: not every fake invoice comes through PayPal. Some are ordinary phishing emails styled like PayPal. Our guide on how to spot a phishing email covers those.

Warning signs of a fake PayPal invoice

• A phone number in the invoice note telling you to call to dispute or cancel.
• A charge for something you didn’t buy, especially crypto, antivirus or electronics.
• A sender name that sounds official but isn’t PayPal itself, such as a “billing” or “security” department.
• Urgency: the charge “will be processed in 24 hours” unless you act.
• No matching payment when you check your PayPal activity or your bank statement.
• A request to pay rather than a record that you’ve already paid. A real completed purchase appears as a transaction in your account, not as an invoice waiting for you to pay.

What to do if you receive a PayPal invoice scam

1. Don’t pay and don’t call. Leave the email alone for now. Don’t use the “pay” or “view” buttons in it.
2. Log in to PayPal directly. Type paypal.com into your browser or open the official app, and check your activity. You’ll typically see the invoice or request waiting, with no money taken.
3. Report the invoice or request. From inside your account, look for the option to report or decline the invoice or request. If you can’t find it, use PayPal’s help center from inside your account to report it.
4. Forward the email to phishing@paypal.com, which PayPal asks people to use for suspicious messages, then delete it.
5. Check your bank and card statements for anything you don’t recognize. If you find a real charge, contact the card issuer using the number on your card.

What to do if you already called or paid

Work through these in order, and don’t let embarrassment slow you down.

1. Hang up and stop contact. If they call back, don’t answer.
2. Disconnect your computer from the internet if you gave them remote access, then uninstall the software and run a full security scan.
3. Change your passwords from a different device, starting with your email, PayPal and bank. Turn on two-step verification or a passkey for PayPal. If you think someone got into your PayPal account, follow our guide on what to do if your PayPal account is hacked.
4. Call your bank or card issuer using the number on your card. Tell them it was a scam and ask them to stop or dispute payments and monitor your account.
5. Report the payment to PayPal from inside your account if you paid the invoice.
6. Protect your identity if you shared your Social Security number or ID. Consider a fraud alert or credit freeze.
7. Save everything: the invoice email, the phone number, the time of the call, what you were told and any payment receipts.

Where to report it

• PayPal: report the invoice or request from inside your account, and forward the email to phishing@paypal.com.
• The FTC: report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
• The FBI: report online fraud to ic3.gov, including the phone number and payment details.
• 7726: forward any related scam texts to 7726 (SPAM).
• IdentityTheft.gov if your personal details were misused.

Our guide on how to report a scammer explains what each report does and how to report from outside the US.

Can you get your money back?

If you didn’t pay or call, you haven’t lost anything. If you did pay, your options depend on how.

How the money left	What you can try
Paid the invoice through PayPal	Report it to PayPal from your account quickly and ask what its dispute process allows for your payment.
Card or bank account	Ask your card issuer about a dispute or chargeback, or report the transfer as fraud to your bank. Speed helps.
Gift cards	Contact the company that issued the card, say it was used in a scam and ask whether the balance can be frozen. Keep the cards and receipts.
Wire, crypto or a payment app	Report it to the provider immediately. These are often hard or impossible to reverse.

If someone later contacts you promising to recover your money for a fee, it’s usually a follow-up scam. Our guide to recovery scams explains the signs.

A worked example

This is an illustrative scenario, not a real case. A small bakery owner gets an email from PayPal’s real address. It’s an invoice for a cryptocurrency purchase, with a note saying the amount will be charged to her account and giving a number to call if she didn’t authorize it. The email passes every check she knows: the sender, the logo, the layout.

Instead of calling, she:

1. Opens the PayPal app on her phone and finds the invoice waiting, unpaid, with no money taken.
2. Reports the invoice from inside the app and forwards the email to phishing@paypal.com.
3. Checks her bank statement to be sure nothing else went out.
4. Files a short report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
5. Tells her staff, who handle the shop’s inbox, so they know not to call numbers in invoices either.

Common mistakes

• Assuming it’s real because the sender is PayPal. In this scam, the sender is PayPal. The note inside is written by the scammer.
• Calling to cancel. There’s nothing to cancel. An unpaid invoice doesn’t take money on its own.
• Paying the invoice to make it go away. That turns a harmless email into a real loss.
• Logging in to your bank while on the phone with a “PayPal agent”.
• Searching for “PayPal phone number” and trusting the first result. Start from paypal.com or the app.

How to protect yourself next time

• Treat every phone number in an invoice or request note as suspect.
• Check your account, not your inbox. If something is wrong, it will show up when you log in yourself.
• Use two-step verification or a passkey on PayPal and a unique password.
• Brief anyone who handles your business email. Fake invoices often land in shared inboxes where someone feels responsible for dealing with them.
• Talk to older relatives about this scam. The rule to share is simple: “Never call a number in a bill you weren’t expecting.”

For the other ways scammers use PayPal, such as overpayments and Friends and Family requests, see our guide to PayPal scams. If a scammer is sending invoices in your business’s name, read what to do if someone is impersonating you online, and if angry posts or complaints about it are appearing in search results, our personal reputation management team can help you work out what can realistically be done.

Frequently asked questions

Can a PayPal invoice take money from my account?

No. An invoice or money request is a request for payment. Money only leaves your account if you pay it. Don’t pay it, and report it from inside your PayPal account.

Why did the scam invoice come from a real PayPal email address?

Because the scammer used PayPal’s genuine invoicing feature, which lets anyone send an invoice to any email address. The email is delivered by PayPal, but the note and phone number inside were written by the scammer.

I called the number on a fake PayPal invoice. What now?

Hang up if you’re still on the call, don’t share anything else, and change your PayPal, email and bank passwords from a trusted device. If you gave remote access or payment details, disconnect the computer and call your bank using the number on your card.

How do I report a PayPal invoice scam?

Report the invoice or request from inside your PayPal account, forward the email to phishing@paypal.com, and file a report with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If you lost money, also report it to ic3.gov and your bank.