PayPal notifications: spot the fake ones, keep the ones that matter
Check any PayPal payment email in the app before you ship. How to spot fake PayPal emails, turn on the right notifications and meet dispute deadlines.
Before you ship anything or start work because of a PayPal "payment received" email, open the PayPal app (or type paypal.com into the browser yourself) and find the payment in your activity. If it isn't there, you haven't been paid, whatever the email says. Of all the PayPal notifications you get, a fake payment notice is the most expensive one to believe, because the scammer walks away with the goods and you are left with an email.
One thing to know if you want any PayPal notification to ring your phone. An app that reads your Gmail can watch PayPal's emails on an iPhone as easily as on Android. The PayPal app's own push notifications are another matter: iPhone keeps the PayPal app's alerts private to PayPal, so watching them takes the PinG keyring.
How do I know if a PayPal email is real?
PayPal's security pages give you a handful of tells. The first is your name. PayPal says "Messages from PayPal will always use the full name listed in your PayPal account", so "Dear Customer" is a bad start. PayPal also says an authentic email shows its logo and a checkmark in your inbox view, that it doesn't send attachments, and that you should never give personal, card or account details by email, text or phone.
None of those tells is as good as the habit itself.
Don't click the button in the email. Open the app, or type the address, and look. PayPal's own advice is to verify every payment notification by logging in and finding the transaction.
| What you see | Real PayPal email | Treat as fake until checked |
|---|---|---|
| Greeting | Your full name as it is on the account | Dear Customer, Dear User, your email address |
| Attachments | None | A PDF receipt or a file to download |
| What it asks for | Nothing sensitive | Password, card number, a code, a phone call |
| The payment | Also shows in your PayPal activity | Only exists in the email |
The two PayPal notification scams sellers meet most
The first is the overpayment. PayPal warns about people who overpay for an item and then ask for a refund of the extra. If the "overpayment" only exists in an email, you would be refunding money you never received, and shipping the item on top.
The second is harder to spot. PayPal's scam page says fraudsters "may use PayPal to send you an invoice or money request that looks real so you'll call them." Because it was sent through PayPal, the email can pass some of the checks above. The giveaway is a bill you don't recognise with a phone number to call about it.
Don't call it. Don't pay it either.
To report a fake, forward the whole email to phishing@paypal.com and delete it. For a text message, PayPal's report page says to forward it with phishing@paypal.com as the recipient, then block the sender and delete the message. If you already typed your password into a fake page, open PayPal the safe way, change the password and look through recent transactions for anything you didn't do.
How do I turn on PayPal notifications?
On paypal.com, click the Settings icon next to Log out, then Notifications, and tick or untick the boxes. In the PayPal app, open your profile or settings and look for notification preferences. Then check the phone side, because a notification PayPal sends and the phone hides is no notification at all.
- On paypal.com: Settings icon (next to Log out), then Notifications. Keep anything about money arriving, disputes and your account. Untick promotions and partner offers if you don't want them.
- In the PayPal app: open your profile or settings and look for notification preferences, then choose which push notifications you want.
- On the phone: open Settings and search for 'Notifications', find PayPal, and allow it on the lock screen. On iPhone, check that no Focus is holding it back.
- In Gmail: search for PayPal, spam included, to make sure its emails aren't being filed where you never look.
Some emails you get whatever you tick. PayPal says it always emails you when you request your password or change your name, address, email address, password or bank account, and about important changes to its legal agreements or policies. Those account-change emails are the ones to read properly. If one says your email address changed and you didn't change it, act, but through the app and not through the link.
Does PayPal send fraud alerts?
Yes. PayPal's help centre says, "We'll always monitor your wallet and alert you instantly if we spot unusual activity." The same page says you can opt out of daily push notifications in your notification preferences, so the routine ones are yours to switch off.
The catch is that "unusual activity on your account" is also the subject line scammers love. Treat a real fraud alert and a fake one the same way. Close the email, open the app, and see whether PayPal shows you anything there.
How long do I have to respond to a PayPal dispute?
A dispute moves in stages, and each one has a clock. When a buyer opens a dispute, PayPal says there is usually a 20-day period before it can be escalated to a claim. That's your window to sort it out with the buyer directly, in the Resolution Center, with a tracking number or a refund offer or a photo of the delivered parcel. Plenty of disputes are not fraud at all. A client says the work wasn't delivered because the file went to an address nobody checks, or a buyer opens an item-not-received case the day before the parcel turns up. A short, specific message in those first days, with the proof attached, settles a lot of them, and you never get near the claim stage.
Once it becomes a claim, PayPal asks the seller to respond within 10 days. If you don't, the claim closes in the buyer's favour and a full refund is issued. PayPal then reviews the evidence, and it describes the whole claim process as typically taking about 30 days, longer for complicated cases. You respond from the Resolution Center after logging in.
A dispute notification deserves to interrupt your evening. A "you've got money" email doesn't.
Money arriving keeps until morning, and looking at it tomorrow costs you nothing. A dispute starts a countdown, and the early days are when a polite message and a tracking number can end it before PayPal has to decide anything. Ten days sounds like plenty until the email sits under forty newsletters during a week when you're buried in client work.
Making PayPal disputes ring your phone
If your PayPal emails go to Gmail, OLL.E (say "Ollie"), the app we make, can watch them on iPhone or Android with nothing extra. You type the watch as a sentence, and when a dispute or claim is opened, or a payment over the amount you set arrives, it calls you and sends a summary of the email. Smaller sales stay on the quiet Shortlist. It can watch the PayPal app's notifications too, on Android, or on iPhone with the PinG keyring.
OLL.E does not detect fraud and never touches your PayPal account. It can't tell a fake PayPal email from a real one any better than PayPal's own guidance above, so a call about a big payment still means opening the PayPal app and finding it before you ship.
Selling on Etsy as well? Buyer messages there have their own fixes, in Etsy messages.
If you get paid through PayPal, OLL.E is a way to hear about a dispute on the day it opens instead of on day nine. It watches PayPal's emails in your Gmail, calls you for disputes, claims and payments above your threshold, and sends a summary so you know what you are walking into before you open the Resolution Center. The receipts can wait for the morning. On iPhone, the Gmail watch works fully; watching the PayPal app's own notifications there needs PinG. Pro comes with a 7-day free trial, so you can set it up before the next dispute lands.
Questions people ask
How do I turn on PayPal notifications?
On paypal.com, click the Settings icon next to Log out, then Notifications, and tick the boxes you want. In the PayPal app, open your profile or settings and look for notification preferences. Also allow PayPal notifications in your phone's own settings.
How do I know if a PayPal email is real?
Open the PayPal app or type paypal.com yourself and check whether the payment or message is there; if it isn't, treat the email as fake. A real request you don't recognise can still be a scam; don't pay it or call its number. PayPal says its emails always use the full name on your account and that it won't ask for personal, card or account details by email. Forward suspicious emails to phishing@paypal.com.
How long do I have to respond to a PayPal dispute?
There is usually a 20-day period after a buyer opens a dispute before it can be escalated to a claim, and that is your time to settle it with the buyer. Once it is a claim, PayPal gives the seller 10 days to respond, and if you don't, the claim closes in the buyer's favour with a full refund.
Does PayPal send fraud alerts?
Yes. PayPal says it monitors your wallet and alerts you instantly if it spots unusual activity. Because scammers copy these alerts, check any warning by opening the PayPal app yourself rather than clicking a link.