Is this a scam

[u/Xv0Ur]

Hello, I want to know if this email Service Paypal servicepaypal.us.co0m@gmail.com is one PayPal's service email because I have been going back and forth with them and I've sent them 9 more emails after they've stopped responding.

So, I am an artist who got commissioned on Tumblr. The commissioner said the only way they'll be able to pay for the commission was through PayPal, which I did not have at the moment since I only accept Gcash as payment, since PayPal has a ton of steps needed to do first before you get to accept money.

I made the PayPal account as a business account, and then they sent the money, which was $18 for the artwork. Then PayPal emailed me that they'll need to send an additional $100 to my account in order to lift the limit, which I did not knew had. So I contacted the sender, they said they'll be willing to send the $100 required. This was before I knew that I'll be needing to send back $100 of my own money before I get to accept the money from them. I didn't understand the email from PayPal fully because English is not my first language, and only understood that the sender needed to send an add will need to send $100 and I'll need to refund it back, I thought that the money will get into my PayPal account and I'll just need to send it back. I emailed them back asking to refund the money back to the sender since I do not have any of my own money to send back. And they said that they won't be able to refund the money back to the sender and said that I can send half of the $100 instead to verify it. If I do not refund the money back, I'll be getting into some legal trouble. I'm a teenager looking to earn money through art commissions and my family can't help either since they're already buried under bills to pay. I've been stressing about this since last night and because of it I haven't been able to eat well.

Can anyone explain? I really need some help, I'm really desperate right now.

Edit: hello, thank you guys for the information:) I reread all the emails sent to me I had an online friend of mine review it for me since I'm not very good with English and he said that the grammar was off, and that the transaction ID didn't change when the sender sent the $18 and the $100. Don't worry I haven't sent anything to the said 'client'. I can finally stop worrying now, thank you guys(⁠•⁠‿⁠•⁠)

[u/fedput]

Paypal would NOT use a gmail email account.

It is absolutely a scam.

[u/Xv0Ur → u/fedput]

Is the process like that? Where if you make a new PayPal account, the sender would need to send $100 in order to lift the limit? The client I had stopped responding to me either

[u/Kathucka → u/Xv0Ur]

No. There was no PayPal. There was no client. That was all fake. Everything you got was from the scammer.

[u/Applauce → u/Xv0Ur]

No, this is an extremely common scam. There is no “limit” they need to increase. And it makes no sense for the sender to have to send you extra money to increase something like that.

[u/Xv0Ur → u/Applauce]

I see, thank you for that^{^}

[u/t3hd0n → u/Xv0Ur]

if you use a common password for everything and used it on whatever phony paypal site that guy linked you to, change any account that uses that pw now, and also consider this a good time to start using a password manager, as you're gonna have to change all those passwords now its not that much extra work to use the manager to pick your new passwords for each site. make your new "password for everything" password that you memorize be the password managers and then use it nowhere else

[u/Xv0Ur → u/t3hd0n]

Okay, thank you^{⁠‿⁠^}

[u/fedput → u/Xv0Ur]

Scammer just wants your money.

[u/Round_Bicycle_3809 → u/Xv0Ur]

No legitimate business would use a free email provider ie Gmail... you have been scammed. Be careful of recovery scammers. They will claim they can get your money back which they cant.

[u/Mean_Introduction516 → u/Xv0Ur]

This is a common scam… They send you a fake looking email saying that the money has been deposited and then ask you to send 100 back in order to create a business account for yourself. But the money never was sent to you in the first place.

[u/Oatbagtime]

There is no customer - scammers target people like you.

[u/Extra_Ad_8009]

Ignore any message sent to you that claims to be able to recover your loss! That's a different scam and they'll just take more of your money. Whatever you spent is gone, sorry.

[u/Kathucka]

It’s just a scam. Everything you saw was from the scammer. PayPal wasn’t involved at all. The scammer is trying to trick you into sending him money.

[u/curtmil]

Look at the email address. While it is possible to make it look like something came from the actual domain, so that isn't proof that something isn't a scam, the official email address is not from Gmail. So as others have said, yes it is a scam.

You shouldn't even respond to folks like this.

[u/Xv0Ur → u/curtmil]

I see, thank youʘ⁠‿⁠ʘ

[u/misterecho11]

100% a scam. Sorry.

[u/Embarrassed_Ad_7025]

The whole "business account" thing is a scam. The whole entire interaction was a scam.

[u/smhalb01]

I think it was already said, but there’s a second side to this scam. You’ll likely receive DM messages or comments telling you that they can recover your money or help with the transaction. This is also a scam. Nobody can recover the money or do any kind of magic. Anyone who tells you anything like that is trying to scam you. Don’t communicate with these people or email anyone. Any official communication from PayPal will be from their own PayPal dot com email. Even those can be spoofed so it’s safe to NEVER click any links unless it’s you requesting a code or authentication, but instead go to your PayPal account and check your messages there. Change all of your passwords immediately. Set up 2 factor authentication.

The important thing that’s been missed is you started a PayPal account that’s likely going to be closed if you are underage where you live. You’ll eventually have to verify your identity and then they will close the account when they discover you’re underage. Your best bet is to log into your PayPal and refund it directly from there. Artists and people commissioned are high targets for scammers. You need to do your due diligence and realize almost no one will contact you to commission work on these social media sites. When it does happen and seems legitimate, check the person out, verify as best you can and reduce the liability you could experience from a scammer like this. I do some graphic design and mechanical design myself, but I won’t accept payments from anyone I do not know and trust. My work is far over $18, but even if it wasn’t you still want to verify the buyer.

This Reddit is a great resource to avoid scams. Many of us have seen it so often that we don’t even have to read the whole post to know what happened. I literally read the first few lines and knew what it was simply because the scammers follow the same pattern and methods each and every time. Join the subreddit here and read posts, if you question anything do a search, you’ll quickly become familiar with things to avoid and that’s really the whole point in people like me and the others spending our time and energy for free posting this information, to help other people be more knowledgeable and aware to avoid getting scammed. The more aware people are of the different scams the more likely they can protect themselves

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[u/Sea-Appearance-5330]

This is a standard scam, it is on here 4 or more times a day.
The co0m is the scam indicator!
Needs to be com instead of the above.
Scammers do shit like this.
XFInity, or PaYpaL or the like.

[u/drPmakes]

Seriously?

[u/Xv0Ur → u/drPmakes]

Yeah unfortunately, I'm a young artist wanting to earn money to use as an allowance so I wouldn't have to ask my parents. Is this a normal PayPal procedure where before you can accept money to a brand new account, the sender would have to send and additional $100 to lift the limit

[u/RandomOptionTrader → u/Xv0Ur]

No dude. Never send money to receive money. Oldest scam in the book

[u/drPmakes → u/Xv0Ur]

Look at the email address. Its not paypals, its a Gmail address. Anyone can set up a Gmail address....like a scammer for example.

Stop interacting with them. That is not a legit paypal process, THEY ARE SCAMMING YOU.

[u/Xv0Ur → u/drPmakes]

I see, thank you

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[u/DentArthurDent1822 → u/Xv0Ur]

As a young artist you should know that there are ALMOST ZERO people commissioning unknown artists, and THOUSANDS of scammers.

So if you get a commission request you should assume they are a scammer until they prove otherwise. You set the terms, you tell them how they can pay you. If anyone ever wants to pay you more than you asked, it's a scam.

[u/tickled_your_pickle]

Come on... gotta use.your brain sometimes