Fraudulent PayPal emails lead to unauthorized Lowe’s, Amazon orders

TROY — Two separate PayPal scams were reported in the city recently.

On June 27, a Troy resident reported that she had received an email from who she thought was PayPal informing her that there had been suspicious activity on her account, according to a police report.

The victim called the number and was given a website and instructions that included entering personal information, police said. The woman became suspicious when the scammer asked for her banking information, and she ended the call and turned off her computer, police said.

The next day, the woman received a text message that her Lowe’s order was ready for pickup. She contacted her credit card company and was advised that an unauthorized transaction had been made on her account at Lowe’s.

The woman turned her computer back on and realized the suspects still had remote access, police said.

In a separate report from July 12, a woman told police that she had received an email supposedly from PayPal regarding a $299.99 purchase between 5:30 p.m. and 7:24 p.m.

The email instructed her to call the phone number provided to challenge the charge, police said. The woman called the number and was instructed to download an app to her phone and to fill out an application in the app.

After doing as instructed, the woman realized that she no longer had control over her phone, and she believes the app allowed the subject she was talking to to take remote access to her cellphone.

According to police, the woman discovered $140 missing from her checking account and a $200 charge on her credit card to Amazon that she did not authorize.