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Thread: Is gotpaid.co.za a scam?

  1. #1
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    Question Is gotpaid.co.za a scam?

    G'day everyone

    A friend of mine received an official-looking e-mail from what appears to be PayPal, but there are some flags in it. The e-mail tells the reader that he needs to link his bank account to PayPal and that he needs to withdraw his money within 30 days (so says South African law) and that he can't use received money to pay for things with PayPal.

    The links in the e-mail all go to "paypal.com" but they have long strings of characters that are typically of e-mail tracking URLs, and when you click them, they do take you to PayPal's site, but it then redirects you to gotpaid.co.za.

    FNB's own page on PayPal makes absolutely no mention of gotpaid.co.za.

    The wording of the e-mail is this:

    Dear [full name and surname]

    Thank you for receiving your online payments with PayPal.

    Now that you are using PayPal to receive payments, you should be aware of the following important South African exchange control regulations:

    1. Funds you receive via PayPal cannot be sent to other PayPal users or used to fund any other purchases.

    2. You must withdraw the received funds from your PayPal balance to a South African bank account within 30 days of receiving these funds.

    To help you quickly and easily withdraw funds from your PayPal account to your South African bank account, we have partnered with First National Bank (FNB). Together, we created the FNB Withdraw Service with PayPal, which requires you to open a free FNB Online Banking Profile.

    To register for a FNB Online Banking profile please follow these 3 easy steps (Customers with existing FNB online banking profiles can skip ahead to step 3):

    1. Register for the withdraw service and create a free FNB Online Banking Profile. To do that, click here.

    2. When you’ve completed the registration form, FNB will ask you to email copies of certain identification documents to complete your registration.

    FNB will notify you when these documents have been verified, and then you can log onto your FNB Online Banking profile.

    3. Once you have logged on to your FNB Online Banking profile click on PayPal Services and then click link PayPal profile. You will now be able to link your verified PayPal account and any South African bank account to your FNB online banking profile.

    After you’ve successfully linked your PayPal profile and South African Bank account, you’ll be able to withdraw funds from your PayPal account to either your qualifying FNB or other non-FNB bank account. Please note that FNB charges a fee for each withdrawal, which may take up to six business days to reach your bank account. Click here[1] for the FNB PayPal Service Terms and Conditions.

    For more information regarding the FNB Withdraw service with PayPal and how to link your PayPal account visit www.gotpaid.co.za[2].

    You can also contact the FNB PayPal call center on 0861 PAYPAL (729725), or send an email to paypalenquiries@fnb.co.za

    Regards,
    PayPal
    [1] This "click here" is a hyperlink that takes you to https://email-edg.paypal.com/r/ plus a string of characters. It redirects to https://www.paypal-communication.com/r/ plus a string of characters, and then redirects to FNB's own web site and downloads a PDF file with FNB's PayPal terms and conditions.

    [2] This text is hyperlinked but the hyperlink does not go to gotpaid.co.za directly. It is a link to https://email-edg.paypal.com/r/ plus a string of characters. It redirects to https://www.paypal-communication.com/r/ plus a string of characters, and then redirects to https://www.gotpaid.co.za/top-up-and...nb-and-paypal/.

    Any ideas? Scam or no scam?

    Samuel (leuce)

  2. #2
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    It looks like FirstRand owns the domain, so that is promising.

    On the flip side I can't see any reference to it under the Paypal info given on the FNB website.

    It looks credible, but I'd call the call center number provided (it is the correct number) to double check first.

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