A PayPal invoice you did not order appears: verify, decline and report it

An attacker can send a genuine PayPal invoice or money request for something you never bought. The note may say that a large charge is pending and urge you to call a support number or open a link. Receiving a request is not the same as having paid it. PayPal advises not to pay unfamiliar invoices or call the number in their notes. Check the transaction from the app or a PayPal address you entered yourself, then decline and report the request through the native controls.

Before you start​

Do not reply to the invoice email or call its phone number. Use a trusted device and independently open your PayPal app or bookmarked PayPal site. If you have many accounts, identify the exact one that received the request. Preserve the email header or screenshot if the same sender has targeted several people, but do not forward a live payment link to friends.

Do it step by step​

1. Open Activity in your own PayPal session and locate the invoice or money request. Compare its status: a request awaiting payment is not proof that funds left your account. Check the bank or card statement separately if the message claims a charge already happened.
2. Read the seller identity and note as untrusted text. Do not click a URL, call a number, install remote-help software or send a small verification payment mentioned there.
3. Use PayPal's Cancel or Decline control for the suspicious request. On the website, PayPal describes selecting the item in Activity and choosing Cancel; on the app the control may say Decline. Confirm its status changed.
4. Use Report this invoice or Report from the same Activity item where offered. Describe why it is unwarranted. Reporting and declining are separate actions; do both if both controls are available and appropriate.
5. If the suspicious message never appears in your PayPal Activity, treat it as a possibly forged email. Report the email using PayPal's official phishing route and delete it without opening its embedded links.
6. If a payment actually left your account, select that completed transaction and use the Resolution Center reason that fits the facts. Secure the account and linked email if someone may have signed in. Check cards and banks through their own apps too.

Check the result​

The request is no longer awaiting your action and the native report was submitted. The real PayPal Activity and the funding account agree on whether money moved; you have not relied on the invoice's own support details.

If something goes wrong​

If Cancel is unavailable, check whether the item is a completed payment, a subscription or merely a forged email. Those require different paths. If you paid by mistake, do not pretend it was unauthorized; use the accurate purchase or seller issue route and follow the current local deadline.

Know the limit​

An invoice can be created inside a legitimate service while its note is fraudulent. Declining it does not prevent every future request from other accounts. A request is not a debt or a security alert simply because it appears in Activity. Eligibility for any payment remedy depends on local PayPal terms and the actual transaction type. PayPal suspicious-invoice controls PayPal dispute reasons for Romania