A handful of PayPal users in Europe reported that they received an email from the online banking service saying that they won €500 that they could claim by logging into their account. It wasn’t a phishing attempt, but rather just an error on PayPal’s part that sent out a bunch of winning emails to users.
The emails were a part of a raffle drawing that PayPal actually plans to start sometime this summer, but it seems that when testing the platform, PayPal accidentally sent out winning emails to some users. Some of them logged into their accounts to claim the money, but found that €500 wasn’t waiting on them.
PayPal addressed the confusion by saying that the emails were sent out due to a technical error, saying that the raffle drawing as not taken place yet. It appears that PayPal was merely figuring out who would be eligible for the raffle, and it seem the emails went out those users on accident.
Of course, many users right away thought that it was a phishing attempt by a hacker who posed as PayPal, which would be the natural reaction to most users who are cautious about the internet. However, PayPal notes that it wasn’t a phishing attempt, but rather just a mistake on their part, officially dashing the hopes of many users who thought they’d just won €500.
Of course, PayPal hasn’t been all that popular amongst users the past couple of years. Last year, they updated their policy that would prevent users from suing unless they physically mailed in a letter to the company that would exempt them from the policy change — a rather blatant attempt to get users to dislike them.
VIA: The Next Web
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