Odd deposit in PayPal account

[joz15au]

Since going onto managed payments I no longer receive anything in my PayPal account from eBay and I do not sell elsewhere. Today I received a deposit of $5 from a Canada address with only a reference number, nothing else to indicate what it is for. I also do not sell outside Australia and have the necessary exclusions set up in my listings. I have not received any notification from eBay, just an email from PayPal advising I have received funds. I have no idea what it is for. I was about to just refund it then wondered if it might be some sort of scam to verify my PayPal email address. Has anyone else had anything similar happen to them?

[tazzieterror]

Is the email address you use with PayPal one that could easily be arrived at from a typo? e.g. randomuser48@somewhere.com

Someone could be trying to pay randomuser49 and got the address wrong.

Was it sent in Canadian dollars, or Aussie ones?

[joz15au]

The email includes my surname which is not that common but I guess anything is possible. The amount was in AUD. It just seems strange that there is nothing to indicate what the payment is for.

[digital*ghost]

Does the payment identify the sender properly? If it was made by a PayPal account holder, it should have a name somewhere, and their actual email address. 

Alternatively, did you ever set up a PayPal.me address, and is there a chance it would be similar enough to someone else's that a typo could have seen the funds sent to you?

[joz15au]

Yes, the sender's name, address and email are all showing, but nothing to link it to anything I've sold, just a reference number which means nothing to me. If you click on the reference number it doesn't show any further information. I've just refunded it with a note to say that I don't know what it relates to and I only to sell within Australia, so hope that's the end of it. No I have never set up a PayPal.me address. Hopefully it was just a typo. Thanks for your thoughts Digi, you too Tazzie.

[tazzieterror]

You're a more responsible person than me; I might have been tempted to message them with a thanks for donating to 'KKK For Trump' and assuring them their name would be displayed prominently on the site's supporter list! 😄