You get a message on Facebook from a friend.

The friend tells a story about selling an item on eBay or similar service, but has a problem with her PayPal account.

She asks you to let her send the payment to your PaylPal account, instead of hers.

That may sound safe – after all, she’s putting money into your account.

But, it is not safe.

The way the scam works is that she will pay money into your PayPal account (supposedly from some business) and ask you to transfer it to her bank account immediately.

Once you do that, she will issue a PayPal charge back to remove her payment to you and your PayPal account goes negative and the scammer gets away with the money – at your expense.

If someone you know approaches you on social media or email with an odd proposition – verify that it is the person you expect, not someone who has hacked the account and is simply pretending to be the friend.

Do not allow anyone to use your PayPal account for any reason.

If you have any experiences with Facebook scams do let me know, by email.