I do not trust PayPal. I get messages for items I have not purchased.

[gemmpm]

For the past several years, I have been getting messages supposedly from PayPal. I have not used their service for several years to purchase anything because I do not trust them. There is no way to make contact with PayPal to delete whatever data they have under my name. If I cannot use VISA, I will not be purchasing .

[dtls1948]

I contacted PayPal regards to same question. Part of the answer was if

it is from PayPal it will always address you by your name that PayPal

has on record for you. Never will it be addressed as "PayPal Customer"

If it addresses you as "Dear PayPal Customer" best chances is is someone

phishing. NEVER REPLY to an e-mail address given in such a message.

Replying to it leaves you computer open to virus, which may take your

otherwise secure data, and make use of bank info, etc.

Report the e-mail to the SPOOF e-mail address <spoof@paypal.com>

[reallynicestamps]

Those messages don't come from Paypal. They are the usual phishing spam.

Report them to spoof@paypal.com and then put them into your spam folder for your server to deal with.

If you do not have an account with PP, they do not have records on you. (Or if they do, they would be well out of date after "several years".)

While you can ask sellers to allow you to send cash or a cheque instead of using Paypal (there are also a few other online payment services that are accepted), most sellers prefer the speed and security of Paypal payments.

You can pay with your Visa through Paypal which gives you extra security, first the PP Buyer Protection programme, then your card's chargeback programme, which gives you extended deadlines.

Most sellers are too small to afford the high cost of a merchant credit card account which charges a monthly fee plus a sliding percentage of the payment to the seller. This is usually a higher cost than Paypal, especially for "micropayments" .

[heidilynn0_3]

Hi .. forward the email to spoof@paypal.com. with full header. Will respond whether real or not. Lots of phishing that look very real.