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I received a phishing scam email about a fake dispute notice, what do I do?

We just received an email saying someone disputed a $2400 transaction & that you the Square took it out of our account. We haven't even had a charge for $2400 ending in the number they stated. Can someone please help me?!?! I feel violated and I never felt insecure with our bank. What can I do? How do I find out about this dispute? Please can someone help me?!?! Thank you!!

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Re: Just received a dispute notice ~ what do I do?

Thanks for flagging this! 

 

From what I can tell, it sounds like you may have received a phishing email. In these types of scams, someone is trying to fraudulently gain access to someone else's legitimate account by means of impersonating Square.

 

You always want to keep in mind that Square will never ask you to send sensitive information such as your username, password, full social security number, bank account details or credit card information over email, phone or text message. If you see this request, it's definitely a red flag.

 

Also, it is common for phishing emails to contain links that direct recipients to a non-secure page where you may be prompted to enter your username and password (and sometimes additional sensitive information such as your Social Security Number). Always be sure that you’re on a secure site before entering your Square login information. To do so, check that the web address in your browser is https://squareup.com/login and that the locked Square, Inc. icon has populated next to this web address. Also, in general, most messages from Square will be sent by noreply@messaging.squareup.com. 

 

If the email does seem "phishy," it would be great if you could forward this email to spoof@squareup.com so that our Account Security Team can investigate, and then take any necessary actions. 

 

As a follow up, I would suggest that you connect directly with our Support Team to confirm. Hope this helps!

Verified Answer

Re: Scamming email

Here is some information about scam/phishing emails. Hopefully this will allow you to determine if the email you received is legit. Recognize and Report Phishing Scams

Was there any kind of information in the email about what they expected you to do about the dispute? That can be an excellent clue as to whether the email is real.

1 Best Answer
Square

Best Answer

Thanks for flagging this! 

 

From what I can tell, it sounds like you may have received a phishing email. In these types of scams, someone is trying to fraudulently gain access to someone else's legitimate account by means of impersonating Square.

 

You always want to keep in mind that Square will never ask you to send sensitive information such as your username, password, full social security number, bank account details or credit card information over email, phone or text message. If you see this request, it's definitely a red flag.

 

Also, it is common for phishing emails to contain links that direct recipients to a non-secure page where you may be prompted to enter your username and password (and sometimes additional sensitive information such as your Social Security Number). Always be sure that you’re on a secure site before entering your Square login information. To do so, check that the web address in your browser is https://squareup.com/login and that the locked Square, Inc. icon has populated next to this web address. Also, in general, most messages from Square will be sent by noreply@messaging.squareup.com. 

 

If the email does seem "phishy," it would be great if you could forward this email to spoof@squareup.com so that our Account Security Team can investigate, and then take any necessary actions. 

 

As a follow up, I would suggest that you connect directly with our Support Team to confirm. Hope this helps!


Sean
he/him/his
Product Manager | Square, Inc.

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Square

Best Answer

Thanks for flagging this! 

 

From what I can tell, it sounds like you may have received a phishing email. In these types of scams, someone is trying to fraudulently gain access to someone else's legitimate account by means of impersonating Square.

 

You always want to keep in mind that Square will never ask you to send sensitive information such as your username, password, full social security number, bank account details or credit card information over email, phone or text message. If you see this request, it's definitely a red flag.

 

Also, it is common for phishing emails to contain links that direct recipients to a non-secure page where you may be prompted to enter your username and password (and sometimes additional sensitive information such as your Social Security Number). Always be sure that you’re on a secure site before entering your Square login information. To do so, check that the web address in your browser is https://squareup.com/login and that the locked Square, Inc. icon has populated next to this web address. Also, in general, most messages from Square will be sent by noreply@messaging.squareup.com. 

 

If the email does seem "phishy," it would be great if you could forward this email to spoof@squareup.com so that our Account Security Team can investigate, and then take any necessary actions. 

 

As a follow up, I would suggest that you connect directly with our Support Team to confirm. Hope this helps!


Sean
he/him/his
Product Manager | Square, Inc.
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Message 2 of 25
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I just received an email supposedly from Square. It's informing me of a dispute of a transaction that was made on June 29, 2016. I am not a merchant and only use Square when I go to coffee shops or to purchase small things. I'm just a customer, but I'd like to know if I should be concerned that almost $2,000 will be taken out of my checking account. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Is this a scam? Or should I be worried? 

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Super Seller

Here is some information about scam/phishing emails. Hopefully this will allow you to determine if the email you received is legit. Recognize and Report Phishing Scams

Was there any kind of information in the email about what they expected you to do about the dispute? That can be an excellent clue as to whether the email is real.

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Its all a scam! Change your password in case they may have gotten ahold of it. We are merchants who use Square and received the same email with different amounts on it and it said it was from May! We realized this is entirely a scam since it was sent to the wrong email account. We didnt have a transaction even close to date or amount they had on this scam email. I send these to Square at spoof@squareup.com.

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I got one yesterday. The grammar was not right, so it tipped me off. I reported it to Square.  Got two IRS phone scams as well.  So frustrating.

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Admin

Thanks for taking the time to surface this! Check out Sean's response for more information.

️ Tom | he/him
Seller Community Manager | Square, Inc.
Find step-by-step help in our Support Center
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I received an email supposedly from square stating I've got a desputed sale and that they're going to take the money out of my account for a sale I never made?

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Super Seller

This seems like a very common incident lately. Maybe Square should send out some information to users.

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Square

@VanKalkerFarms - We actually just started sending out more information regarding securing your account. 👍 

 

In general, our Account Security Team strongly suggests that sellers activate 2-Step Verification. It's great tool that provides an extra layer of security for your online Square Dashboard if someone does gain access to your account. I also suggest checking out this article on how to recognize and report phishing scams.

 

Hope this helps! 


Sean
he/him/his
Product Manager | Square, Inc.
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Message 10 of 25
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Dear Customer,
We have not received a response from you regarding the $1,973.27 Payment dispute on a transaction that was processed on June 29th, 2016. If you would like to challenge or accept this dispute, please respond to Information Request Form within 24 hours from the date of this notification.
RESPOND NOW
Per Our User Agreement, We will continue to hold $1,436.17 from your Square account until the dispute is resolved. If the dispute is closed in your favor, we will deposit the funds to your bank account. If the dispute is denied, the funds will be returned to your customer.
Thanks,

The Square Team

 

Is this for real?  This is the first I have seen of this

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Super Seller

Doesn't look real, and it definitely isn't if the information doesn't apply to anything you've processed. You can always contact the Square team (https://squareup.com/help/us/en/contact) to verify, but I think it's probably just spam. Read through the rest of the posts on this thread for more info.

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It is real.  We received on in early August and the monies came out in early September.  At that time, I contact Square who explained the process to me.  Until the dispute is settled, Square keeps the money.  At the settlement decision, the money is paid to either the business or the customer.  I was told the longest this process would take is 90 days.  It is now past the 90 days but still no notice of the decision.

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I have received at least 5 spam emails from someone posing as square. Has my account been hacked???

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Admin

Hey @Morningglory, thanks for flagging this. A handful of others brought this up in another thread, and received an answer. Have a look at Sean's reply for more on how to proceed.

 

️ Tom | he/him
Seller Community Manager | Square, Inc.
Find step-by-step help in our Support Center
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Alumni

Hi all - We're hosting a Live Q&A with our Head of Security on 8/16.  If you have more questions about Square and security, post them here! They'll be answered on the 16th.

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Beta Member

I tried posting a new thread related to this topic, but it was immediately removed. Maybe the image I included needs to be approved, or perhaps because I included the email address of the sender. I will post again with only text and leave out the email address. I am very concerned about this email and more concerned my thread was removed without notification of the reason.

 

Take two!

 

The email states there's a dispute of an amount that is close to, but not exactly, a normal sale amount for us. (missing a few cents brought on by taxes)

 

It states I can track the dispute in the dashboard, but there are no disputes in my dashboard.

 

There's a link to "see the receipt" which takes me to what looks like the dashboard login, but not exactly... links for signup are just text and the actual appearance is off. 

Further, I have my login saved on my browser for quick access. This page does not display my saved info.

 

2+2=phishing?

 

So as to avoid this thread also being removed immediately, I am including only text. I will reply with screenshots that do not include any email addresses or personal info of any kind.

 

Any help on this matter would be appreciated.

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Screen Shot 2019-08-17 at 10.39.11 AM.pngScreen Shot 2019-08-17 at 10.39.32 AM.png

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Super Seller Alumni

The reality is that spammers are becoming very good at making their fake emails look very authentic.  @crystalimages, please see the earliest posts in this thread for good advice on how to handle possible spam emails, with emphasis on these two points:

  • Make sure that the email address of the sender is exactly this:  https://squareup.com/login.  If the address contains any character(s) beside these, it's very probably spam.
  • Forward the email to spoof@squareup.com so the Square team is aware of the fakery and can investigate it to help others in the future.

Personally, I believe your email is a hoax - I've received several like this one in the past and they have never turned out to be valid.

 

In the meantime, never click on any link that's inside an email that you suspect is spam.  In fact it's best if you never open it, which can be very hard to do.  If possible, check out the sender's email address before opening the email.

 

Judy T Shumway
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Definitely spam.

 

I just received another email about "your amazon account, please update payment information" with the same @CURTISGILLOCK.COM domain.

 

Wow, these people are really trying!

 

More than anything, I wanted to spread the word of this scam, but I was thrown off by my first post being removed. Although, after a little contemplation I think I know why. No email addresses/personal info in posts.

 

I didn't know about the spoof address to forward to. Thanks for that. I have forwarded the message and am marking the email as spam.

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Admin

Thank you @crystalimages and @GlassJudy@crystalimages I'm sorry your post didn't upload sucessfully the first time you tried - but thanks for persevering (ironically your first one might have been caught by our spam filters)!

 

For anyone else reading this please do follow GlassDale's suggestion (thank you!) and forward anything emails that look like spam to the email address spoof@squareup.com.

 

You could also bookmark this Support Center article on Recognizing and Reporting Phising Scams, and/or bookmark this thread if you need to remind yourself what to look out for!

 

Finally, I just wanted to point out that this email mentions Squarespace - twice. It's definitely not an email from Square. 

 

Thanks! 

️ Helen
Seller Community Manager

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