Paypal Generosity

I received an email on Friday from service@paypal.com.
'Oh, another scam' I thought, although I was a little surprised as it was in my inbox rather than the junk folder.

I have to admit that as the header said - 'Don't forget to claim your money from ...' - I just had to have a look before junking it.

Ooooooooh, the plot thickens.

Dear *******@hotmail.co.uk, You've still got funds! On 22nd Sep, 2009 you received 42.20GBP from richardnsl@live.co.uk. After you sign up for a Paypal account you will not only have access to the money sent by GEOFFREY SMITH, you can also use your account in the following ways blah blah blah.

Or you can just withdraw your money directly into your bank account.

Zing!! ££££££££££££ signs flashed before my eyes.

Well obviously I've got a Paypal account, who hasn't? But equally as obvious, it's not associated with my hotmail address - soon remedied. I logged onto Paypal and added the address that someone very generously paid money into, then confirmed it.... dum de dum, dee dee dee.

There it was, just sitting there, one click away from being mine - £42.20 minus £1.63 Paypal fees.

What did I do? Yes, you've guessed, I refunded it to Geoffrey Smith with a note explaining that he'd sent it to the wrong address.

So what am I moaning about?
Well, the very fact that even though Geoffrey Smith has got my email address and his money, he's never once written to thank me.

So Geoffrey Smith of Rayleigh, Essex [I have the rest of your postal address too] - email richardnsl@live.co.uk, prepare yourself for lots and lots of spammy junk mail as your email is bound to be harvested through my blog!

If anyone else pays me through Paypal by mistake, I will keep it. It's hardly my fault that an utter moron keeps using my address - and he hasn't thanked me either, other than to make 5 recent attempts at changing my hotmail password.

IF either of the two chumps get around to thanking me - the seller on eBay who obviously has trouble spelling and the ignorant Geoffrey Smith, then I may eventually remove the email address richardnsl@live.co.uk - odd email for a Geoffrey Smith.

I'm still not totally convinced that this isn't some sort of elaborate, long term scam so I removed the hotmail address from my Paypal account once I'd paid the money back, then I changed my password - so don't try messing with it.

The moral of this story: - Don't annoy little old ladies - especially the more grumpy, chunky middle aged ones with a keyboard and a blog ...