How to block someone on PayPal – Short Guide

PayPal has become one of the most popular ways of transferring money, whether that be for goods from a business or simply for sending money to friends and family.

Regardless of what you use PayPal for, you will be well aware of just how easy it is to use and how quickly it takes to make money transfers.

In this article, we are going to look at how you go about doing this, while also taking a look at what ‘blocking’ means on a PayPal business account. Let’s get into it.

How to block people on PayPal? – The Direct way

Given that the majority of PayPal users elect to use the platform on their mobile device, it seems sensible to start here.

The process of blocking is arguably not as straightforward as it ought to be, however, it also isn’t all that complex. In order to block a PayPal account on an iPhone, please take the following steps:

• Log in to your PayPal account.
• Select ‘request’.
• Type in the account name/email that you wish to block into the search bar.
• Request a random amount of money from them and submit the request.
• Now, go back to the home page and navigate to recent activity.
• Click on the payment request and scroll down to the bottom of the page and select ‘block x’.

When you do things, you’ll no longer be able to initiate payments or receive payments from that person either. Things are a little different for Business accounts, however.

Blocking payments on PayPal business

While you have to go around the houses to block someone on the personal side of PayPal, the process on the business side is more straightforward.

While in this scenario you won’t be ‘blocking’ an individual as such, you are able to gain a tighter reign on your what’s coming in to, and going out of, your business account. This is quite different from an individual or personal account.

To set up payment blocks on your PayPal business account, follow these instructions:

1. Log into your PayPal business account either via the app or on a web browser.
2. Go to ‘settings’ and then select ‘selling tools’.
3. Go to ‘getting paid and managing my risks’.
4. Select ‘update options’ and then ‘block payments’.

Once you are on this page, you will be able to select from a multitude of blocking options surrounding currency, duplicate invoices, accidental payments and much, much more.

Alternatives to blocking someone on a personal PayPal account

While blocking someone on a personal PayPal account should be the endgame of dealing with a scammer/fraudster, there are other steps that you should consider prior to this.

Not only could it help yourself from being scammed, but it could also stop the rest of the PayPal community from falling victim to such behaviour.

Officially report them

The most obvious, and best, way to do this is to report them directly to PayPal as soon as you suspect foul play.

In order to do this, please take the exact same steps as we outlined for blocking someone but instead of selecting the block button, choose to report them instead. If you think someone is under 18, then this is something you should consider doing (you legally need to be an adult to open a PayPal account).

This will redirect you to your phone’s web browser where you will need to follow the on screen instructions in order to submit a formal complaint to the PayPal team.

The report will be escalated to the relevant department and someone from PayPal will be in touch to progress the report further.

Unofficially report them

What we mean by ‘unofficially’ reporting an account is basically to contact the PayPal support team directly and let them know that you think a certain account is trying to scam you.

This will allow them to look into the account in greater detail before deciding whether to remove them from the app.

In order to do this, you will need to visit PayPal on a web browser and start up a conversation with their live chat function.

Once through the chatbot stage, you will eventually get to speak to a real representative where you will be able to express your concerns. They are usually very quick at getting back to you and the matter should be resolved quickly.

Why should you block someone on PayPal?

Although for the most part, the ease and speed of PayPal is hugely beneficial to everyone who uses it, there is a negative element of it – scammers.

PayPal is a hotbed for individuals who masquerade as businesses in a bid to take your money before running off with it without giving you what you were expecting in return.

The best way to deal with these individuals, as well as those who you are suspicious of, is to ignore them and /or report them to PayPal.

Another excellent way of dealing with them, after you’ve reported them to PayPal and notified as many people as possible, is to block them. This will mean that the individual in questions can no longer contact you in any way and harass you for money.

Conclusion

As you can see, blocking someone on PayPal can be done fairly quickly, as can making payment blocks on PayPal business.

We would urge you to first of all report any suspicious accounts before blocking them as that report may well be the difference between someone losing out on thousands of pounds or not.

One key rule to remember – if you don’t trust someone on PayPal, then don’t transfer them any of your money regardless of how legitimate they may appear.