An Oahu man is sharing his story of nearly getting scammed after calling who he though was the customer service department at PayPal.

He says it was a gut feeling that told him to hang up.

The man, who doesn’t want to be identified, says it started with an email.

“It came from PayPal and it basically said that, it said that I was charged, there was a successful transaction in the amount of $24.95 to this fellow that I didn’t know,” he said.

After verifying that his wife didn’t make the purchase, he decided to contact the company.

“So what I did was I googled PayPal customer service line and the first number that came up I called.”

The person on the phone told the man his account had been hacked and instructed him to buy a Google Play card and read the numbers on the card, in exchange for deleting the information that was hacked.

“This gentleman said to me, he said the magic words “trust me” and I said this is a scam so I hung up.”

It turns out the phone number he called wasn’t the real PayPal customer service department, but instead an imposter number listed on the search results page.

“It’s scary, it really is, that’s why I contacted you guys because this was not your average joe scammer or phishing, this was really, this guy, these people went extra steps and made it really legit.”

The man says he’s already learned several lessons, including checking his account before calling the company, as well as looking up contact information through a real website.

He’s not the only victim. Other people on the mainland have reported similar experiences calling the wrong number.

If you have a concern or an issue that you’d like to share, or if you’re interested in becoming an Action Line volunteer, give us a call at 591-0222 weekdays between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. or send an email to actionline@khon2.com.