[joele]

Well this morning I get a payment confirmation for some company I have never heard of and a confirmation that I closed my account, of course I did neither and am very careful logging into paypal so don't see how someone could have got in (run kaspersky internet security too, so doubt a keylogger)..

Anyway paypal don't bother to ask you via email to confirm your account closure, they do have a link to say you didn't do it, but of course when you click that you have to log in to report it, and without an account you cannot log in..

Again without a login they won't provide you with any contact phone numbers.. So I found an anti-paypal site that gives you contact details. Called the number, and eventually spoke to someone who eventually understood my problem and said they can confirm it wasn't me who closed the account but they can't reopen a closed account...

Regarding the stolen money, they will have to first contact the vendor to get them to confirm it wasn't me (it was subscription for an online game so I don't see how they could do that), and then they will try and get the money back for me???????

Right!!!!!

Funny I always suspect of people who complained about how hopeless paypal are, now I am one..

[AndrewShirley]

My account went into "lockdown" after someone attempted to hijack it. I had to re-provide Paypal with all of my payment info to verify that I am who I say I am. Luckily in my case the would-be thief was not successful - and even if they were, I don't keep money in there anyway.

I'm hoping Paypal will return your money! Please keep us informed.

- Andrew

[KrisK10D]

'Try' and get your money back to you?

That's a cop out. Paypal are responsible to keep your accounts secure. If they can't, then they're liable to refund all the monies lost from your account.

I'd be sending them an email and calling them everyday till they did that. Paypal get away with too much of this BS!

I never leave money in the nominated account I have at Paypal.

[ve2vfd]

Thats why I fund my paypal purchases with my visa credit card.

I've read too many stories of people ripped off by paypal, or of fraud via paypal. Paypal doesn't seem to care much about it's customers getting ripped off. Visa's security dept on the other hand is aggressive as hell and super pro-customer when it comes to fraud.

Pat

[joele]

Yeah I will keep bugging paypal every day until the transaction shows up on my credit card and I will lodge a complaint with them...

I just don't see how someone got my paypal password, I always only log into paypal by typing the address into the browser, no bookmark no email clicks.. I never use paypal from strange computers, have kaspersky internet security on, do regular full system scans..

P.S. I called paypal and asked when you close an account why don't they send a confirmation via email, like the activation link they send to confirm opening the account.. There response was "email is not 100% reliable"...

[KrisK10D]

Well I did some looking around (cause I hate it when multi-national ******s think it's OK to rip off their customers) and found some good info...

"PayPal is a member of the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman, an independent external dispute resolution scheme covering PayPal's Australian Customers. "

Financial Ombudsman Service :: Home Page

"Paypal Also holds an Australian Financial Services license and are therefore regulated by the APRA. You can also lodge complaints to APRA regarding Paypal's misleading behaviour. "

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

Paypal indemnity = "PayPal is an authorised deposit-taking institution that is regulated by APRA to provide purchased payment facilities. As PayPal is regulated by APRA, PayPal and its authorised representative eBay, are exempt from the requirement to hold professional indemnity insurance cover and to have compensation arrangements in place."

No wonder they don't answer emails and give complainants the runaround. Hope you can get it resolved without government intervention.

This is info for Australian customers too so don't hang the messenger if it doesn't fit to your time zone

[AndrewShirley]

I was telling my mechanic about your story and his son told me that his credit card was charged with about $800 worth of online Warcraft via Paypal.

I guess these highschool kids have nothing better to do after school.

[ve2vfd]

Yeah I will keep bugging paypal every day until the transaction shows up on my credit card and I will lodge a complaint with them...

You definetly need to file a payment refusal/fraud charge with your credit card company and I would probably do it right away before the paypal charge goes thru to block all transactions from paypal.

Pat

[heliphoto]

Thanks joele for letting us know - You were just the impetus for me removing my checking account information from my paypal account. I never had a problem but the thought of some script kiddie using my money to play games is too scary... I feel better now.

I'm sure in the long run you'll get your money back, but what a nightmare for you. Good luck!

[joele]

You definetly need to file a payment refusal/fraud charge with your credit card company and I would probably do it right away before the paypal charge goes thru to block all transactions from paypal.

Pat

thanks, I'll ring my bank today and see what they can do...

heliphoto: yeah half my office just removed their credit cards from their paypal accounts, they know I am generally very careful so they are a bit worried if it happened to me it could to them too..

KrisK10D: if my bank cant handle it for me, apparently they take fraud more seriously, then I will lodge a complaint, thanks for the info...

[joele]

WELL

Bank says they can't do anything as I did authorise paypal to use my credit card so my only course of action is through paypal... All they can do is re-issue my card to ensure it cannot be used again..

So guess I have to give paypal more time to solve it, though bank said to demand paypal give me something in writing (email is fine) detailing what happened and that they are investigating it.. then I can take it further if need be, but with a closed paypal account and no documentation I am in a bad position at the moment..

Scary thing is I got an email today from ebay saying my account is frozen due to possible suspicious activity, so haev to call them too.. Scanned my system home and work with mulitple malware tools, haven't found anything...

P.S. I called paypal and asked when you close an account why don't they send a confirmation via email, like the activation link they send to confirm opening the account.. There response was "email is not 100% reliable"...

You response to that should have been "It appears PayPal isn't 100% reliable but I gave you the benefit of the doubt".

[Tom S.]

WELL

Bank says they can't do anything as I did authorise paypal to use my credit card so my only course of action is through paypal... All they can do is re-issue my card to ensure it cannot be used again..

That is so NOT TRUE!

First off, your bank is probably not the issuer of your credit card. Even though your card has their name on it, most cards come from other banks, and they are the ones you need to deal with. Use the phone numbers on the back of the card.

You authorized Paypal make charges against your account that you approved, you did not authorize them to make non-approved charges, which is where the area gets grey. Yes, Paypal is responsible for getting to the bottom of the breach of security on their part, but the issuer of you card is also responsible for investigating any charge you dispute as being wrong or improper.

Unfortunately, unless you get a hold of a sympathetic person at either Paypal or the Credit Card company, the process can take a long time - up to a couple of months. You may be able to speed up the process by becoming a thorn in their side (the squeaky wheel gets the grease synopsis). Always get the name of the person you are dealing with. Most people won't give you their last name, but ask for their initial in case there are two people with the same first name. Don't be afraid to ask for a supervisor, or the person in charge of the supervisor if the supervisor fails to provide relief. Keep track of who you have talked to, date and time, the method (email, phone, etc.,) and what was said. I like email because I have a 'paper' trail of all the previous information, but sometimes email isn't the best route.

Persevere and you will get your money back!

[wwwmorrell]

Joele, by pass your bank & contact your card supplier direct, get a Customer Transaction Dispute Form & file it with them.

Have done this in the past & have always got my money back.

Wal'

WELL

Bank says they can't do anything as I did authorise paypal to use my credit card so my only course of action is through paypal... All they can do is re-issue my card to ensure it cannot be used again..

So guess I have to give paypal more time to solve it, though bank said to demand paypal give me something in writing (email is fine) detailing what happened and that they are investigating it.. then I can take it further if need be, but with a closed paypal account and no documentation I am in a bad position at the moment..

Scary thing is I got an email today from ebay saying my account is frozen due to possible suspicious activity, so haev to call them too.. Scanned my system home and work with mulitple malware tools, haven't found anything...

[Wildnsyko]

I was telling my mechanic about your story and his son told me that his credit card was charged with about $800 worth of online Warcraft via Paypal.

I guess these highschool kids have nothing better to do after school.

That happened to my neighbor. They bought something with a credit card via Amazon and next thing they knew they were being charged for WOW games being bought in another country. They thought someone got their information through their internet... you know hacked into their computer and got their personal information... highly unlikely... but you know small town people... and when the bank investigated, they found out these people had bought something from Amazon.

Years ago I had a boss bought who's credit card got comprimised through Amazon. His wife bought alot on Amazon and one day they got a call from their credit card company that someone in NYC was trying buy some jewelry worth a couple thousand and wanted to know if it was them. They said no and the transaction was blocked.