Consumer complaint received 2021-06-25
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: PA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt was result of identity theft

Complaint:
In late XX/XX/XXXX, I received a collection notice from XXXX XXXX XXXX, which from what I understand is a collection unit of PayPal , Inc . It said that I owed them {$7000.00}. I have never in my life had a PayPal account and honestly had no idea you could owe them money as I thought it was basically an internet wire service where you had to have the money upfront. Clearly this is not the case, as I would later find out, though I still don't completely understand how these scams work. After calling PayPal 's customer service and fraud areas and spending countless hours on the phone, two separate investigations concluded that they could find no evidence of fraud. What's really galling is they will not give me any information about the account history or anything else that may help me prove that I did not make these charges or whatever they are because I could not provide the correct e-mail address or phone number on the account. That is tough to figure out when the fraudsters gave their own contact info so that I would not be contacted. One customer service agent did tell me ( I believe against their rules ) that it had to do with web development services and asked if I had ever done that type of work. I just laughed as I'm a pretty big technophobe and still use a flip phone. Apparently, these charges that I still don't understand happened between XXXX and XXXX of XXXX until the account was closed by PayPal. While I understand that the account was opened with basically all of my information other than the e-mail and phone, I find it hard to believe that it would not be simple to prove that I did not make these transactions or open the account if they actually did a real investigation. I believe I could prove it if I had access to the account transaction history and other account details that they refuse to provide. I don't know the exact date but I did send a letter to the collection agency saying that it was identity theft and not to contact me again. On XX/XX/XXXX, I filed a police report with the city of XXXX as I was instructed to do by an identity theft attorney in XXXX. I also submitted an identity theft report with the Federal Trade Commission on XX/XX/XXXX. After many more phone conversations that went nowhere, I sent a letter on XX/XX/XXXX to the PayPal , Inc. legal department with proof of my identity, the police report, a completed FTC Identity Theft Report and requested all records related to the fraudulent account, which is required by law. I also included a copy of section 609 ( e ) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires them to provide me with this information. I received no response, but did get another collection letter from a different collection agency dated XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent another copy of that same information to the PayPal , Inc. legal department requesting all information on the fraudulent account, as per my legal rights. Again, I received no response.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief