Consumer complaint received 2023-05-26
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: GA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On the XXXX of XX/XX/2023, I awoke to check my emails at XXXX XXXX of which I noticed that my friend had sent {$900.00} as a payment through PayPal to pay in advance for her daughter 's art classes. As I followed the link in the email to XXXXXXXX XXXX website, there was a statement at the top of the main page in red that stated, " You have money on hold. Add your tax ID by XX/XX/2023 to end the tax ID hold and avoid 24 % IRS back up withholding ''. 

I did not know that my friend was going to send {$900.00} via PayPal, since I see this person every week and therefore, I wanted to refund her the money, so that she could pay me through another method. So, I clicked the button to refund the money thinking that it would merely send the money back to the sender, but instead PayPal took the money directly from my checking account in my own personal bank to refund the full amount of {$900.00}, which left my personal banking account in arrears. This transaction caused my Bank to charge an overdraft fee of {$36.00}. 

After learning of this action against my own personal bank account, I immediately called PayPal and spoke to an associate and since the call was being recorded, I began to use my own voice recorder during the middle of the conversation, so that I would have proof of the type of communication that I was dealing with. I thought that the issue would have been easily resolved, since all I wanted to do was close my account and have PayPal refund my money, but that did not happen. 

When the initial conversation did not lend itself to any resolution, I decided to hang up and call again to speak to another associate at PayPal. The conversation, although a little more amicable, did not lend any beneficial results for my issue. All of the associates that I spoke with stated that there was no one in any authority that could help me reestablish the money that was taken out of my personal banking account in a fraudulent manner. 

I did not have money to deposit at the time, so I received some money from a friend and took it to my bank the next day to stop the fire storm of overdraft fees that I would have been charged each day. for the next 60 days from waiting for the money to be refunded by PayPal. 

If money was sent into PayPal 's system, then PayPal should send the money back from its own system when a refund is issued. This is not the case with my claim. Instead, PayPal removed money from my personal checking account in order to pay a refund to the individual who sent a payment of {$900.00}. Two more transactions went through Paypal 's system an into my personal account in the amounts of {$100.00} and ~ {$30.00} without any holds. A third transaction came into Paypal and is being held with fees taken out and was ~ {$60.00}. It is picking and choosing what passes and what doesn't. PayPal 's faulty system of refunding money is at fault and restitution for damages needs to be made in regards to this situation. 

I have already notified the XXXX XXXX XXXX and received a response from Paypal 's Executive Escalations. They refuse to release funds from my account until I give them more personal information and I refuse. I do not have to send more information if I am going to close my account. Extortion is being used as a vice against the People, and withholding personal funds is fraud and theft.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation