Consumer complaint received 2023-07-07
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, a person attempted to gain access to my Venmo account. After they somehow gained access to my account, they transferred the {$2600.00} that my clients had recently paid me through Venmo. 
Immediately, I realize that a scam had happened, and I immediately contacted Venmo to suspend the account and to stop that payment from being transferred out. I quickly caught it and contacted them immediately. They promptly suspended the account and suspended the transaction from being transferred over. They walked me through the steps of resetting, my password and the procedures that were going to happen. This was all new to me, because this has never happened to me before. They told me someone would contact me within 10 days through email. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I realize that they had put the money back into that account. However, it was still suspended understandably until they can prove that the account is mine. I then received an email from their XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX stating to prove that this account with mine, I needed to change my password, send it in a State issued photo ID and take a picture of myself with that ID in my hand. And because XX/XX/XXXX was a holiday my family was in town, I sent it in XX/XX/XXXX as soon as I could. 
I then received an email from a specialist saying that they have found another account under my name. That there is a separate account that was opened in XXXX, mind you, I have had my account with them since XXXX and I use it regularly with my clients. 
here is the email sent from their specialist with the retracted names, numbers, and account numbers You have a new message from Venmo regarding request. To respond, simply reply to this email. 
Hello .., For your security, we are requesting that you change the password associated with your Venmo account. 

You can reset the password on your Venmo account by visiting this link :. 
or by going into your Venmo " Settings ''. 

It also appears that you have multiple Venmo accounts. Per the terms of our User Agreement, we only allow each user to have one account.

I will be more than happy to assist you with your current account and the consolidation of your additional accounts. However, in order to begin that process, you will need to settle the outstanding debt on one of your accounts.

After review, your account is frozen due to one or more chargeback ( s ) claimed against a payment or payments made from your Venmo account with the username!!!!!!!!.

This typically happens when the person with ownership of the card is someone other than the Venmo account user. This person subsequently notified their card provider that they do not recognize the charge ( s ), which caused the provider to initiate the chargeback process.

Before I can unfreeze your account, I will need some more information about the payment ( s ) listed below. This activity came from a XX/XX/XXXXcard ending in XX/XX/XXXX 

payment toXX/XX/XXXX for {$900.00} on XX/XX/XXXX payment to -XX/XX/XXXX for {$900.00} on XX/XX/XXXX payment toXX/XX/XXXXor {$290.00} on XX/XX/XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX, we received a notification from your card company that they started the chargeback process and refunded you. Venmo, as the payment processor, paid your card company and the funds were then returned directly to you. Due to this claim, both you and the recipient received the payment ( s ) in full leaving Venmo missing the {$2000.00}.

You will need to add {$2000.00} to your Venmo profile from a verified bank account to cover the funds that were returned to you for the payment ( s ).

I promptly responded to that email stating that was not my account. It has to be a fraudulent account that someone else made and it did not belong to me. I have never had any other interactions with Venmo on any other matter besides this current one that just happened.

They then responded to me with this email : Hello!!!!, While I understand that you are saying the other account does not belong to you, we have found connections between the two accounts in question. While I am unable to share our internal evidence with you, we have systems in place that monitor activity on Venmo, and internal data has indicated that both accounts do belong to you. Please note that we don't reveal information about our internal systems in order to keep these systems robust.

We are unable to reactivate your main profile until you reimburse us for the monetary loss caused by your other Venmo account. 
I am lost as to what to do now I do not own another account with Venmo and it was not my bank account that was used and it was not my email that was used. Please help.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief