Consumer complaint received 2017-06-02
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: MA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Complaint:
On Saturday,  XXXX   XXXX  at  XXXX    XXXX   (  XXXX , MA  )  : An unauthorized transaction of {$1200.00}  ( total )  was made through my Venmo account while I was sleeping. I do not know how my account was accessed at all, but the money was being wired from my checking account to what I assume is a bogus/dummy Venmo user account that I have no affiliation with.   I was informed of this transaction the following morning/afternoon by a phone alert through the Venmo app itself. The first thing I did was try to assess the situation and figure out how this could have possibly happened and during that time, I sent their customer support an email regarding my situation (  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  ).   Following that course of action, I tried calling the Venmo Customer Support, which was unavailable at that moment. Afterwards I called  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  to inform them of this unauthorized transaction and luckily the   XXXX   representative that I was speaking to managed to put a stop cancellation on the ACH file that was to be processed ( for {$1200.00}  ) . Later in the day (  XXXX   XXXX    XXXX   ), I received a response from   XXXX     ( abbreviated for privacy purposes ) of Venmo 's Customer Support, who stated that he will be escalating my claim to an Account Specialist.  <P/> On Monday,  XXXX   XXXX  (  XXXX   XXXX  ) : The Venmo Account Specialist by the name of   XXXX   ( abbreviated for privacy purposes ) contacted me to inform me that after some investigation, Venmo has denied my unauthorized payment. but they did not provide any details of their investigation itself.   I emailed them back for further clarification on my claim denial to which she responds with saying that : " After reviewing your account we found no signs of unauthorized access. We came to this conclusion based on the fact that the  XXXX  used to make this disputed payments from this account. For these reasons we will be denying your claim. '' Following that response, I emailed her back basically saying that my initial complaint was that of an unauthorized transaction and that I believe their reasoning for this course of action is completely unfair on my end.   I then requested for the exact GPS coordinates and IP address of these transaction, which Venmo refused to disclose. I then asked them to provide me information on the user account that my money was being sent to, which they have not given me a response to yet.   <P/>   XXXX   XXXX  (  XXXX    XXXX   ) : I received an email notification from Venmo ( not their support ) that I now owe them {$1200.00} dollars since the bogus transactions could not be funded by my  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   Checking A ccount ( due to me requesting a stop cancellation on them ). They then stated that the other user has the funds and I have to pay Venmo back for the coverage. I absolutely refuse to pay them a cent since I had informed them multiple times that I did not authorize any of those transactions and I am wondering if I could face any legal ramifications for doing do.  <P/> I also have screenshots of the transactions on my Venmo profile and of the bogus account as well as screen shots of my emails with Venmo 's Customer Support.  <P/> I have already changed all of my login information for all the online accounts I can think, filed a local police report, and I went to a physical  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  location to close my current bank account and reopen a new  one.  I have also informed the employees and management of my situation to which they have assessed that this is a complete fraudulent transaction and that Venmo is the liable one here.  <P/> I obviously am taking their opinions with a grain of salt, but I hope you guys can help me out with this situation. I feel sort of powerless right now because someone was able to invade my personal information to such a degree that has caused me such trouble.   I will provide any additional information as needed.  <P/> EDIT : SCREENSHOTS OF MY EMAILS BETWEEN CUSTOMER SUPPORT   XXXX   XXXX     XXXX  SCREENSHOTS OF MY VENMO FEED AND THE OTHER USER 'S FEED   XXXX   XXXX     XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief