Consumer complaint received 2019-10-18
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: SD
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Let me preface the issue by saying that I have received emails from PayPal throughout time on both of the accounts below. I deleted them as spam. I never opened the accounts and thought they were trying to get my personal information to steal my identity. I never received any phone calls or mailings to make me think anything otherwise. I have received a few mailings throughout the years from PayPal. Those mailings were to get me to sign up for an account. That further led me to believe the emails were spam since they stated I already had an " account '' with " PayPal ''. 

I went to set up a PayPal account at the beginning of XX/XX/2019. That is when I noticed that both of my email addresses had fraudulent accounts. One account had my information on it and I was able to take care of that one by myself. Each time I would call to get it closed as being fraudulent I would be told that I have to close the XXXX account attached to it first. Then they would transfer me to XXXX. The first time I spoke with them, they closed the account with no issues. Each subsequent transfer to XXXX led to them telling me their side of the account was already closed. This account took about 5 calls to PayPal to get closed as being fraudulent. 

The second account is where the main issue is. This account had a mashup of my mother 's and mine information on it. Therefore I was not able to log-in and close it through traditional means. It had my email address, her name, 15+ year old information, and a mashup of the rest on it. Between both of us, we placed more than 20 calls, including conference calls, to PayPal to get this account closed. Each person would tell us that the account " will be closed ''. Yet, when we would callback the next week to make sure it was closed, it was still open and active. 

There have been no emails or mailings letting us know anything about these accounts being closed. We just have to take them at their word. As we have found out, their word is worth less than a grain of salt. 

It is now 6+ weeks later since the first contact and the account was still open and active. Today we spoke with PayPal, and the representative told us the same thing, " The account will be closed ''. I also found out some information this time that was never told to us any of the previous times. They said that since the email addresses had fraudulent accounts reported on them, they would not be able to be used again. This seems like punishment for reporting an account as being fraudulent. 

From my point-of-view it goes like this. I wanted to sign up for a legitimate account and found out there was a fraudulent account already. Now I can not sign up for a legitimate account because I reported the previous one as being fraudulent. I was told by the representative that I would have to create a new email address just to use PayPal legitimately. This is basically saying, from my point-of-view : I reported an account as being fraudulent at Bank X. Now Bank X is not going to let me create a legitimate account with them before getting a new social security number. 

This feels like I am being punished for reporting an account as being fraudulent and further being discriminated against from being able to create a legitimate account.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief