Consumer complaint received 2021-02-08
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: ID
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I had a PayPal account that I set up to use to help pay for costs that my father who lived out of state might need. I connected this PayPal account to a bank account in my name. Beginning on XX/XX/XXXX, we noticed that several deductions were taken out of my bank account and paid to a company called XXXX XXXX XXXX. I did not order anything from XXXX XXXX XXXX. They took out money on XXXX XXXX and then when they drained that account, they transferred money from another of our accounts into the account that they hacked. We called the bank and reported the fraudulent activity and they credited us for the money taken out and for the overdrawal fees they charged. The bank then reported 4 of the 6 transfers of money to PayPal. The bank denied paying to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX withdrawals they made in the amounts of {$790.00} and {$50.00}, so they did not file any complaints with PayPal for these amounts, because they did not pay anything from our account on those amounts totaling {$840.00}. 
I did not monitor the PayPal account that I set up for my father because it hadn't been used by me or my father and I didn't realize at first that this was the PayPal account that XXXX used to access my bank account. We received a collection letter from XXXX dated XX/XX/XXXX stating that PayPal had sent me to collections for the amount of {$840.00} because PayPal advanced this amount to XXXX in anticipation of the bank paying that amount from my account. 
We tried to contact PayPal by phone, but there is no phone number for customer care questions. We were told by the phone recording to use the chat feature on the PayPal website. I started a chat session which took several days to conclude, where I was told initially that I was out of luck and that I should talk to the bank - then that there was nothing PayPal could do because the bank didn't dispute it, etc., etc. Finally when I threatened legal action, another chat person said that they would look over my case as we had also filed a dispute on the issue with PayPal and that we would get the charge of {$840.00} taken off our PayPal account. Eventually, they did credit my account for the {$840.00} and I tried to close the account last week after my account showed a {$0.00} balance. I did also contact ACI and gave them this story and they said they would not pursue the collection and would return the file to the fraud department at PayPal and that I would not have a negative impact on my credit report as a result. 
When I tried to close my PayPal account, it would not let me and told me to contact customer service, which started the whole multi-day chat session thing again. I was told that I couldn't close my account without contacting PayPal XXXX to close my account there. That was a nearly impossible feat as well, but after several days of trying, I did talk with someone at PayPal XXXX who told me that I don't have any record of having a credit account with them. I returned to the chat and relayed this to the agent, who then told me that they would close my account as soon as a dispute on file is closed. I don't know what dispute the agent is referring to, and I was told that the chat session would not be closed until I had received word that my account had been closed - then the agent closed the chat session. 
I am filing this complaint as a result of the news article I read about the CFPB looking into problems similar to mine with Venmo. 
At this point, PayPal will not close my account and will not give me an accurate or truthful explanation for why they haven't closed it. I do not want to leave myself open to any more fraudulent transactions on my PayPal account and I do not want to have to deal with someone in a foreign country via a multi-day chat session to try to resolve problems related to my PayPal account. I hope that you will be able to help me to get my account closed and that CFPB will pursue actions against PayPal for their extremely poor account security which allowed XXXX XXXX XXXX to access my bank account and move money around between accounts at my bank - not to mention the nonexistant real time, one on one customer service.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief