Consumer complaint received 2021-03-14
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: CO
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Complaint:
I have had major issues with working with Venmo to resolve disputes. I was victim to a lot of fraud, and in the case of the Venmo service, I found out the person I was living with was accessing my Venmo account through my phone and sending my money to his friends and family. 

I was not aware of these transactions for a while and I was dealing with other major issues relating to my finances ( opening a car under my name, credit card fraud transactions which took precedent because it could/was ruining my credit ). I also didnt have Venmo very long and rarely used it so it was one of the last places I looked. 
I contacted Venmo about it and they made me fill out the transaction, reason etc. which I provided to them. 

What happened was basically nothing. Through probably 50 email exchanges ( many just remained unanswered ) they did absolutely nothing. They first told me that it was too long and because they were unlikely to collect the money they wouldnt do anything about it. They then pawned it off and said it was something I needed to take up with my bank because it was coming out of my checking, which, after going down that road, I have learned is incorrect because it was fraud on the Venmo account balances. 
I had to let it go for personal reasons but have taken up the issue again with them. 
Once again they do not respond at all. A fraudulent transaction is a fraudulent transaction regardless of when it happened or whether Venmo can collect. Venmo has all of the power here. They can freeze the account in question, follow-up on the validity of the payments and do an actual investigation of transaction. If they did this, it would be easy to determine it was fraudulent and either pull money from the account if it exists do any number of things these companies do when fraudulent activities occurred. As the victim of fraud, I cant really do anything. I requested the money back but of course they are not going to pay it back, there is no consequences to keeping it. 
The transactions are simple. My account was accessed and the money was sent to his friends and family in Oklahoma ( I live in Colorado ), all people I have never met before. 
When I was trying to resolve this with Venmo the first time around, I additionally was very concerned because there was a credit card on there that I did not add and was not in my name. I still dont know what this card is. 

I asked Venmo how is it possible that this guy could add a credit card to my account if it is not in my name. I did not have access to see what the card even was because it was removed from my account. So I asked Venmo and they couldnt see who the card was or anything. How can they possibly not be able to tell this. 
This is very concerning as I have no clue why this guy would put a card on my account and use my Venmo account to send money to people. And if it was a card that wasnt in my name, he shouldnt have been able to add it to my account. He has a Venmo account of his own. 

There are so many red flags and concerns and the Venmo help/support team literally does nothing. With the card added above, maybe it was a card opened in my name? He opened another credit card in my name that is not this one. But without the stopgaps to prevent fraud like this, Venmo absolutely should take some responsibility. It is very concerning. The fact that they dont even do an investigation on the funds because they cant likely collect is just unethical business practice. 

My next step is going to have to be to go to small claims with Venmo. But of course they are backed by a hundred different banks and it makes it really hard to figure out especially because their team refuses to answer any questions. My experience has been it isn't until the legal team is aware of the situations is anything done because they do and understand the actual exposure If they arent concerned and do not actually resolve fraudulent transactions, they should not advertise it on their website as a service they provide.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation