Consumer complaint received 2024-09-17
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc (CA)

After nearly a year of unsuccessfully attempting to work with PayPal on a very serious matter that took place within their organization, specifically as it relates to a PayPal account opened using one of my company 's entities, my own social security number and which existed entirely to commit fraud. I was not aware of this account 's existence. 

Unbeknownst to me, as I have never made a PayPal transaction personally or professionally and my only experience was opening a personal account in XXXX ( which I did not have a transaction with ), our company 's former XXXX opened a fraudulent account using one of our company 's bank accounts, the name of another company under our umbrella, as well as my name and SSN, an anonymous office email address and his personal phone number.. Subsequently, more than {$350000.00} was paid from our companies to this account, where nearly all of those funds were directed to the person who fraudulently opened the account. He did this by directing funds to his various debit cards, personal bank accounts, the bank accounts of shell entities, his girlfriend 's credit card and multiple fake names which also led directly to his personal bank account. 

The only reason I know about the account was due to calls I began receiving in XXXX, informing me that I had a " past due balance '' with PayPal. I took the calls and responded to messages, but each time was led to a dead-end as the callers were not able to 'verify ' me. This went on for months and finally, I contacted XXXX of PayPal 's XXXX level team members on linkedin, who then connected me with a customer relations XXXX - this person sent me the full statement of transactions for the account that was opened without my consent, using my personal identification and funded by my companies without any valid authority to do so. I am the XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX  and Majority Shareholder and yet, never signed any agreements nor approved any transactions. 

It took 3 months to obtain access to the historical statements. We initially discovered the existence of payments to PayPal during an internal audit related to embezzlement of nearly $ XXXX by the former XXXX, who was with the company for 8 years. However, bank statements provide no information whatsoever when making payments to PayPal other than occasionally reference the entity associated with our account. 

Despite speaking to no less than XXXX dozen people at their company for the sole purpose of accomplishing XXXX things, I was never given XXXX ounce of support or information. 

XXXX. Obtaining a copy of whatever agreement exists between PayPal and My company and XXXX. Obtaining information on how to report major fraud ( related to the program itself due to the party engaging not being authorized to engage as well as PayPal 's lack of oversight to verify the XXXX person who had authority to engage in such a program ). 

On no less than XXXX occasions, I have personally called, been disconnected and placed on hold, each time leading to the exact same conclusion, essentially that, another department, an escalations XXXX ( who does not have a phone number ), will be in touch in XXXX hours... .I have escalated this to a XXXX, etc ''. This has gone on for months and only on Thursday of last week was I finally able to verbally submit a claim, when I apparently reached someone who cared enough to take the claim. 

By the end of the day, just a few hours later, despite dozens of fraudulent transactions and my facts being extremely organized and clear, I received a letter from PayPal claiming that essentially nothing was out of the ordinary course of business, which is absolute insanity. 

Not once have I been contacted by phone, email or other means other than the dozens of calls I received where PayPal was attempting to collect money from an account I didn't know I had- not once, for what is now 9 months, have I made even XXXX step forward with their team. It is frankly pointless at this stage even expecting to believe a word they say, as nothing ever gets done. 

Having dealt with nearly every company involved in financials including major banks and even some of the less credible institutions, PayPal is the sole entity that has literally ignored every attempt to communicate professionally and further, has not remotely shown interest in how your platform is not a secure one which adheres to its own regulations in terms of verifying who you do business with, much less fraud that takes place within the program. 

While the amount of fraud we have seen is far less than the $ XXXX plus at certain banks, it is a substantial {$350000.00}, funds which came from multiple entities under our umbrella. 

More importantly is that, while the FBI is investigating the criminal aspect of this and are well into the process, a major part of our civil actions are held up by a completely incomprehensible organization 's lack of standards which is frankly, consuming my time and not doing anything to prevent fraud, much less take responsibility for it. 

I expect more and immediately, thus my letter to you. Please note I have not once threatened litigation and I have been cordial throughout the process. 

I truly hope that the nonsensical lack of attention to this will be corrected. There could not be a more clear cut case of fraud possible and it is beyond comprehension how this was ever allowed - if their team had the ability to find my contact information to collect a {$28000.00} balance due from this account, it certainly also has the means to contact the XXXX person who would need to approve such an account in the first place before I lost {$350000.00} and countless hours attempting to resolve this. 

The number of promises alone - dozens, where team members promised I would receive contact in XXXX days, is outrageous. I simply expect our funds back and certainly do hope that they install proper security to avoid this blatant fraud from destroying another person 's business. I am not seeking damages or exaggerated claims, I simply expect my money back. 

My entire transaction history is attached.