Consumer complaint received 2018-10-01
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc (PA)

On the morning of XXXX XXXX, 2018, I found about sixteen different unauthorized transactions after I was notified via email that a XXXX XXXX bank account had been added to my XXXX   account. I then checked my Venmo account to notice that there were several transactions adding up to about {$2100.00} dollars, being delivered to three different individuals. After getting in contact with XXXX XXXX support team via phone, I was later contacted by a member of their Disputes team, XXXX XXXX He asked me several questions regarding the transactions and I responded to him, explaining the situation that someone else 's XXXX XXXX bank account ( ending in XXXX ) was added to my XXXX  account in order to make financial transfers ; essentially, my XXXX account was used as a middleman of sorts to send money from this XXXX XXXX bank account to other individuals. At this point in time, none of my personal funds had been affected, however, I still contacted my financial institutions to confirm so. 

On the morning of XX/XX/2018, XXXX XXXX notified me that, " From what I am seeing in the log here, the bank [ XXXX XXXX ] did in fact block the payments, but they have since been attempted to be recovered from the cards that you have on file, which I was hoping to avoid. '' XXXX requested that I send him screenshots of the charges filed on my debit and credit cards, to which I happily obliged. Finally, he asked if I had filed disputes with my financial institutions, to which I confirmed, yes. XXXX responded : " Thank you for providing that information! We've completed our investigation regarding the recent payment activity on your account. Due to the fact that you've already initiated a dispute process with your card/bank provider, we have denied your official claim on our end. This is simply a formality as there is no need to manually credit the account, so please disregard the automated denial email. 

Because you let them know the charges were unauthorized, they'll be able to walk you through the dispute process to reimburse you for your loss and will bill XXXX separately for the amount that was unauthorized. In a couple of days you will receive another email from XXXX regarding the expected payment loss due to the dispute with you bank. '' Afterwards, I decided to discontinue communicating with XXXX since I was not interested in reinstating my account with their services. However, on XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX, I received multiple emails stating that my dispute claims ( from the XXXX XXXX account ) were denied. Because XXXX stated that because I disputed claims with my own financial institutions, and that VXXXX had denied claims on their end as a formality, I assumed that this would not be an issue. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I was notified that I still owed {$840.00} to XXXX, despite the fact that I had previously told them that I am not the owner of the XXXX XXXX bank account from which the funds were trying to be recovered. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted XXXX via phone yet again to try and settle the financial disputes. I was told to submit personal identification to the original email chain with XXXX XXXX in order to proceed with the process and have not received any contact since then. 

However, on the evening of XX/XX/XXXX, I was contacted by XXXX yet again via email stating : " This is your final reminder that you still owe Venmo {$1200.00}. Your account will remain frozen until you settle this outstanding debt. By not paying, you run the risk of being reported to a collection agency. '' The email then listed sixteen suspicious and fraudulent transactions in various amounts from XX/XX/XXXX. 

I contacted XXXX XXXX  support team this morning, on XX/XX/XXXX, in order to try and settle the situation again. I spoke to a representative, XXXX XXXX, who reopened my case and sent it to an account specialist to review again. I was told that I should be contacted within two to three business days.