Consumer complaint received 2024-06-26
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc (WI)

XX/XX/24 Afternoon An individual my husband was friends with on XXXX posted that she had concert tickets available for purchase. We were interested, so I began talking to this person over XXXX XXXX. She gave me what she told me was her husband 's Paypal email address to send payment. 

XXXX I received email confirmation from PayPal for the {$2000.00} payment I sent. Shortly after, my husband saw the PayPal account I sent it to and said " That's not her husband! '' That's when we realized it was someone impersonating his friend. 

XXXX I called PayPal to stop the payment. The individual I talked to said she would send an email to the recipient requesting a refund. I asked her what else could be done, because I didn't think it was realistic for a scammer to say " Oh, you didn't want to be scammed? Okay, here 's your money back. '' She said I should talk to my bank. I called my bank ( XXXX XXXX  ) and they told me they couldn't do anything until they could see the payment in Pending Status, which was not yet the case. 

XX/XX/24 I called XXXXXXXX XXXX again. This person told me that as of XXXX the payment was in pending status, but only PayPal would be able to stop it. I couldn't report the fraud to XXXXXXXX XXXX until it posted to my account. 

So I called PayPal again. They told me the payment was not covered under their purchase protection since I sent it as a personal payment. They would try to get the money from my bank, and suggested that I either open a police report, or report the incident to ic3.gov. Since I doubted the person who received my money was local to me, I reported to ic3.gov. I have not heard anything from them, though I'm not sure if I was supposed to. 

XX/XX/24 The money has now been withdrawn from my account, so I called XXXX XXXX  again. They opened a fraud case for me. 

end of XXXX I received a letter in the mail dated XX/XX/24 stating that my claim was denied because I either authorized, initiated, or benefitted from the transaction. 

XX/XX/24 I called PayPal one final time, telling them that XXXXXXXX XXXX had denied my fraud claim, and asked what could be done. They again said they would send an email to the recipient asking to refund my money, and they will monitor that account. 

I understand that PayPal has processes in place to protect them from liability, one of them being the ability to send a payment to a business vs an individual. The problem is that scammers know how to outsmart those rules. This individual was posing as my husbands friend for a lengthy period of time. Long enough that we had no reason to believe it was not the person we knew. If it were the case that I didn't realized my mistake until after the payment posted, I would understand. But I realized my mistake MINUTES after I made it. And called PayPal immediately. Because of this, I believe they should have been able to help me. 

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to get my {$2000.00} back. And alert others to be vary wary who you transact with online. It might not be who you think it is. 

Thank you.