Consumer complaint received 2024-08-15
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc (TN)

On XX/XX/year> I received a phishing email ( that I didn't recognize as such at the time ). It was from a XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ). Attached was a message on Paypal letterhead claiming that it appeared that an unauthorized transaction was done using paypal for cryptocurrency in the amount of XXXX dollars. ( I had XXXX dollars in my paypal account. The paypal attachment said ( I can not copy it ) but can transcribe word for word the following : " We have noticed unauthorized transactions from your paypal account with reference to an amount of XXXX XXXX, which was charged today for XXXX XXXX. ( I had XXXX dollars in my paypal account ). 

If you are certain that you have not made this transaction, then please get in touch with us within the next XXXX hours via calling on XXXX XXXX : XXXX. Kindly inform us of the circumstances. Upon verification we will be able to refund the amount within XXXX hours from the time of reporting. 

TRANSACTION DETAILS : Product Name : XXXX XXXX Amount : XXXX Quantity : XXXX Trade ID : XXXX However, if no response is received within this time frame, then we'll be forced to charge you the full amount, and it willl be reflected on your account statement soon. 

If you didn't make this purchase, kindly contact our support team to cancel or to raise a refund at XXXX. 

We understand that saving money is important to you and we appreciate your time in keeping our account secure and safe for both sides. 

Thank you for choosing our service. 

Team Paypal '' ( Looking this over it is an obvious scam but I received this email at a very stressful pressure time in between jobs and i fell for it and called the number. ) on the call a XXXX claiming to be Paypal Security. He gave me his direct line : XXXX. I followed his instructions which were extremely confusing and time consuming. He claimed my info had been hacked and a loan was taken from Paypal by this hacker. He had me do things to " protect my identity '' on XXXX and Venmo. I discovered he was screen sharing and finally realized i was being scammed. I called my bank to report a fraudulent debit of XXXX dollars. My bank account was immediately frozen and later closed. My bank was familiar with this scam. I called Paypal and reported it. There is no one " XXXX '' in " Paypal Security ''. Paypal was also familiar with this scam. 

The scammer had used my Venmo account for this trick and Venmo is saying I owe XXXX dollars as no money transferred from my bank to Venmo. I had reported the scam to Venmo already. Venmo took the XXXX dollars in my account to partially cover the purchase and was demanding the remaining sum as they had " purchased the bitcoin for me since no money had transferred from my bank. '' Venmo suspended my account which is fine because I will never use them again. I have reported all of this to Venmo several times but they are still harassing me to pay them this money which I will not. Venmo has assured me that a " fraud XXXX will contact me but no one has. It is now XX/XX/XXXX and I am still getting demands to pay from Venmo> This makes them part of the scam.