Consumer complaint received 2023-11-13
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc (TN)

Ive had a Paypal account for about 15 years. I used it to receive payments from shoppers on my website. The account is connected to my bank checking account only in order to receive funds paid to me from my customers. Ive never used my checking account alone or thru Paypal to pay for a purchase online ever. The only time I used Paypal to make an online purchase was when I had cash in the Paypal account from my customers, and I used to cash balance to make an online purchase. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I was informed by XXXX that someone hacked into my XXXX account and attempted to make XXXX purchases. Only XXXX of them went thru, which was a charge for {$2000.00} for a laptop computer. XXXX confirmed they could see that I did not make the purchase and my shipping address had been changed. Paypal also confirmed the hacker made XXXX attempts to change my address and phone number. 

I have also received over XXXX spam emails to my email address associated with my XXXX and Paypal account. 

On or about XX/XX/XXXX when I became aware of the situation I filed a dispute with Paypal. XXXX provided me with the invoice to show the fraudulent purchase was shipped by the seller to an unconfirmed Paypal shipping address. With Paypal, all sellers must ship to the buyers confirmed address or the seller does not get paid. 

I live in XXXX XXXX TN for the past 5 years. The scammer had this item shipped to an address in XXXX, over XXXX hours away from me. I do not know who this person is and I have no alternate addresses. 

Paypal first sent me an email stating the case was closed as the seller provided proof of shipping, but it was to a fraudulent address created by the hacker. Paypal closed out my claim and found in favor of the seller. 

A day later, they reopened my claim and stated it was still under investigation. At first, the claim was filed as item not received, but then realizing the mistake, the reopened the claim as a fraud issue. 
They are now stating it may take up until XX/XX/XXXX to resolve the claim. They have put a pending hold on over {$2000.00} of my funds in my checking account. I am XXXX, live on social security and Ive had NO MONEY at all for over XXXX weeks. They have prevented me from being able to even pay my basic bills like water and electric, or buy food or gas. 

I also went to my bank, XXXX, and filed a claim against the fraud charge. It has been over a week and Ive not heard anything from my bank. 

Ive done some research and discovered that this issue, of fraudulent ACH purchases has become a widespread problem. What infuriates me is neither Paypal nor my bank contacted me in any way to verify that I made the purchase. Banks have no way to stop ACH online holds or transfers of funds. 

If I use my debit card in store, and there are not enough funds in my account to cover a purchase, the purchase will be declined for insufficient funds. In my case, as I only had about {$500.00} in my account at the time of the fraud, it put my account over {$1600.00} in the red- with no access to my funds or incoming deposits since XX/XX/XXXX, like my social security deposit. 

Paypal has since prevented me from contacting them by email or phone. I did previously send them notes alerting them to the situation and asking them to please expedite my fraud claim- but I now have no way to contact anyone to inquire about the claim. 

As an ecommerce seller myself, the rules of Paypal are clear. A seller can not ship to an unauthorized or unconfirmed Paypal address or the seller does not get paid. I have the XXXX tracking number and address the seller shipped to, to confirm the seller violated Paypal rules. The seller shipped a {$2000.00} computer to an old dump of a shack in XXXX that is no where near where I live. 

I am desperate to resolve this issue as Paypal is not communicating with me. 

* As an ecommerce seller myself online since XXXX, if a buyer makes a purchase on my website, credit card or Paypal, I require a phone number. If the purchase is over {$100.00}, I call them. If I can not reach them by phone, I do not ship. If I can reach them by phone, I put their address in XXXX XXXX. I look at the neighborhood and ask the buyer, is that a church or a school across the street from you? Or a restaurant or a gas station? When they ask why Im asking these strange questions, I reply that I am protecting their security to make sure no one has made a fraudulent purchase with a stolen credit card. A scammer will not be able to answer those questions. 

In my case, the case is clear. The seller was so eager to get {$2000.00}, he failed to abide by the most basic of Paypal policies : To never ship to an unconfirmed address. In my experience I have learned that all unconfirmed address orders on Paypal are in fact fraud. 

My only personal and business address can also be confirmed in XXXX XXXX XXXX for XXXX XXXX XXXX and at my website XXXX