Consumer complaint received 2025-04-24 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
This is complaint about Paypal. The background : in early 2024, my Paypal account ( username XXXX ) was hacked, and over a XXXX dollars of fraudulent charges made using it. Over the course of a couple of weeks, most of the money was returned, though the process was extremely difficult due to Paypals customer service personnel being overseas, speaking difficult to understand XXXX in noisy call centers. I eventually decided to stop using Paypal entirely. I immediately unlinked a credit card and bank that had been linked and had to have account numbers changed. I signed back in some time later, made sure there were no linked accounts of any kind, and followed the instructions on the Paypal site to close my account permanently. During this process, Paypal makes it clear that you can never reopen that account again. 

This past XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from XXXX advising me that my annual subscription had been automatically renewed. A day or so later, my wife called me into her office and showed me how the downloaded transaction for that renewal appeared in XXXX. The description was XXXX XXXX # XXXX XXXX .. Now, this XXXX VERY concerning, since I closed my Paypal account about a year ago XXXX I attempted to log into Paypal using the old username and password, but, as I assumed, there is no Paypal account with my username any more. The message that comes up when I put in my email address is We didnt find an account for that email. See the screen shot attached ( formware @ gmail was once the username many years ago on my account, which is why I included that in the search for an account ). 

On the XXXX site, the payment methods shown to renew my subscription are an old credit card that was cancelled years ago, and an ACH transfer from my bank account ending in XXXX, which was indeed where the money came from in XXXX of 2024 and this XXXX, but nowhere in the " Payment History '' is Paypal even mentioned. 

So, despite the fact that I have not had a Paypal account for over a year, Paypal seems to be debiting my local XXXX bank account without my permission. When I checked the renewal transaction of a year ago, I found the same thing Paypal debited my account. I spoke with my local bank where the funds came from. The tell me they verified that the XXXX debit was originated by Paypal and processed via XXXX XXXX Bank. XXXX, no doubt, submitted the renewal request for payment, but, if somehow Paypal was receiving that request, it should never have gone any farther than that, and XXXX would have contacted me. 

I am requesting and investigation to determine how this happened. I want verification that Paypal has ZERO account information of any of my accounts. I want this verified in writing. Theres no telling how many other former users of Paypal still have old linked accounts in Paypals computers or whether those accounts are being abused as mine has been.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation