Consumer complaint received 2025-01-15 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: GA

Complaint narrative:
I filed a complaint against XXXX ( # XXXX ) and Venmo ( # XXXX ) regarding an unauthorized transaction on Venmo. I received a call from Venmo 's executive office saying they strongly agree that the transaction was unauthorized and have provided the information to XXXX for chargeback. Venmo 's said that because a chargeback was filed, the final decision is up to the card issuer. Despite all evidence that the transaction was unauthorized, XXXX denied the claim. However, they did mention in their reply that I should dispute directly with Venmo and Chargeback should not affect the dispute with Venmo. 
Furthermore, in Venmo 's reply, they noted, " A personal payment is money you send for a gift, a living expense, or other non-purchase purposes, such as money owed to friends or family ( " Personal Payment '' ) ; and, therefore, is not eligible for Venmo Purchase Protection, '' and later in the reply, they mentioned, " You must choose whether to pursue a dispute with us under the Venmo Purchase Protection Program, or to pursue the dispute with your card issuer... if you pursue a dispute with the card issuer, you can not pursue a dispute/claim under the Venmo Purchase Protection Program with us later. '' Firstly, I filed a dispute with Venmo " before '' contacting XXXX. I asked Venmo 's customer service on the phone whether I should also file a dispute with XXXX and she said yes ( if Venmo has the recording, they would be able to verify this ). I didn't pursue a dispute/claim with Venmo " later '' and I was doing what they suggested. Yet, Venmo is now using it against me. 
Secondly, this transaction is never eligible for Purchase Protection Program as they stated in the first quote ( and it is not a purchase, it is a theft/robbery ), so this either-or situation ( Chargeback versus Purchase Protection Program ) is never an issue in the case. Instead, it is a theft that should be covered by Regulation E, which defines an unauthorized EFT as a transfer from a consumers account initiated by a person other than the consumer without actual authority to initiate the transfer and from which the consumer receives no benefit. According to Regulation E, 1005.6 Liability of consumer for unauthorized transfers, the most I am liable for is {$50.00} since I reported it within one business day. Therefore, Venmo should reverse the transaction given that they do believe this is unauthorized. 
Lastly, I want to point out that Venmo sent me a message saying that they will keep this disputed amount of {$2500.00} USD available in my Venmo balance on XX/XX/year>. Therefore, they should keep that money in my account. 
In addition to the above, Venmo 's customer service is extremely inefficient. I called them several times and they always told me that they would escalate the case and that I would hear back from the account specialist within 10 days. Never has that happened. I requested a history of attempted transactions made by the person ( Venmo 's XXXX doesn't show failed transactions, which makes it hard to detect fraud early. If we can view suspicious transactions in our account, we can take action against them before the fraudster succeeds. ) and while customer service wrote an email stating the 3 transactions made by that person, they refused to include more detail such as the timestamp. I didn't request to know the person 's privacy but everything regarding my account ( how much money, what the receiver 's Venmo handle/username, date, and time ) should be available to consumers. I asked how the person was able to log into my account, which should be " my record '' and yet Venmo refused to provide the information. A lot of times the customer service told me that the account specialists would have the information but there was no way to contact them. I am just trying to collect more information to provide to the bank, which should help reduce their work, but they have made this route impossible. 

So basically, based on Venmo and XXXX 's response, the reasons why Venmo should reverse the transaction and refund me are as follows : 1. I filed the dispute with Venmo before I filed the Chargeback with XXXX. 
2. The dispute should not be reviewed under Venmo 's Purchase Protection Program. Instead, it is under Regulation E protection against unauthorized transactions through a non-bank XXXX payment provider ( description of financial institution can be found at : Electronic Fund Transfers Coverage : Financial Institutions Question 1 ) 3. XXXX also said I should dispute this with Venmo with no conflict between the two processes. 
4. They stated " We're happy to keep this disputed amount of {$2500.00} USD available in your Venmo balance, '' which they did not.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation