Consumer complaint received 2025-12-28 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I ( regretfully ) changed my social security payments direct deposit to my PayPal debit account after my XXXX accounts were closed because of unauthorized transactions that were a direct result of identity theft and fraud. Debts on those accounts were accrued by the unauthorized usage of the accounts and they were then closed by the bank. At that point, I had no other choice but to redirect the deposits to my paypal since the ssa no longer pays its beneficiaries in the form of paper checks. In XXXX of XXXX, my apartment was burglarized and all of my critical forms of identification, phone, and other important documents were stolen. I am a XXXX veteran off the XXXX XXXX  and served in combat back in XXXX, in XXXX. The thieves used those items to steal my identity and hijack all of my accounts and alter the information on file related to these accounts, commit fraud, steal as much as possible, and then change my passwords and other personal information on file so that I no longer could access them whatsoever. Without even my phone or an ID of any kind, I was in the worst financial and overall state of my life. It was, and still is, a nightmare that is real and ongoing. My social security funds were completely wiped out each month, from XXXX of XXXX up until XXXX of XXXX. I was only then able to locate, use without having my calls fraudulently forwarded by the thieves so that I never could close any of the accounts or complete anything related to the haunting of this theft and abuse, a phone that someone here in LA would actually allow me to use. I have no living family members and live alone. I was able to put a restriction on my paypal account at that point. From XXXX until now [ 9 months ], my monthly payments were unavailable to me without any way to prove my identity. Paypal only uses the email and phone number that is associated with the corresponding account and it was changed so I can not access this account. It is possible that these benefits have all been stolen since XXXX, I do not know-paypal will provide me with absolutely nothing about my hijacked account or offer any way to get control/recover the account and I lost access to the email and phone number associated with the account. I have a CA identification card, official social security documentation of my benefits/statement of benefits, and have also visited the social security office multiple times in person to fix this problem. I have had to file to police reports, this solves nothing and they make no effort at all to catch the thieves. I have called paypal over 100 times over the last 9 months. Since I do not have the account and routing numbers of the paypal account and am unable to get this info from the XXXX or XXXX, it is impossible to redirect my payments to a XXXX XXXX card. I know that federal law prohibits the withholding of government funds that are payed out by the XXXX, however, no one seems to care about the law at all. Nor does the XXXX even make any effort to redirect my benefits so that I can have money to survive. I have tried almost 8-10 times, by means of visits to the ssa office in person, with no luck. I even escalated the issue to supervisors each time I was there. I let them clearly understand that the funds they are paying me are unattainable and being stolen. I attempted to have them redirect the payments to their own free account that is provided for free to recipients whom do not have banking accounts, XXXX XXXX. They casually refuse and brush it off and send me away empty handed and without any way or information, such as the account and routing numbers of the paupal that my benefits are being directly deposited into by the US treasury. Since I have long ago reached a dead end with paypal, there is no way to live or have any quality of life. The last year of my life has reduced my will to live and I'm not sure if I will ever again have a happy day. This continues but again, no one in California cares about the law. They do not even care about my life.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief