Consumer complaint received 2025-07-24 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unexpected or other fees — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: SC

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX I started receiving payments from an account on PayPal. Over the course of the month of XXXX, I received XXXX payments from this account. The last payment was made on XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX that account opened XXXX cases/claims/disputes against me claiming that they had sent me money to buy a products and that I had taken their money and canceled the orders. 

I do not sell products. I had never had contact with this person before they sent payments to my account in XXXX. I didn't even realize I had received payments from them until they filed claims against me. Nothing this person said is true of me. 

Because I was unsure what was happening, and because the amounts were relatively low ( $ XXXX {$45.00} ), I figured this account must have mistakenly sent me money, so I agreed to refund them for the XXXX payments. This was probably a mistake on my part because it led to many more problems. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the same account opened XXXX more cases against me. They claimed different things in each case, some inconsistent, all false. They said that I had made an order from them and then canceled it, and also that I had taken their money and then not sent a product I was supposed to send. None of what they said is true and they produced XXXX evidence to substantiate their claims. I figured they were not trying to extract the maximum amount of money from me. 

At this point I thought this person was scamming me, but I first reached out to them directly via email to get more information. At first they responded but didn't give details. When I followed up again they stopped responding. 

This seemed like something a scammer would do, so instead of agreeing to refunds, I appealed the claims and explained the situation to PayPal. 

Days went by without resolution, so I called PayPal support and pleaded my case. I told them what I typically use PayPal for, what happened with these payments, and that this person was clearly lying. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, PayPal ruled against me in all cases. Not only did PayPal close my account because they claim I'm engaged in unapproved transactions, they also overdrew my account to send all the money back, and charged me XXXX fees of {$30.00} a piece as part of their claims resolution process ( for a total of {$270.00} charged to me by PayPal ). 

To be clear : I lost the use of my PayPal account and was charged hundreds of dollars in fees merely because I received payments from another account and then that account made baseless claims against me as if I had done something wrong to them. Of course, I have no way of preventing payments like that from being made into my PayPal account. 

Again, XXXX evidence was presented by the other party that I had anything to do with them paying me in the first place. And, of course, even if they did make those payments in error and deserve their money back, it is entirely unjustifiable that I should be charged fees due to receiving them. I have no control over receiving payments. 

So, according to how PayPal works, if you wanted to destroy someone else 's account, and also get them charged hundreds of dollars in fees, you can simply send a bunch of payments to that account, wait a little bit, and then open a bunch of cases against that account claiming fraud, provide no evidence to support these claims, get your money back, and then PayPal will close the target account and charge that person fees on top of it. 

It's an absolutely outrageous business practice PayPal is engaged in. They seem to always side with the disputer, even when the person appealing speaks with the dispute resolution staff to explain, provides as much evidence as they can from their end, and argues that the disputer has offered nothing in support of their claims. Certainly it's understandable to return the money that may have been sent in error originally, but to charge the recipient fees for something entirely outside their control, when no evidence against them is presented, is absolutely unjust, unreasonable, and probably illegal. 

Of course, PayPal claimed they reviewed my case when I appealed. I went through many long processes to try to get them to help me. In the end, I get a call from them saying that they've reviewed my appeal and denied me. They gave NO explanation for why. They presented NO evidence from the other party that I had done anything wrong. They provided NO evidence that I had done anything wrong. They refused to waive the fees they charged me. 

Even worse, if I go to their resolution center, it still shows that I have open cases that are under review. It actually not at all clear where I stand, even though the person I spoke with has told me that everything is closed and they have ruled against me. I don't want my overdrawn account to be sent to collections, but I don't want to pay them money that I shouldn't owe them. I am a victim in this case, yet PayPal is siding with the other side and piling on to make the situation even worse for me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation