Consumer complaint received 2026-03-04 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: CA

Complaint narrative:
XXXX, XXXX, or before : A thief hacked and completed an account takeover of our PayPal account. They changed the email address, added two new phone numbers on the account, and connected their own fraudulent bank account to our PayPal. XXXX XXXX XXXX : Perpetrator withdrew {$500.00} from my XXXX XXXX account into PayPal. According account records and our conversation with a PayPal rep, the thief then purchased a XXXX debit card ( XXXX ) with that $ XXXXan unauthorized, fraudulent transaction. XX/XX/XXXX : Two unauthorized, fraudulent ACH withdrawals of {$700.00} each from XXXX into PayPal occurred on the same day. The thief then transferred this {$1400.00} plus my previous PayPal balance of {$28.00} into their bank. The recipient was a XXXX XXXX account with the last four digits of XXXX. Not my account, not my bank. Again, a clearly unauthorized transaction. XX/XX/XXXX : Two more fraudulent withdrawals of {$2000.00} each from my XXXX XXXX bank to my PayPal account were attempted. These attempts overdrafted my bank account, which triggered a fraud alert from my bank. We immediately contacted our XXXX XXXX bank and stopped the {$2000.00} transfers. We also contacted PayPal about these two {$2000.00} fraudulent transactions. At that time, the PayPal agent brought to our attention the other fraudulent ACH transfers of {$500.00}, {$700.00} and {$700.00}, as well as the withdrawals of {$500.00} from my PayPal account to a VISA debit card and the {$1400.00} to XXXX XXXX. We worked with a PayPal agent to place unauthorized transaction fraud claims. Then we contacted XXXX XXXX about the {$700.00}, {$700.00}, and {$500.00} fraudulent transfers. XX/XX/XXXX ( cont. ) : PayPal emailed us stating that We've determined the payment ( s ) in question were unauthorized and have refunded the full amount. ( Attached ) The email referenced the {$700.00}, {$700.00}, and {$500.00} transactions. The refund did not show in our PayPal account at that time. XX/XX/XXXX : We received a payment of {$11.00} into PayPal from XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX reversed the two {$700.00} ACH withdrawals under Regulation E ( Electronic Fund Transfer Act ) as an unauthorized electronic transfer, and took that {$1400.00} from PayPal to our XXXX account. PayPal emailed us that same day stating that these funds had been returned to our bank. XX/XX/XXXX : PayPal deposited {$500.00} into our PayPal, account in payment for the initial {$500.00} fraudulent withdrawal on XX/XX/XXXX. Although XXXX XXXX had withdrawn the {$1400.00} into our XXXX account, the refund of {$1400.00} did not show in our PayPal account. XX/XX/XXXX : PayPal froze our account and stated that we were overdrafted in the amount of {$880.00}! We can only guess that PayPal decided that the {$1400.00} that was returned to our XXXX XXXX account was not ours and was owed back to PayPal. Although PayPal had previously stated in email that it would return the {$500.00} + {$700.00} + {$700.00}, it only returned {$500.00}. The math is this : {$500.00} ( from PayPal ) + {$11.00} ( XXXX XXXX ) - {$1400.00} to XXXX = - {$880.00}. XX/XX/XXXX : PayPal notified us that our account was in collections for the {$880.00}. Again, we spoke to an agent who said this made no sense except that maybe we waited too long to make a claim. There is no too long in cases of identity theft and account-takeover. This contradicts prior email communication that stated PayPal would refund all of the fraudulent, unauthorized transactions.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief