Consumer complaint received 2026-04-21 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year> a computer breach occurred ( trojan horse ) and someone obtained my PayPal user account and password. My PayPal account wallet had one of my bank checking accounts and an XXXX XXXX credit card attached as forms of payment. There was also a small positive ( < {$1000.00} ) cash balance in my PayPal XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, a number of fraudulent transactions totaling several XXXX dollars were made using both my XXXX XXXX credit card and my checking account. The transactions were all for either gift cards or cryptocurrency ( PayPal only ). On XX/XX/XXXX, I reported these fraudulent, unauthorized transactions to both XXXX XXXX by telephone and PayPal by using their website. XXXX XXXX immediately backed off all charges and sent me a new credit card. PayPal did nothing. On or about XX/XX/XXXX, I called PayPal and got the run-around from their offshore call center and they would not transfer me to a manager or supervisor to try to resolve the matter. I asked the representative to please lock down my PayPal account so that no further fraudulent charges could be made. They assured me they would. I also removed all forms of payment from my PayPal XXXX and transferred the small positive PayPal cash balance to my bank account to protect it from fraud. At that point, I felt that I could work with them to resolve the fraudulent charges and I had done what was necessary to stop further fraud. However, on XX/XX/XXXX more fraud charges ( {$2500.00} in total ) were made on my PayPal account. So, they had NOT locked down the account. I logged into my account and the same bank account and credit card plus another of my credit cards plus one of my wife 's bank accounts had been added back to my PayPal Wallet. So I called them back and they once again would not transfer me to a supervisor, etc. I then went to my bank and locked the account they were using so that no further funds could be extracted. I called PayPal several times trying to resolve this and get my account locked down. I would either get reassured that it was or when I pressed the matter they would put me on hold to transfer me to someone else and the line would hang up. After several more attempts on about XX/XX/XXXX I finally got someone at PayPal in a higher position and she told me that indeed my account had NOT been locked. I told her that I wanted to close my account. She gave me some excuse that since I'd been a PayPal member for over 20 years they would like to keep me as a customer and they would for sure lock down the account. At that point, I was on my computer looking at my account and the cash balance was zero and there were no forms of payment in my Wallet ( I had removed them again ). She verified that's what she saw on her end too. From that point on I have had no access to my account ( it IS locked ). So, I got my bank to request the return of the fraudulent PayPal transfers. They did so, and PayPal returned the money. In other words, all of the money that had left my bank account for these fraudulent charges was now returned to my account by PayPal. The exact amount. I have all the documentation, emails, bank records, etc. to substantiate this. I thought the matter was resolved until about a week later I get a phone call from PayPal collections saying that I have a negative balance of approximately {$1900.00}. I explained everything but they would not tell me how that there could be a negative balance. The only way I can think of is more fraudulent charges. Since even I can't access my account and they claim it is locked down, I have to assume that someone inside PayPal is doing this. I asked to be transferred to someone in their fraud department, but was hung up on. I have received more of these calls from PayPal collections over the past couple of weeks, but they either will not transfer me or say they are transferring and hang up. I have since closed my bank account.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief