Consumer complaint received 2024-05-06 00:00:00
Product: Prepaid card — General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Trouble using the card — Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online
Company: Netspend Corporation
State: GA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX I reached out to PayPal customer service in reference to my online account being locked. The account was verified and the female agent informed me the reason my account and card were locked. She inquired if I had made a purchase on Friday XX/XX/XXXX that flagged the account. I told her I did not manually make the charge but it could be a monthly draft. I reiterated I just wanted my account unlocked to have online access. During the back and forth exchange she made reference to my card being already blocked. I shouted to her, " I never authorized you to do that. This is the same {$39.00} charged monthly! '' While going back to look through my billing. PayPal should have never sent a " fraud alert '' for a charge that has been billed monthly since XXXX of 2023 ( See attached ). Agent stated based on my response that is why it was blocked. I asked her if she knew what the word manually meant and repeated again angrily, " I did not give you permission to block my card. I never said my card was lost or stolen. I never stated the charge was fraud. '' I told her she illegally blocked my card. This card still had a remaining balance from my social security benefits. I also told her this card is the card account that my benefits are deposited on and that I would be contacting a government agency in reference to the deceptive behavior. I requested to speak to a supervisor. The agent then transferred me back into the initial que with the main menu options. I called back a second time and spoke with an agent by the name of XXXX. I rehashed the entire situation. I asked for a supervisor. I was put on hold for XXXX minutes before XXXX then disconnected my call. A XXXX call was placed, speaking to agent XXXX, then explaining the same situation. I requested a supervisor once again, however XXXX stated that he would need to transfer me to another line, customer service in order to get my card unblocked. I asked him to confirm that customer service would be able to unblock my card and he answered in the affirmative, " Yes they will. '' After being transferred to a customer service agent I was informed that in no way could my card be unblocked. PayPal does not unblock cards once they have been reported lost or stolen. My question to the agent, " When exactly was the card reported lost or stolen? '' He replied, " It was reported today XX/XX/XXXX. '' Supposedly I verified the transactions as fraud through either text message or via email. ( see email attached confirming I never responded to the fraud alert and phone logs confirming fraud alert text was never sent to me ) I explained to the agent that no one ever sent me a text to confirm, AND that I never responded to the email. The call was then disconnected. 
What's more troubling, outside of the fact that I never authorized the block, I should have never received a fraud alert for a charge that has been billed to me monthly since XX/XX/2023. PayPal has done this on numerous occasions by obstructing my use of my government benefits. This practice of " randomly '' locking and or blocking cards/accounts w/o justification is an illegal business practice. There was no reason for PayPal NetSpend to send out a fraud alert and then have a customer service agent state the reason for the fraud alert was due to a charge that is unfamiliar to their system. This statement is completely false, and charge has been " familiar '' to their system at least for the last 14 months. Another concern and or a deceptive practice are the dates my online account indicates the card in question was reported lost/ stolen. I noticed after gaining access, my account illustrates my card was reported los/stolen yesterday, Sunday, XX/XX/XXXX. With a second card on the account listed as being lost /stolen Thursday XX/XX/XXXX. On either date did I contact Paypal. So then how were my cards reported lost /stolen, when there was no contact with PayPal in any form. In other words, PayPal listed these cards as reported lost/ stolen prior to me reaching them. Agents attempted to convince me I responded to either a text message or an email confirming the charge was fraud. To reiterate, I did neither. I never responded to a fraud alert email and fraud alert text message was never sent. ( see attached cell phone log ). Disturbing is the fact that the first agent, being a female, sent XXXX separate texts. First one, that my card was lost, and the XXXX it was stolen. So then, why does the system indicate that my card was reported lost/stolen yesterday XX/XX/XXXX.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation