Consumer complaint received 2024-01-14 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
On XXXX XXXX XXXX Venmo suspended my account leaving a value of {$18.00} in the account. They said there was suspicious activity on my account and asked that I change my password, and upload a photo id and a picture of me holding the photo id, which I promptly did. They said it would take 7 business days to unsuspend my account, but it is still suspended. I have sent several emails to them- which they insist is the only way to pursue this- but I have not gotten any response subsequent to the first email. 

Today I tried to transfer the money in my Venmo account to my bank account, and it wont let me. I then attempted to close the account, but it wont let me. I have only had 4 people I have had transactions with lately and they are all people I regularly pay and am paid by - they are all my friends. 

I have nowI XXXX Venmo stole my money, and found that what has happened to me has happened to many many people- many with a lot more money at stake than this.even though I have only lost {$18.00} bucks, it seems like a highly criminal thing to steal money out of peoples accounts and to arbitrarily deny them access to a service they had known and trusted for years. I hope there is a law enforcement agency that can prevent these corporations from pillaging the money of their trusting customers.i am so sad this has happened - its going to make my life a lot less convenient. It also concerns me that Venmo appears to be assuming bad stuff when I am not doing anything wrong. I dont know where all their tendrils go and how much this could mess up my life as a person facing bankruptcy and really struggling with debt. Venmo was one of the few payment methods I could rely on to send and receive money and its been such a hard year. My best friend of almost 30 years sent me more money than usual this year because I was hemorrhaging money following a breakup. I dont know if that was the activity that was deemed suspicious but she just sent me money because she doesnt want me to die in the streets. Another friend paid me back for her half of a shared dinner date. My ex and I have transferred money back and forth for years as little gifts and helps to each other. My friend in XXXX is XXXX and lives hand to mouth and I send her {$50.00} every few weeks. Thats it. I also put a tiny amount of money into the cryptocurrency options as a little experiment to see if they would appreciate or depreciate. Venmo offered me the option to buy crypto for YEARS and I only recently bought a little, but it was while trying to buy like {$5.00} or {$10.00} of ethereum (? ) that they suspended the account. So if thats what they saw as suspicious- maybe they shouldnt offer it? I think crypto is XXXX and only thought it would be fun to watch if and seee what it did. And now I no longer have a helpful way to send and receive money. 

Here are some other examples of this happening XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXvenmo/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXvenmoXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXvenmoXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXvenmoXXXX  It just seems like fraud and theft and like the government shouldnt not allow Venmo to continue stealing from people.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation