Consumer complaint received 2025-11-24 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
To whom it XXXX concern : XXXX : PayPal allowed a hacker to hijack my account, steal tens of thousands of dollars from me, and assured me that this was fraud and that they would make sure I got all my money back. This all took place on a recorded line with XXXX additional witnesses ( on speakerphone ) at my home the morning this occurred, XX/XX/year>. 

Not even a week later, I receive a call from PayPal to tell me that I have a negative balance and owe them {$17000.00} because they conducted an investigation and that no fraud was found. They are currently attempting to extort me for this money that I very clearly do not owe them, per everyone involved, including the man I initially spoke with for hours, XXXX who walked me through exactly what happened, bankers at my banking institution and my boyfriend, my dad, my oldest son, his girlfriend and my stepson. 

The long version : On XX/XX/year>, I woke to a {$10000.00} transaction coming out of my bank account going to my PayPal. Since I seldom ever use PayPal, and never from my computer, and never to transfer money to since it is tied to my bank account and will automatically withdraw from there, I reached out to see what was going on. Much to my surprise, XXXX ( PayPal employee ID XXXX ) informed me, among XXXX other witnesses at my home that morning ( on a recorded phone line ), that I have been hacked and to change all my passwords to everything immediately. He told me to get ahold of my bank immediately to put a stop payment on the {$10000.00}, and per his advise, I did just that. 

While remaining on the line with XXXX, I texted my banker at my banking institution and she quickly shut down my accounts and stopped payment on the attempted theft of {$10000.00}, but it doesnt end there. 

XXXX begins looking back through my account and starts reading off transactions that took place beginning XX/XX/XXXX in large sums that appeared suspicious and said, XXXX, this isnt the only transaction, XXXX adding up close to {$45000.00} from XX/XX/XXXX to now. 

While that number was slightly off, he was right. The hacker began with XXXX {$1000.00} transactions on XX/XX/year> that pulled from my bank account and transactions in the amount of {$490.00} and {$99.00} transferred out to the fraudulent XXXX account. On XX/XX/year>, {$5000.00} was pulled from my bank account and {$1000.00} was transferred to the fraudulent XXXX account, then another transaction of {$990.00} was transferred to the fraudulent XXXX account. On XX/XX/year>, XXXX {$5000.00} transactions were completed and taken from my bank account. On the same day, {$5000.00} was transferred to the fraudulent XXXX account. On XX/XX/year>, they took {$5000.00}, then tried to transfer {$990.00} to the fraudulent XXXX account. That {$990.00} was declined, but then they transferred {$4000.00} to a visa debit card that is also not mine and reattempted the {$990.00} to that same fraudulent visa debit card and that successfully transferred, bringing a total of {$10000.00} withdrawn from my bank on XX/XX/year> and my total calculation to {$17000.00} that was owed to me by PayPal since we stopped payment on the other {$10000.00}. PayPal is claiming I owe them that money, when in reality, that XXXX account very clearly owes them that money and they know it. It is literally on the notifications screen! 

Throughout listing all of these transactions, XXXX was able to give me the address the hacker set up for the XXXX account as : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, SC XXXX with the last XXXX digits of the XXXX account being XXXX. I called XXXX to cross reference my email address or any of my info, because surely, youd think to transfer money to the account, it would have to be in my name or flags would be raised? They informed me that they do not have an account in my name, but they did open a case and gave me this dispute number : XXXX What is ironic, after further investigation, PayPal clearly knew something was amiss because there was a transaction for {$99.00} and another for {$660.00} on XX/XX/year> that this hacker attempted to transfer to the XXXX account they illegally and fraudulently added to my account without my consent or knowledge and both transactions were denied. 

But hold on, it gets even better! 

When XXXX informed me that he was disputing all charges for me and I should be receiving emails we waited for about XXXX minutes and my boyfriend intervened and said, If we are supposed to be receiving emails, we are not XXXX explained XXXX the emails would go to the email address on file and asked me what my email address is. I said, The same as its been for the last 15 years, XXXX... He replied that this is even worse than he thought and the reason that I havent been receiving emails is because the hacker changed the primary email address on file to XXXX and thats where the notifications have been going! 

I was also informed that a hacker can hack and fraudulently utilize an IP address, which leads me to how PayPal is attempting to get out of this! They claimed that they conducted their investigation and no fraud was found because IVE been logging in utilizing this email address via this IP address since last XXXX! I dont use PayPal XXXX my computer! In the seldom event that I use PayPal to pay for anything, it is from my phone and doesnt even take me to my activity screen, it just processes the payment and sends me an email. Ironic how emails came through for purchases that I did truly make to my actual email address, but none of the fraudulent charges did! PayPal was negligent in protecting my account and my identity. To top it all off, after digging through messaging correspondence, I found that PayPal allowed someone to add a XXXX area code phone number to my account that isn't mine! This is starting to look like an inside job! They must be held accountable! 

In another conversation with PayPal, I informed them that if this fraudulent debt hits my credit report, XXXX be suing for damages, to the tune of millions, as real estate investing is how I provide for my family they assured me that PayPal doesnt report to credit bureaus and not to worry. Now they are threatening to sell this debt to a collector by XX/XX/XXXX, and that fraudulent debt could cost me my businesses and livelihood. 

Someone needs to come forward and help me ASAP. This is a disgraceful XXXX of justice and everyone involved in the negligence of handling this needs to be held accountable. Unfortunately, there are stories in abundance of PayPal fraud with grievances similar to mine. PayPal needs to be shut down and XXXX needs to be investigated! 

Recap on cases/disputes opened regarding this fraud : PayPal XXXX ID # : XXXX ; Phone number that was called : XXXX I have filed a Police report with the XXXX XXXX XXXX Police Departement ; XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX have filed an online complaint with the Internet Crimes Bureau on XX/XX/year> XXXX a submission ID of : XXXX XXXX dispute number : XXXX I also filed an online complaint with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, only for XXXX XXXX XXXX that I need to file charges with my local Police Department, so I did XXXX 
I will be distributing this letter of notice to all major credit bureaus, the Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General, CFPB, the Federal Trade Commission and PayPal XXXX. 

PayPal has all evidence and documentation. After all, they are the ones that walked me through just how I was defrauded and the next steps to take!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation