Consumer complaint received 2026-06-09 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year>, I put an item on XXXX XXXX for sale for {$100.00}. I received a message that someone was interested and they requested my address for pickup and what form of payment I would take. I told them cash or XXXX and they agreed to XXXX me {$100.00}. I gave them my XXXX account and she ( XXXX, XXXX XXXX attempted to send me the money. A few moments later, she texted that XXXX would not allow the transfer because I did not have a business account. A series of text messages took place and I received emails allegedly from XXXX to my email on the steps necessary to get the {$100.00} transfer. The emails from XXXX indicated that XXXX had deposited an additional {$500.00} into my account, making it a business account so the {$100.00} could be released. A second email from the Fake XXXX indicated that my XXXX account was fully credited with the total sum of {$600.00}. The email further stated that I was to return the {$500.00} to the buyer. Upon contacting the buyer she texted me to send the {$500.00} to XXXX XXXXXXXX. During this time I am on the phone with a person ( XXXX ) claiming to be in XXXX at number XXXX. I got this number from the e-mail. The fake XXXX e-mail indicated that {$600.00} was transferred to my account and that I need to refund XXXX XXXX {$500.00}. I went into my XXXX account and sent the refund of {$500.00} to XXXX XXXXXXXX. XXXX said stay on the phone until we get this sorted out. I soon got a text message from XXXX which said it did not go through-refund error. I then received a text from XXXX at XXXX that there was a problem and I had to send {$1000.00} through PayPal. XXXX got back on the phone via XXXX and asked to screen share to set up a PayPal account. I did as he told me and created a PayPal account and attached my bank debit card to it. He then walked me through a series of steps to charge {$990.00}, then {$570.00}. XXXX then said this was not working. I then received a legitimate text from my bank indicating they see something suspicious happening on my account. Because I was screen-sharing with XXXX, he saw the banks warning and told me to tell the bank it was me. Then he told me lets try it another way- through XXXX. He then walked me through setting up a XXXX account. He told me to put in another {$150.00} into XXXX to yet another person- He claimed it would all be returned to me. After that XXXX tried to get me to go to an ATM machine and take out {$1000.00} to protect me. I then looped in a friend who quickly convinced me this was a scam so I hung up. After I hung up, I immediately called my bank to stop all these transactions and to freeze my account because I was scammed. They saw the PayPal but not the XXXX charge and they gave me the correct XXXX number to report the fraud. I then called XXXX and reported the fraud and said not to pay. A real XXXX staff person paid the account after I said not to and now XXXX has denied my claim and says I am responsible for the {$500.00}, and if I dont pay, they will send me to collections. My bank has stopped payment to PayPal and closed my account.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation