Consumer complaint received 2018-11-22 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: CO

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX I used XXXX to send a payment of {$120.00} for tickets. Unfortunately, the " verified account '' was fraudulent - using someone else 's name and photo which they stole from the internet. I immediately reported to XXXX  that I had sent payment for tickets to the " verified user '' and that they did not send tickets in return. XXXX   customer service informed me that XXXX  does not protect users from this type of scam, but encouraged me that they would likely be able to get my money back from the fraudulent account. I also asked if I should use stop payment from my bank, and they advised me not to because it would stop payment to XXXX, but the fraudulent account had already been sent the money so they would need to get it back from them. They again advised me that I would likely get my {$120.00} back, they just needed to go through their process. The next day. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from XXXX  stating " It appears that person you were transacting with did not fulfill their end of the transaction. At this point, XXXX  does not allow peer to peer merchant related transactions and we do not offer any buyer or seller protections in these types of cases. These violations of our User Agreement are very high risk and can result in problems for our users. Please remember that XXXX is a simple way for friends and people who trust each other to send money, and it is not designed for uses beyond this purpose. When transacting with people whom you don't know or trust there is always the potential for problems to arise. '' I called XXXX and they stated they would not be helping to get my money back despite acknowledging that the person did not fulfill their transaction. '' A week later, on XX/XX/XXXX, the fraudulent account was still active in XXXX, likely continuing to take advantage of other people and steal their money using XXXX. I was able to track down the work phone number and email address of the person who's photo and name were being used by this fraudulent account. I sent that information to XXXX, filed a police report, and contacted the person who's identity was being used by this " verified user. '' Only after the person who's identity was being used called XXXX and I sent XXXX   information of my police report and the information showing that the account was fraudulent, did XXXX finally, on XX/XX/XXXX, send me an email that the fraudulent account that stole {$120.00} from me was frozen. 

XXXX has still refused to get my money back from this person. I had to file a complaint with my bank who is helping to get my money back from XXXX. XXXX  has since frozen my account and sent an email that I " owe them {$120.00}. '' This has been a terrible experience and XXXX has been completely unhelpful as they've allowed someone to scam me and continue to use their platform to scam others. Completely unacceptable business practice and terrible customer service.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief