PayPal woes

[Ryan]

I'm feeling really depressed after my long afternoon so I thought I'd share.

When I came home tonight, I had a long e-mail from some eBay seller. He had forwarded me a correspondence with a buyer who purchased a phone for $580.00. The buyer then used MY PayPal account to pay for the item. The seller realized something was wrong when my name and address were completely different than the buyer's, so he sent all the e-mails and auction information to me.

The first thing I did was call PayPal. They confirmed that someone had sent $580.00 from my account. They reported the charge to their fraud department and told me not to worry, the money would not clear my bank because they had caught it before it was processed.

I then called the seller who had so kindly e-mailed me and we talked for 30 minutes. He was from Ontario, Canada and he was a little skeptical (understandably) until we'd talked for a while. Then he took down my contact info and called PayPal himself. They told him to refund the money to me, which he did... then PayPal put a hold on it.

He called me back and told me that PayPal had given us two different stories... they told me it wouldn't clear my bank, but they told him it was an "instant transfer" and that automatically means it will clear the bank. So I called a second time and a third operator confirmed this. They also mentioned to me, for the first time in this whole ordeal, that I had to sign an affidavit swearing that I owned the PayPal account and that I didn't make the payment, then I have to send that to PayPal along with my bank statement showing the charge coming out of my bank account. Until they have all this, they cannot refund my money.

Now I have to call my bank and beg for them to waive any overdraft fees. That is a lot of money and it's going to put me in the red. I don't just have $580 laying around to cover the difference.

I just wanted to post this because it goes to show that no matter how safe you think you are, you can still be the victim of this kind of crap. I have NEVER opened those fake spam emails from PayPal asking you to verify your info (I know they are fake, but they do fool a lot of people and the PayPal representative assumed this is how my info got stolen). I have anti-virus software that is kept up-to-date, I have 3 types of paid spyware/malware/adware detection programs that I run religiously, and I do all my Windows/Microsoft updates when they're available. The only conclusion my tech-savvy friend could come to was maybe some glitch in Internet Explorer (yes, I still used it until today, but I guess I'll be a Firefox user now).

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. God bless that guy from Canada for e-mailing me or I wouldn't have even known!

[Kindredspirit]

Ryan ~ I am sooooo sorry babe ~ HOW did the buyer get into your Paypal acct? ******** ~

Now I am paranoid ~ thank God that guy emailed you!

( you just sent me this link at Yahoo and I am replying:) ) I will talk to you there~

Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_2_15.gif

[greyhoundfan]

If paypal sent you some sort of notification or paper saying that your account was fradulantly used than your bank SHOULD refund any over draft fees that this may have caused.

BUT another thing to consider is whom you paid checks out to. Banks can charge you over draft fees AND pay the check or NOT pay the check. Worst case scenario is to get charged the fees and the bank not paying any of the checks. You will get double whammied.

FIND out immediately from the bank if they returned any checks that were over drawn.

If you have a good standing with your bank and a long time customer with no pattern of over drafts, you have a very good chance of getting all your bank charges reversed. Getting refunds on merchant charges is another story.

[Ryan]

I don't write checks, I have used my debit card for everything.

I'm going to call the credit union tomorrow and ask about overdraft protection... like an overdraft loan or something. We'll see what they say. They have always been really helpful to me before, and I've got a flawless track record with them. I hope the branch manager has a full cup of coffee and is at their desk at 8am...

Ryan

[greyhoundfan]

I don't write checks, I have used my debit card for everything.

I'm going to call the credit union tomorrow and ask about overdraft protection... like an overdraft loan or something. We'll see what they say. They have always been really helpful to me before, and I've got a flawless track record with them. I hope the branch manager has a full cup of coffee and is at their desk at 8am...

Ryan


I think than you are in the clear. Debit purchases are against secured funds. Your account probably does already have a pre-set limit that you can go in the negative and increases with status and age.

Best way to go is to tie in over draft protection against another acct. like a savings acct. FEES would be far less.

Good luck.

[Gold Mt Discus]

Might want to change your paypal password. They couldn't have done it without that I don't think. Good Luck!!!!

[April]

well thats no good..
i had to change my password for ebay..i was told it may have been compromised.
it'll come out..and it'll be at least 10 days or more..im sure till its reversed.
im sure your bank will work with you. your a good guy. : )

[Dissident]

Hope it all works out for you.
No matter how protected you are online if something is a 0-day bug/glitch/virus no antivirus/spyware program will help you. They have to discover it before they can protect you from it.

Collect all the information you can on the guy/girl who did this and report him/her. Don't just expect paypal to do anything other than get your money back for you.

[Kindredspirit]

I'm going to call the credit union tomorrow and ask about overdraft protection...

Ryan


Ryan I must have missed that your bank was a Credit Union ~ I am pretty sure that you do have overdraft protection ~

At least most Credit Unions here isn SacTown do as well as mine ~ Let me know what happens ~

Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_4_10.gif

[lhforbes12]

Ryan,
The very first thing I would do is follow Frank's advice and change your PayPal password, if you haven't done so already. Also I seriously doubt that it was a fault of IE, I'm more inclined to think that it was a PayPal "glitch". Unless you have turned off all IE security, it's actually a pretty safe browser these days. Does anyone else use your debit card? The other thing to consider is if you use it at an older type store it's rather easy to steal the information off of it. Personally I go back to PayPal itself I know too many people and have read too many stories of people having PayPal troubles. Bottom line is anytime you do any electronic transaction you are somewhat at risk, whether it be online or in person. I am sorry this happened to you, it really does suck big time I know. Thje one bright spot is that it should be easy to find the culprit since he/she had to have put their address as the "ship to".

Larry

[thang45]

Ryan,
The very first thing I would do is follow Frank's advice and change your PayPal password, if you haven't done so already. Also I seriously doubt that it was a fault of IE, I'm more inclined to think that it was a PayPal "glitch". Unless you have turned off all IE security, it's actually a pretty safe browser these days. Does anyone else use your debit card? The other thing to consider is if you use it at an older type store it's rather easy to steal the information off of it. Personally I go back to PayPal itself I know too many people and have read too many stories of people having PayPal troubles. Bottom line is anytime you do any electronic transaction you are somewhat at risk, whether it be online or in person. I am sorry this happened to you, it really does suck big time I know. Thje one bright spot is that it should be easy to find the culprit since he/she had to have put their address as the "ship to".

Larry

I agreed with Larry about it is likely the fault of pay pal. Most internet transactions are secure, and you can tell it is secure by viewing the certificate (https). If you feel it is IE fault then firefox like you said is another option or wait for the new IE 7.0.

[AmberC]

Wow Ryan! I am so sorry that this happened to you! I hope that everything works out.. it can be such a pain trying to deal with all the people that need dealing with when something like this happens. Thank you for sharing your story too Ryan.. it helps for the rest of us to remember to be aware as well!

Amber

[terps]

Firefox is a nice browser. It's better and safer than IE. The only negative thing about Firefox is that some web pages designed for Internet Explorer might not print or function right. I think you'll really like firefox.

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

[Timbo]

opera is good too. same drawbacks as firefox, but FAR LESS exploits (hacks) have been designed against these two browsers than IE

i also agree that it is unlikely that the browser was the source of the prob

[Alan]

So you're a victim of Identity Theft (IDT), the number one growing crime in the US. Welcome to the club. I've been a victim a number of times before and it's not fun :mad:

As for Paypal, I always use my credit card with Paypal transactions. I also don't keep any balance in my Paypal account. That way I have more parties to dispute the transaction, not just Paypal. Disputing is a hassle but that's one of the ways to get back your hard earned money.

As for IDT, it will be hard to prevent it from happening. All people can do is be careful and take precautions. It's just going to be there for the next few years as long as there are hackers and there's money to be made doing it. I know this is a plug, I do this on the side, but it has helped me out a lot www.prepaidlegal.com/idt/alanapolinar (http://www.prepaidlegal.com/idt/alanapolinar)

[White Worm]

I was ordering disney memorabilia for my daughter off ebay a week ago and I thought maybe I should open paypal account but I have heard horror stories in the past like this and I decided not to. Any company that wants your bank account # and routing number (which does directly charge your account) is not safe enough for me. They have the means to remove whatever they want and then you have to jump through hoops to get it fixed. No thanks and sorry to hear it. Close that account and use money orders. If it happened once.....now they always have your info......I never give anyone the power to remove money from my account (except the wife). What if they purchased something for much more? I even pay bills with online banking but I tell the bank how much to release. Ebay could just as easily operate if you gave them a legitimate credit card to use. Mike

[Kindredspirit]

But it was some what of a good day yes?



http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/11/11_2_104.gif


( remember what I said about that ~ just to make ya smile:) )

[mickey1960]

Ryan sounds like Paypal made a mistake. Anyway, anyone wanting to use Paypal go open a second account at another Credit Union and use it for Paypal only. Then when you transfer your money from Paypal into your Credit Union you can go withdraw it and put the funds into your regular account that Paypal does not have access to. It may sound like a pain in the neck sometimes moving money around but you will avoid the troubles Ryan is having now. And you don't need a Credit Card either just get the new Credit Union to give you a debit card to keep paypal happy.