?470 taken from my PayPal account - UPDATE!

[neil.]

Hey folks,

The other day I was looking through my bank statements and noticed that there was a Direct Debit for £470 to PayPal. I didn't authorise it and I have no idea where it originated from. I looked at my PayPal transaction history and there was a payment sent to someone for that amount on the 21st of October. There are no details of the product/service that was paid for (but there are for all my other transactions). I don't know them and I didn't make the payment so it must have been done fraudulently.

So I filed a report for unauthorised activity with PayPal, and today I received a reply from them:

[Nb]

I take it your paypal is linked to your bank account?
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Cbr1100xx blackbird gone, mk4 golf gt tdi chav now
Colin1 wrote 'Im grateful for what i can get, which isnt all that much.'
Columbus travel insurance are crap!! Do not use!

[Alexio]

My paypal is linked right to my bank account.

So come on then, log in to paypal and tell us who the transaction went to? Some dodgy e-commerce site?
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will never give up his CG. I look at my fuel gauge more as a progress bar than a fuel gauge.
G: With my GSXR I do often effectively use it as a scooter with a clutch in town.
ms51ves3: why does it need 500 miles? Are you teaching it how to be a piston?

[Ste]

Dear valued paypal customer,

There has recently been some suspicious activity on your Paypal account. We take customer security very seriously and for that reason we require that you log into Paypal to validate your account login. You must do so within 48 hours otherwise we will close your account.

Click here to validate your Paypal account.

Your sincerely,

The Paypal Customer Security Team

[neil.]

It went to [email protected] and someone called Michelle Collins.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[stinkwheel]

The direct debit garauntee:
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-directdebit-guarantee.htm

Try phoning the bank. Tell them it was fraudulent use.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[ClaireBear]

They must be able to look into it more though.
Have you checked with any of your family to see if they used it?

[neil.]

[Drew]

Happened to me a while ago.

I didn't bother with paypal dispute, went straight to the bank and reported it with print outs of the transactions etc. Banks fraud department called me next day.

Money was back in my account a couple of days later.

ps, change your paypal and bank passwords asap if you haven't already.

edit: No idea how it happened to me, as I never click on those emails links etc, maybe ebay related, or a virus :S

[neil.]

[neil.]

UPDATE:

Well that's interesting... I just rang PayPal to speak to a human being and they said that a reversal had already been put in place for this payment and I'll be getting my money back within 7 days. So I wonder what that email was about then... I won't hold my breath until I see that £470 back in my account.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[Alexio]

bolt blue looks like a ringtone and mobile accessories etc. website. Who the hell charges £400+ for ringtones?
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will never give up his CG. I look at my fuel gauge more as a progress bar than a fuel gauge.
G: With my GSXR I do often effectively use it as a scooter with a clutch in town.
ms51ves3: why does it need 500 miles? Are you teaching it how to be a piston?

[Kickstart]

Hi

Boltblue do free email. They tool over from Cable & Wireless, who took over from Mercury Communications.

Only reason I know this is we have an account with them which started out as [email protected] (when they were a cheap ISP), changed to [email protected] and is now [email protected].

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[neil.]

I am now thinking about doing that and just paying money into the account manually as and when I need to.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[neil.]

Just got off the phone to PayPal again and they now say it was authorised and that the money was released to this seller. So, do I go back to my bank, the police or what? This is getting ridiculous and I just want my £470 back! Drew, could you possibly PM me with more information about how you dealt with your case of this crap?

Cheers.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[Drew]

Sorry Neil, never looked back at this thread.

Have pm'd you what I did. I didn;t mention in pm, that i did go to the police, but the weren't interested and said it wasn't a matter to do with them :S , but the banks fraud department sorted it out for me.

[neil.]

Thanks Drew,

I'll be popping down to the bank with all the info I have on Thursday due to work constraints but I'll be phoning them tomorrow. All I have on the 'seller' is a name and email address... which I tried to email but it bounced back as their mailbox was full. What I don't get is why PayPal keep telling me it's fine and there's no problem when there blatantly is, and they won't listen to me and just keep spouting the same line when I present them with all the evidence I have.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[Oz.]

[neil.]

They said I have to write to their fraud department, based in Nebraska, by post, in order to obtain copies of the documentation they used. Would take ages I'd imagine? I guess it might be worth doing this so I have more stuff to take to the bank, if they need it.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[iooi]

Get to your bank NOW...... and get the payment returned via the DD guarantee.
When they ask why you want to do this, and they will. Simply advise them that you pay pal account was compromised/hacked into. They should be well used to that happening.
You can also advise them that Pay Pal are aware, but are dragging their feet.

I would then simply remove your bank account and any card details from your pay pal account. Just to stop the retailer from trying to redebit you again.
As far as the retailer and pay pal are aware you did authorise the payment. Although now you have informed PP they should be dealing with it.
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[neil.]

PayPal aren't dealing with it since I informed them. They are just maintaining that they believe there is no problem and won't change their minds on it. I can see them coming after me for the money if I pull the Direct Debit guarantee on them. Not sure if I can take time off work tomorrow to go to the bank, and the next chance I'll get will be Thursday. I'll be taking copies of all those emails sent between myself and PayPal so they can see that PayPal are refusing to do anything.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[yuri2085]

I hate paypal, for me they took money out of my account because they said the transaction in which I sold something was unauthorised...even though they had NO evidence...
Despite all evidence, and then all evidence that even if it was unauthorised I supplied the goods they wouldn't budge and got hired thugs to demand money from me. I believe under almost no circumstances do they care about you if you missed their 11 day period or something :s.


And I didn't jump through enough hoops for seller protection, the goods I was selling would have been impossible to protect anyway.

[iooi]

[Oz.]

[neil.]

Oz:

There was no email receipt for this particular transaction, which was very unusual as I always do for everything else - I discovered the money had gone when I was going through my bank statements. The first thing I did was to go through the PayPal history page and look at the details for it, which basically say it was a payment to this Michelle Collins person at the email address [email protected]. There is no other information regarding any product/service or postal address within the details of the transaction at all. I've held this account since 2002 and am fully versed in how to use it, so I don't think there's a problem on my side. The whole thing stinks.

I went to the bank this morning and they are going to file some sort of remittance claim and investigate the whole thing and get back to me. Here's hoping...
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)