Beware of PayPal. My experience with PayPal. Please read!!!

[tamade]

Please read if you want to know how bad PayPal can screw you over. To those who have PayPal account and have no problem with it since, all I can say is don't think that it will not happen to you. It's just matter of time for PayPal to get you. Please for those of you who have PayPal be careful better yet take off all your banks and credit card information from them or close your account. There has been too many people that has the same thing happened to them.

Just to refresh you guys my horror story with PayPal. I posted my story here back in May 2002 and right now it's still unresolved. Here it goes: My account was hacked back in May 2002 and the hacker transferred about $1500 from my checking to my PayPal. Right after that s/he transferred the money from my PayPal to her/his PayPal account. I found it out and quickly informed my banks, my credit card and PayPal. Also at that time I posted my problem here on anandtech. I got a respond from my bank saying that I need to sign an affidavit and my bank will gladly reverse the transaction. So I went to my bank and signed the affidavit and my bank manage to reverse the transaction. Just to make sure that everything will be alright I contacted my other bank and credit card and told them that I am not authorizing PayPal any future transaction. I had to do this because PayPal has freeze my account and I can't take off my banks and credit card information nor close my PayPal account. FYI I have two checking accounts and a credit card attached to my PayPal. My banks and credit card told me that it will be just fine and when that happens again they will gladly dispute for me. In the mean time Paypaldamon sent me an email telling me I should not reverse the unauthorized transaction through my bank. He also said that PayPal would take 10 days to resolve my dispute. I got no choice to dispute it through my bank because at that time it was end of the month and my checking account is in the negative due to the unauthorized transaction. I need the money to pay my bills and 10 days is not acceptable. Since it only took my bank two days to reverse the transaction, I figured that was the best option I have. Everything was fine until I checked my PayPal account again. My nightmares has started again, PayPal credited the same amount that was reversed by my bank to my credit card. I called my credit card to dispute the amount. Later I found out that my credit card decline to dispute because PayPal told them that I use my credit card to setup my PayPal account and it is confirmed. Well it is true that I used my credit card to setup the account and it was confirmed but PayPal wouldn't let me to unconfirm my banks and credit card information because they froze my account. It was confirmed out of my will, that's what I would call it. At that time I have no choice but to deal with PayPal itself. I sent them email and called them several time and they said I need to send an affidavit and they will email the affidavit to me. I waited but I didn't get any email from them. I even sent an email to Paypaldamon and he didn't reply my email. I got so frustrated and called them and insist that they send the affidavit right there and then I finally got the affidavit. I signed the affidavit and notarized it, make copies of it and sent the affidavit back to PayPal via USPS certified mail. In the mean time I contacted the Attorney General and the Attorney General has instructed PayPal to response to me. After reviewing my comments, the Attorney General refuse to take any actions on behalf of me. My options have come down to three; deal with PayPal or contact my lawyer or contact the press. In their response to my Attorney General complaint, PayPal told me that they couldn't find my affidavit. This is nonsense because I sent it via USPS certified mail and I have all the information on the date and the recipient. They told me I should fax the affidavit to them directly. I decided to email them with an attachment of the affidavit. After that I receive an email from PayPal saying that my account has been restored but they didn't mention about the money that I disputed. I sent them an email again asking them what happened to my dispute and didn't receive any response from them. I am still keeping my two other options open here and will see what happen. It has been seven months since it happened and still I am out here without answer and my money.

 

[LordMaul]

Please read if you want to know how bad PayPal can screw you over. To those who have PayPal account and have no problem with it since, all I can say is don't think that it will not happen to you. It's just matter of time for PayPal to get you. Please for those of you who have PayPal be careful better yet take off all your banks and credit card information from them or close your account. There has been too many people that has the same thing happened to them.

Just to refresh you guys my horror story with PayPal. I posted my story here back in May 2002 and right now it's still unresolved. Here it goes: My account was hacked back in May 2002 and the hacker transferred about $1500 from my checking to my PayPal. Right after that s/he transferred the money from my PayPal to her/his PayPal account. I found it out and quickly informed my banks, my credit card and PayPal. Also at that time I posted my problem here on anandtech. I got a respond from my bank saying that I need to sign an affidavit and my bank will gladly reverse the transaction. So I went to my bank and signed the affidavit and my bank manage to reverse the transaction. Just to make sure that everything will be alright I contacted my other bank and credit card and told them that I am not authorizing PayPal any future transaction.

I had to do this because PayPal has freeze my account and I can't take off my banks and credit card information nor close my PayPal account. FYI I have two checking accounts and a credit card attached to my PayPal. My banks and credit card told me that it will be just fine and when that happens again they will gladly dispute for me. In the mean time Paypaldamon sent me an email telling me I should not reverse the unauthorized transaction through my bank. He also said that PayPal would take 10 days to resolve my dispute. I got no choice to dispute it through my bank because at that time it was end of the month and my checking account is in the negative due to the unauthorized transaction. I need the money to pay my bills and 10 days is not acceptable. Since it only took my bank two days to reverse the transaction, I figured that was the best option I have. Everything was fine until I checked my PayPal account again.

My nightmares has started again, PayPal credited the same amount that was reversed by my bank to my credit card. I called my credit card to dispute the amount. Later I found out that my credit card decline to dispute because PayPal told them that I use my credit card to setup my PayPal account and it is confirmed. Well it is true that I used my credit card to setup the account and it was confirmed but PayPal wouldn't let me to unconfirm my banks and credit card information because they froze my account. It was confirmed out of my will, that's what I would call it. At that time I have no choice but to deal with PayPal itself. I sent them email and called them several time and they said I need to send an affidavit and they will email the affidavit to me. I waited but I didn't get any email from them. I even sent an email to Paypaldamon and he didn't reply my email. I got so frustrated and called them and insist that they send the affidavit right there and then I finally got the affidavit.

I signed the affidavit and notarized it, make copies of it and sent the affidavit back to PayPal via USPS certified mail. In the mean time I contacted the Attorney General and the Attorney General has instructed PayPal to response to me. After reviewing my comments, the Attorney General refuse to take any actions on behalf of me. My options have come down to three; deal with PayPal or contact my lawyer or contact the press. In their response to my Attorney General complaint, PayPal told me that they couldn't find my affidavit.

This is nonsense because I sent it via USPS certified mail and I have all the information on the date and the recipient. They told me I should fax the affidavit to them directly. I decided to email them with an attachment of the affidavit. After that I receive an email from PayPal saying that my account has been restored but they didn't mention about the money that I disputed. I sent them an email again asking them what happened to my dispute and didn't receive any response from them. I am still keeping my two other options open here and will see what happen. It has been seven months since it happened and still I am out here without answer and my money.

^
Better.

 

[Viper GTS]

In the mean time Paypaldamon sent me an email telling me I should not reverse the unauthorized transaction through my bank. He also said that PayPal would take 10 days to resolve my dispute. I got no choice to dispute it through my bank because at that time it was end of the month and my checking account is in the negative due to the unauthorized transaction. I need the money to pay my bills and 10 days is not acceptable. Since it only took my bank two days to reverse the transaction, I figured that was the best option I have.

What can we learn from this?

Do NOT tie PayPal to an account that you keep money in regularly!

You also should not have attempted to circumvent PayPal's processes, that probably complicated things even more.

PayPal is not perfect, but when used properly it can be a valuable tool.

Viper GTS

 

[wnied]

A) Never use paypal again.

B) Get a new Credit Card # from your bank and get rid of the old one you opened your paypal account with.

C) For future reference NEVER allow ANY online payment service permission to withdraw money from ANY bank account you have.

I've had a paypal account now for over 3 years and have never had a problem with them.

~wnied~

 

[tamade]

Viper GTS it's easy for you to say I should not have attempted to circumvent PayPal's processes. You have to remember that the unauthorized transaction is between my bank and PayPal and I have the responsibility to inform both parties. Also I was in need of the money at that time. It was the end of the month for christ sake!!! I know PayPal is not perfect but they did nothing to improve their service and that's unacceptable. Check out these web site and you'll know what I am talking about:

http://paypalsuit.com/

http://www.paypalwarning.com

http://www.paypalsucks.com

 

[RossMAN]

I agree with Viper GTS. My wife and I have asked our Credit Union's to open NEW checking accounts which are used solely for Paypal transactions and never have a balance of over $50 in them.

Her Credit Union was even able to nickname her new checking account "PayPal", I haven't asked my CU yet if they have this capability or not.

IF we ever get ripped off the most they'll ever get is $50 or less.

 

[vtqanh]

The importance of Paypal to the Internet trading market cannot be underestimated; however, there has been too many horror stories about Paypal. My recommendation is to set up a separate checking account just for Paypal. Do not link any Credit card to Paypal. Paypal has instant transfer from the bank when you need to make payment. Never keep more than couple hundred dollars in that checking. Never keep more than a hundred in your Paypal account.

 

[ReiAyanami]

make your password impossible to guess, make up your own words to avoid dictionary brute force attacks

 

[tamade]

My password has seven character and a number. It will take years for them to use dictionary brute force attacks.

 

[halik]

Paypal is fairly safe if youre smart about it...

Coupel things i learned the hard way:

1) If you're sending money, ALWAYS use CC (you can decline the charge if something goes sour

2) if sh!t goes sour, ALWYS deal with your bank and decline the charges. Paypal fraud protection is a joke, they won't give you your money back unless the scamer left it in his paypal account (99% of the time the money is gone already). Paypal will get the chargeback and will be forced to look for their money.

3)Never leave any amount of money in the paypal account for long periods, it so happens that the accounts with money get frozen/locked at random, especially when thers a lotta cash inside

Oh yeah common sense stuff: Never log into anythign thats not https://www.paypal.com (NOT paypal-update, NOT paypal-secure, NOT ebay-paypal etc), use long passwords with numbers. Brute force attack on my password (if it was on a unix box) would take about a year to crack. Brute force attack on my paypal account would be impossbile