Some POS tried to drain my bank accounts using Paypal - $9000

TheNinja

Lifer
Jan 22, 2003
12,207
1
0
In the meantime my checking account is negative...HTF am I supposed to pay any other bills or pay for anything?

By the way, if my bank account says "Paypal transfer xxxxxxxxxxxxx" is there anyway I can track that number? I'm on phone with paypal...on hold of course.


edit (11:30am PDT 4/17):
called my bank. they put a block on Paypal and filed a unauthorized bank access report. told me to wait 5-7 business days.

called paypal. they filled out a report and claimed that they saw something fishy with these accounts and had already put a temporary block on them. The money has not actually been retreived yet and is still in process. they basically said I should talk to my bank though.

changed all online passwords.

don't think there is much more I can do now other than wait. i will probably go to my bank this afternoon to talk to someone in person about changing all account numbers.

edit (5:16pm PDT 4/17):
Apparently my bank is going to credit my account with the amount out of their own reserves while the money is in dispute. Then depending how the dispute turns out they will either keep the money from the dispute to pay themselves back, or try to take my money back. Perhaps after they credit my account I'll conveniently transfer it all somewhere else and leave $5 in it.

edit (12:34pm PDT 4/25):
Well, 7/8 transactions from my checking and 1/2 of the transactions from my savings have been reversed, so I have like 2/3 of my money back. Paypal is ridiculously lame. One rep gives me a case number. I call back and another rep says "That isn't one of our numbers". Seriously, I don't know who's running it but they all seem clueless.

My bank is taking forever but they are looking into it further. They claimed it might take this long but at this point it's been 7 days and I'm sick of waiting. I have been escalating it up the charts and they are going to call me back. I honestly can't understand how it is so hard for them. I didn't transfer the money, paypal agrees and says the bank should contact them and they will credit back. Yet nobody can figure out how to do it. I'm about to go postal on the bank if they don't call me back in 15 minutes like they said. F paypal.

edit (4:43pm PDT 5/2):
Well, after about 20 calls to my bank and about 10 to paypal, I'm only down 1 transaction and all my excess fees. Still down a total of $564. I got the rest back as of now. What a huge giant pain in my arse. The bank claims the transaction should be back by tomorrow and the other fees should be reversed by next Monday. I've heard all this before. My experience is that about 1 in 8 people on the phone are actually helpful, the rest pretty much don't have a clue what to do (and this includes managers). Rose = awesome customer care rep, the only one who really helped. Jesse = horrible manager (you can at least pretend to be awake and pretend to care. It sounded like you just got out of bed and couldn't give 2 craps about people, how'd you get to be supervisor?)

edit (8:43am PDT 5/3):
For those wondering, it is Washington Mutual Bank. Yes, I will be switching banks after this is all said and done. You'd think more than 3 1/2 weeks would be enough time to straighten this out, especially when both my bank and paypal admitted they were false attempts. The worst part is that I put a stop payment on the 17th and told them to not send any money to paypal no matter what.......on the 23rd they sent 7 transactions to paypal anyway....then on the 24th they credited back only 6 of them. Now they can't get it through their friggin' heads that I need that 7th one back now. I've told them a million times "I had a STOP PAYMENT on my account, how hard is it to get that transaction back that you were never supposed to pay in the first place?!?!"

edit (3:46pm PDT 5/15):
still down about $550 - bunch of morons at my bank - I am leaving them when this is done.

edit (11:25am PDT 5/17):
Finally got it all back. Paypal was actually MUCH more helpful than my bank. The bank was pretty much worthless in this and took forever to refund the fees I incurred b/c of this. So after 1 month and many hours on the phone I got it all back.


Cliffs:
Someone created a paypal account and tied my bank account to it
Someone tried to take around $9000 from my accounts
Bank and Paypal admitted it was false
Bank still can't figure out how to credit me the last $550
Washington Mutual may have funny commercials but their service stinks
Paypal finally refunded my last $400 and WAMU gave me back $165 in fees
I'm out a large number of hours of time and $40 for stop payments on my accounts in case paypal tries to take from that account in the future.
 

TheNinja

Lifer
Jan 22, 2003
12,207
1
0
Originally posted by: aphex
is it pending with your bank?


It is process with my bank. On the phone with paypal now. they see the accounts.

Some fscker named Michael (Mike) Duncan or Michael (Mike) Wotten
 

lytalbayre

Senior member
Apr 28, 2005
842
2
81
Good luck man, and keep us posted. I would love to strangle any person who tried that crap with me. So, I could sympathize with how you must be feeling...
 

TheNinja

Lifer
Jan 22, 2003
12,207
1
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Originally posted by: lytalbayre
Good luck man, and keep us posted. I would love to strangle any person who tried that crap with me. So, I could sympathize with how you must be feeling...

Ya, hopefully nobody else gets taken by this guy or somebody like him. It's about $9000

The lady won't quite give me the dude's email. But he was born in 1978 - i'll see what other info i can get.
 

zixxer

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2001
7,326
0
0
In my experience with this paypal won't do jack. They aren't going to be 'out' $9k.. they'll pass that loss onto you.

Deal with your bank first.
 

Triumph

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,031
14
81
Put some kind of freeze on your bank account. I can't imagine this going too far if it is caught quickly. Obviously the money is going somewhere, and that leaves a trail to whoever is going to claim it. As long as it isn't overseas, the authorities should be able to track him down.

This is another good reason to open up a seperate bank account simply to link to Paypal. Sure it's another step and it shouldn't be necessary, but I would trust a bank's security before I trust Paypal's.
 

manowar821

Diamond Member
Mar 1, 2007
6,063
0
0
Some MF-er once took 1000 out of my checking account through pay-pal.

I SPED to the bank, told them to reverse the charge 100%, canceled that account and transfered my funds to a new account right away.

Don't beat around the bush, just go. Now.
 

TheNinja

Lifer
Jan 22, 2003
12,207
1
0
Originally posted by: Triumph
Put some kind of freeze on your bank account. I can't imagine this going too far if it is caught quickly. Obviously the money is going somewhere, and that leaves a trail to whoever is going to claim it. As long as it isn't overseas, the authorities should be able to track him down.

This is another good reason to open up a seperate bank account simply to link to Paypal. Sure it's another step and it shouldn't be necessary, but I would trust a bank's security before I trust Paypal's.

The problem is that I didn't tie this bank account to any paypal account. Somebody tied my bank account to their paypal account.
 

BigJ

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
21,330
1
81
Originally posted by: TheNinja
Originally posted by: Triumph
Put some kind of freeze on your bank account. I can't imagine this going too far if it is caught quickly. Obviously the money is going somewhere, and that leaves a trail to whoever is going to claim it. As long as it isn't overseas, the authorities should be able to track him down.

This is another good reason to open up a seperate bank account simply to link to Paypal. Sure it's another step and it shouldn't be necessary, but I would trust a bank's security before I trust Paypal's.

The problem is that I didn't tie this bank account to any paypal account. Somebody tied my bank account to their paypal account.

For that to be possible, don't they have to enter two amounts that are deposited into your bank account by Paypal?

If that's the case, someone either got your bank statement or has access to your bank account. Close that account immediately.

I'd immediately pull my credit report, put a freeze on my credit if there is anything suspicious, and change all of my passwords from another computer. Then scan my computer for any viruses/malware/spyware/etc.
 
Aug 23, 2000
15,509
1
81
Originally posted by: TheNinja
Originally posted by: Triumph
Put some kind of freeze on your bank account. I can't imagine this going too far if it is caught quickly. Obviously the money is going somewhere, and that leaves a trail to whoever is going to claim it. As long as it isn't overseas, the authorities should be able to track him down.

This is another good reason to open up a seperate bank account simply to link to Paypal. Sure it's another step and it shouldn't be necessary, but I would trust a bank's security before I trust Paypal's.

The problem is that I didn't tie this bank account to any paypal account. Somebody tied my bank account to their paypal account.

you need to cancel the account ASAP. The only way to tie a bank account to the paypal account is to verify the amounts of 2 small deposits paypal makes into those accounts.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
the only people who have direct access to my bank account is my company for direct deposits. oh and of course the IRS but they only take if they wanted to.

Pal-Pal or any other company will never get my permission to have a hook. I do not belive in online bill payments at all.
 

d3n

Golden Member
Mar 13, 2004
1,597
0
0
Originally posted by: Citrix
the only people who have direct access to my bank account is my company for direct deposits. oh and of course the IRS but they only take if they wanted to.

Pal-Pal or any other company will never get my permission to have a hook. I do not belive in online bill payments at all.

Yeah, Ive heard of other stories like this from people I know that have had funds drafted strait out of their account by papal. Those people are not a banking institution and are subject to none of the regulations that govern banks.
 

TheNinja

Lifer
Jan 22, 2003
12,207
1
0
If I ever found this guy I would literally like to rip his ear off. Somebody tries to steal this money from me in some underhanded sneaky way causing me huge problems and a ton of time. If given the chance I'd give anything to throw a few well place knees into his face. What a huge pain in my butt.
 

pcslookout

Lifer
Mar 18, 2007
11,959
156
106
Ia it even worth having a paypal account anymore even if your extra careful and use everything you can to keep yourself safe?
 

vrbaba

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2003
3,266
0
71
keep us posted...

And update the first post with more details...and subsequent steps u took, and responses from paypal or u bank
 

BigJ

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
21,330
1
81
Did you close your bank account yet?

Like people have said in this thread, the guy has access to your bank account, and quite possibly other personal information. You really need to look into this.
 

pcslookout

Lifer
Mar 18, 2007
11,959
156
106
Originally posted by: BigJ
Did you close your bank account yet?

Like people have said in this thread, the guy has access to your bank account, and quite possibly other personal information. You really need to look into this.

The question is how can you close your bank account if transfers are in process at the moment with your current money you want to move out of it?