Fraudulent PayPal charges in my bank account - problems getting resolution

[AnnaGR]

This post is to inform people about serious problems with PayPal payment security and with getting complaints registered and dealt with. I no longer use PayPal for purchases, because I no longer trust PayPal security. I have deleted my credit card from my PayPal account and stopped the PayPal mandate on my bank account.

Unfortunately, despite long calls, detailed emails and formal complaints, PayPal seem unable to understand that there is an issue and, based on their replies, have not even read my emails or complaint at all! I have now informed PayPal that I shall be contacting the Financial Ombudsman if I don't get a satisfactory answer this week (the eighth week after my complaint) - btw replies since then have still been highly unsatisfactory.

Here is a summary of some of what's happened so far...

At the end of 2016, PayPal charges were put through my current account - the charges did not relate to my PayPal account/ purchases. I first noticed the transactions in January 2017, because PayPal had tried to charge me £3k - fortunately, my bank rejected the payment. So all that got charged to my bank were initial £7 and £26 payments, probably put through speculatively to see if I'd notice. (The bank has since belatedly agreed to reverse these two payments as well, under the Direct Debit Guarantee, and will claim them back from PayPal.)

After calling PayPal, I realised that the charges came from a fraudulent PayPal account set up in my name and with my address, but with an email that was similar to, but was not, my email address. (I already have a PayPal account. Shouldn't there be controls on duplicates?)  Most worryingly, the fraudulent account was linked to the mandate set up when I created my PayPal account - only PayPal could have done that, surely.

The mandate was on my Current account which I did not use for PayPal purchases. PayPal should only have used my credit card account, which was what I had authorised for use on PayPal purchases. As I recall, PayPal insisted on bank details as part of the joining requirements, and in the process I was assured that only a nominal, small charge would be put through, presumably as part of PayPal validation processes. For some reason, as already mentioned, PayPal seem to have allowed my bank mandate which was set up for my PayPal account to be used for the fraudulent PayPal account.

I have called PayPal on two occasions now about this, at the end of January and in early March, going through the issue in detail with them. On both occasions, the PayPal reps seemed very understanding and helpful. I was assured that, yes, they would take the issue on from there, and that I could send them transaction downloads and a written explanation, which I did. They confirmed in March that there was another PayPal account in my name and that, yes, it must be fraudulent. I was even passed to a team that dealt with fraud and security.

Unfortunately, despite the encouraging noises from the PayPal reps, PayPal have not progressed my queries at all.

To cut a long story short, I used the PayPal message centre to complain. The process is so convoluted for this type of complaint!  PayPal reps evidently didn't read the emails and have, so far, provided ludicrous responses telling me for example how to contact them.

PayPal needs to sort out its security and complaint processes. I was very happy with the convenience of PayPal. If they had resolved the issue when I'd first contacted them, I would still be a happy customer.  Happy no longer.