12/1 I check my bank and my stomach & heart sunk. An unknown purchase for $274 via Paypal and a negative account balance with a fee on the way had me in a right state of panic. I of course log into PayPal to investigate. I find the transaction and the only details are to an entity called "Shopto". Who/Whats that? It also says that the method which the purchase was made was via a PayPal key... what is that?!?! I start searching my text messages and email for anything from paypal. 11/29 Sunday, I received an email from Paypal saying "You're all set to shop with your PayPal Key". I dont often check my email on Sundays so this was not seen immediately. Though, if i had, i'd have thought it was a new service PayPal was offering to its users and simply informing me of it. It doesn't indicate I or anyone initiated the set up for this key, just that it was now available to me. I received no text messages indicating this was initiated by someone other than myself, my phone or my browser. Unless i got hit with a phishing link with out knowing. Or my PayPal got hacked, or my email got hacked. Yahoo is sus . I'm the kind of person who recognizes those scams immediately and sends them off to the PayPal security team to investigate. I'm no fool in this regard, but yahoo email is not the best option. (I have since changed linked emails and passwords to everything) I had some sort of 2way authentication set up with my phone because when I tried to view the 16 digit passkey that was created, I was sent a text with a authentication code.. so i'm still in awe as to how this got set up and used with out my authentication. I didnt know what a passkey was, so i followed the prompts to see how it works and read up on the details of this service. You have to actually choose which of your PayPal accounts you want it linked to.. And then copy and paste that 16 digit # where ever master card is accepted, it seems to be basically be a digital cash card. Someone specifically made the choice to pick my checking account. If i had set this up, i'd have linked it to my PayPal line of credit. A little bit of info about me to further prove my innocence in this. I have a large PayPal line of credit, that I have used for every large purchase i've made, it has same as cash financing so of course i'd use that. I have never used my checking account for large purchases not ever. In fact, I used my PayPal line of credit on the 1st to make a large and legitimate purchase for my wedding. Why would i have set up a key to link to my checking account, to use on a site i've never been to or shopped at, resulting in over drafting me when i had available a large amount of credit and zero interest financing?
I opened an investigation with the resolution center and 4 days later they decided this transaction is consistent with my purchase history. Consistent? Is a key that i have never used before, that was set up 2 days prior to use, and pinged my account on the 1st, twice, then made a large transaction on the 2nd consistent? I think no. As stated above, my large purchase history will show i have always used my paypal line of credit. Never draws on my checking. Is making a purchase with a brand new method, on a United kingdom based website i have never purchased from Consistent? I think no. This is also what the 2nd resolution guy agreed with me on when after near 2 hours of being on hold, finally got this case re-opened. Will see in 9 days what they say. I'm absolutely sick to my stomach about the whole thing. When i Googled Shopto i found a bunch of PayPal community forum posts discussing unauthorized use of their accounts on that site and asking Paypal to please investigate that site. I hope they are able to help me, that's a lot of $, and we're all hurting right now with Covid, and the holidays around the corner.
