Credit card linked to fraudulent Paypal account

Temp20221223AI
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Today evening I got an alert from my bank about a $731.99 charge. I logged into my bank's credit card account - the charge reads "PAYPAL *ITUNESSTORE - 402-935-7733, CA". The credit card is linked to my paypal account that is on my iTunes account.

 

So first I logged into my iTunes account. Did not find any transaction for the above mentioned amount. So looks like my iTunes account is safe.

 

Next, logged into my paypal account. Did not find any transaction matching that transaction. Reported the fraudulent use of my credit card via webform to paypal. Could not speak to anyone since their offices were closed.

 

Seems to me that whoever made the fraudulent transaction, managed to use my already linked credit card with their paypal account and got away with it.

 

Called the bank, had the credit card cancelled and changed all passwords. Question is how can a credit card be used from two paypal accounts? I thought that wasn't possible. That should such an easy thing to prevent via automation.

 

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Temp20221223AI
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Hi Olivia,

 

Thanks for responding. I did contact Paypal customer support who were quick to help. Sorry for not updating the thread earlier.

 

Here is what happened:

1. I sold item on Ebay, received payment and transferred money to my bank so paypal balance was $0.00

 

2. Buyer complained of damaged goods and asked for refund. Got escalated to ebay resolution center. Paypal put a hold on funds but they had already been transferred so my paypal account went into negative $730.00

 

3. I bought an app from iTunes for $1.99 using paypal.

 

4. Paypal charged my credit card for $731.99 (On hold amount + iTunes purchase) and labelled the transaction as "iTunes Paypal".

 

I looked at the 731.99 charge and could not find it on my iTunes purchase anywhere and that is caused me to worry about fraud. So no fraud but I still don't know why paypal chose to label the entire transaction as "iTunes Paypal".

 

Anyways, case resolved. Thanks.

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi sandhuatpp, and welcome to the forums!

 

Have you been able to touch base with Customer Solutions about this? They can take a look and determine what exactly happened, and can give you the next steps for addressing it.

 

One thing to consider - does anyone else have access to your iTunes password? If your billing agreement is already set up so iTunes charges your purchases to your PayPal account, then someone who has access to your iTunes account would not need your PayPal password to make purchases. You definitely want to check with PayPal Customer Solutions to make sure there was no unauthorized access in your PayPal account, but you may also want to check with iTunes to see if they can determine if there was unauthorized access to your iTunes account.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Olivia

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Solved

Temp20221223AI
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Olivia,

 

Thanks for responding. I did contact Paypal customer support who were quick to help. Sorry for not updating the thread earlier.

 

Here is what happened:

1. I sold item on Ebay, received payment and transferred money to my bank so paypal balance was $0.00

 

2. Buyer complained of damaged goods and asked for refund. Got escalated to ebay resolution center. Paypal put a hold on funds but they had already been transferred so my paypal account went into negative $730.00

 

3. I bought an app from iTunes for $1.99 using paypal.

 

4. Paypal charged my credit card for $731.99 (On hold amount + iTunes purchase) and labelled the transaction as "iTunes Paypal".

 

I looked at the 731.99 charge and could not find it on my iTunes purchase anywhere and that is caused me to worry about fraud. So no fraud but I still don't know why paypal chose to label the entire transaction as "iTunes Paypal".

 

Anyways, case resolved. Thanks.

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi sandhuatpp,

 

Thank you for coming back and giving us an update! I'm very glad that it makes sense now, and sorry to hear about the inconvenience.

 

The transaction is labeled iTunes because that was what was being paid for. With a balance of -$730, the amount being debited from your card to make the payment was $731.99. If you'd had a positive balance of say, $0.45, then the amount debited from your card for the purchase would have been $1.44. Does that make any sense? I apologize if it isn't clear. I have a head cold and am not operating at full strength. I'd be happy to take another stab at it if you need further clarification. 🙂

 

As a best practice, it's a good idea to leave payments in your account until buyer satisfaction is confirmed or a significant amount of time has passed. This prevents just the kind of situation that you encountered, where a negative balance is recovered along with a payment being made. In your situation, it's especially illustrative, since your payment was small, and the negative amount being recovered was so much more.

 

Best of luck with your buyer dispute. I wish you all the best and hope everything works out quickly!

 

Olivia

 

 

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