2FA broken, Can't confirm it's me when active

[Captain_Veee]

When I just made my the account the other day I set up 2FA immediately as a lot of my friends were having troubles with hackers and scammers recently so I wanted to be proactive about security since I just made this account. Of course after setting it up I log out to test the 2FA only to get locked out, after putting in my password and username, and putting in the code from the authenticator app the login screen told me I had to verify with a 6 digit number sent from whatsapp instead of my sms which is what was set up. There was nothing to click to choose a different way of verifying.

This isn't any where mentioned on the account and I had to download whatsapp and make an account to use my paypal but I did so I could get back in but because I was too slow it told me it couldn't tell it was me. After that I tried to login again but it said it couldn't confirm it was me and didn't even send the whatsapp thing. Whenever I tried again it wouldn't ask about the whatsapp any more and just immediately responded with it couldn't recognize me despite the correct authenticator number. I even waited several times for the number to reset so I had extra time to double check that yes this is the same number.

I had to call customers service which allowed me back into my account but the problem persisted the next day and the day after that. When I contacted them they had me verify via a 6 digit code except they sms this instead of sending it through whatsapp so I at least know my phone can receive it properly from them. It eventually finally asked for the whatsapp verification again and I was able to login and disable 2fa. I would've thought this was just an issue with how I typed the password the first few times but it was the exact same thing I typed in every single attempt, even turned off the password censor so I could double check it was right. It's just after 2 days of being locked out of my account, that I literally just made, did it let me in.

How can I get it so that 2fa doesn't send to a whatsapp account that doesn't exist and instead sends to my sms? I have since deleted my whatsapp account and uninstalled it because I didn't want this app. I already have an authenticator app why should I need to install two apps to login to my paypal account? I can't find even a remote mention of whatsapp in the profile settings and only see it mentioned in the community.

[lesvisible]

@Captain_Veee I have a very similar situation and cannot login to my Paypal account. The fact that customer support can send you a code manually that works would suggest that it is PayPal's automated system settings that are causing the problem.

Although I did not set up 2FA, when I login I still get the page that asks me to get a code sent by SMS to my mobile phone. When the code arrives it is verified and at that point I should be sent to my PayPal admin area. However I am sent to a page with an error message and a hyperlinked "We Can Help"

To be honest the we can help does not work either and leads to another error page.

At present however after testing this on 2 different computers at the same office and IP address I have found that on both computers if I use the Safari Browser I can log in. However I cannot login on either computer if I use the Chrome Browser.

So I will be looking at installing other new browsers to see if they work or don't. However it seems that there are some settings in Chrome or possibly it may be extensions in Chrome that are conflicting with Paypal.

I have also asked customer support to raise a ticket with the web developer team, but they will not respond directly to me as that might mean having to admit they **bleep** up or that their code is less than perfect 🙂 

This sort of problem will happen more as all banks scramble to find automated solutions to fraud and I have had other experiences with another bank when they stopped paying automated payments to my suppliers. I wish you luck, but do try another browser.