Why is closing your PayPal account made to be so difficult?

[DaddisQueen]

I have been trying to close my account with PayPal for over a week now and every time I call customer service there is an excuse as to why it is not possible at the moment. I have no issues ie: disputes, nor do I have a balance. Really, what is the issue? I was hacked for the second time and instead of contacting me PayPal released my money to the hacker but sent me an email saying there was suspicious activity on my account. If you knew the activity was suspicious Why did you release the money? 

[sharpiemarker]

@DaddisQueen 

Because suspicious activity was supposedly detected and they want to prevent further actions on the account until they can verify it is you closing the account. Hackers can take money and close the account to lock out account owner from reporting unauthorized transactions. Base on observation, security system performance can work too well where it locks account holder out all the way to catching sus activity too late or not catching it at all and the user have to report it.

You’ll need to contact customer service for assistance:

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/contact-us      

Click “Message Us” or “Call Us” option on the bottom.   

Or reach out to PayPal at Facebook or Twitter:      

PayPal on Facebook

PayPal on Twitter

[DaddisQueen]

@sharpiemarker I mentioned in my post that I have been calling and speaking with customer service representatives.  Every time that I call I am given a different reason why I cannot close my account. Today I rebutted Every cat and mouse game answer and the representative went completely silent.... They keep pushing the option of me allowing them to show me how to better secure my account..... I can not stop PayPal from releasing my funds on their end so I can install and apply all the security measures I want and it will still be ineffective. The only way to avoid this happening a third time is to delete my account.

[TaraHall]

Here’s your problem. PayPal is corrupt. Ask yourself why a respectable CFO would leave EA to work for PayPal 8/1/2022- then suddenly leave PP 9/15/2022- maybe it’s the onslaught of class action suits headed their way- the first one I found is out of New Jersey on behalf of investors. You see, Paypal was caught with millions of fake accounts as well as refusing to remove accounts/ why? To convince investors they are worth more than they are. That’s fraud. So, now that they must prove in court these are legitimate accounts- they are trying everything in their power to block users from leaving. That is illegal. There needs to be a payback day for PayPal- urge everyone to dump them- some accounts are able to close- but others aren’t- just make it known they are not trustworthy with finances. I’ll let you know if I am successful.

[1rought]

same here its been a nightmare.  they wont close my account unless I give them my bank statement. credit card info and picture of ID.

NO way ..im talking to a lawyer about it Friday. (my father)  this cannot be legal

this is an evil company

[TaraHall]

Make sure you are calling the customer service number[Removed. Phone #s not permitted] if you Google for tech support number for PayPal- there is a scam number that pops up- I called it and they answered, “PayPal tech support.” I asked, “Did you say you were PayPal tech support?” He said he didn’t say that- so, I asked who he was- he was a smart jerk and said “You called me, who do you think I am?” I asked again, what did you say when you answered? He said “Go to He**” So, be very careful! The scam number posing as tech support is[Removed. Phone #s not permitted]they are not PayPal!!

[1rought]

no its PayPal not a scam. I call the number [Removed. Phone #s not permitted]leave my name and they call back couple hours later..

they tell me i must submit my bank info and picture ID  before I can close my account. I  do not own any money and have \

not even used the account in10 years....i waiting for a call back today for the 3rd time

[TaraHall]

Try to access your account on a laptop- hit the settings cog wheel- scroll to top of page and find drop down menu that says “Data/Privacy” click it- scroll down and see if you can delete your data/account here.

[MountainGuardia]

How do you call customer service?

I am pretty certain that with Paypals recent decision to charge people $2,500 for posting "misinformation" has caused a lot of people to close their accounts.  I assume the difficulty is to maintain as many accounts as possible to keep stock prices from falling further.

I have some amount of money showing on my account so I am not allowed to close the account.  I am not showing any balance on my account at all, but when I try to close it tells me it will not close the account due to money being in my account.  Paypal can have the money I just want the account closed.  Pretty hinky when an account won't even allow you to close it.  

We seldom ever use Paypal anyways and the card we had attached to it hasn't been valid for some time, but still I am not comfortable even having a Paypal account now with their little stunt.  Paypal isn't worth that that kind of risk...

[TaraHall]

Ugh! They removed the phone number! Customer service is [Removed]. The fake tech support ends in [Removed]. Keep on them- reject the lies of system updates, pending charges, shadow accounts.