Unauthorized activity dismissed falsely by PayPal

[sweetpinkpixie]

Hello.

Yesterday morning there was an authorization to send all my current PayPal balance down to the last cent to the bank account linked to my account. As of right now, this money has not shown up in the bank account (though this does not surprise me as yesterday was a national holiday where I am at and banks were closed) but my real concern is that I absolutely did not authorize this transaction nor did the owner of linked account who is my husband and does not have access to my PayPal account. Filing a report with PayPal only earned me an automative message a couple of hours later stating that there was no detection of any unauthorized transactions and my case was closed. I quickly went online again and contacted customer support via the PayPal Assistant option, but at the time there were no agents online so the system said it would transfer my messages to the first available person. This was all around midnight my time and it is now going on 8 am and there is still no response. I do understand these things can take time...but the quick turn around regarding the concerns about the unauthorized transaction compared to speaking to an actual person has me believing that no human has actually reviewed my case.

I will be filing a report with the Japanese police today or tomorrow depending on the availability of my husband.

I have seen numerous cases like this pop up before and am looking for some additional guidance. As you can imagine, my entire livelihood disappearing and the quick dismissal from PayPal has me very distraught.

[ShaqOatmeal]

Firstly, do not worry. You will be fine. If the money was sent to the bank account linked to your account, then it will eventually arrive there. It may take some time, but at the end of the day, everything will be OK. When it comes to authorization of the transfer, I am more than sure that there will be a good explanation to this as well. No criminal mastermind hacks your PayPal account, only to send the available money to your bank account. Situations like this can be frustrating and even induce panic. They may also make you overthink things. Just take it easy. As I said, everything will be OK. What is weird though - that the “worlds safest” money transferring platform does not provide 24h customer support and leaves people like you hanging in situations like this. So sorry to hear that.

[kernowlass]

@sweetpinkpixie 

Yes you are correct to be concerned and worried if your entire balance went to your bank account without you requesting it to be done !!!  

If you filed an unauthorised transaction this normally is concerned with transactions and not withdrawals so your best bet is to contact customer services directly to explain what happened and double check the funds ARE going to your bank account and that a scammer has not added their bank account to your paypal account for the transfer.

Contact options for each countries Paypal customer services are accessed by clicking help/contact bottom left of Paypal pages.

1. Paypal phones when available (you can use the guest option if you can't log in).
2. Live chat is also randomly available.
3. You can send them a message, during business hours you may also be able to message whilst logged out.
Or
4. Have you considered contacting Customer Service via Facebook or Twitter?
You can send them a personal message from their Facebook or Twitter pages.
It's: https://www.facebook.com/PayPal and @AskPayPal for Twitter.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Thank you for the suggestion to reach out on social media. I have contacted them on Twitter and got a "human" response that my case has been escalated. Waiting for further updates here.

[Yabbie]

Are you in Japan? Same thing has happened to me and several friends. I don't know what is going on, and Paypal are not answering. There's some rumours going around about some legislation that means we can't keep money in Paypal for over a month. But no information from PP themselves. 

I came here for answers too, but nothing...

[sweetpinkpixie]

@Yabbie 

You, including myself, are the third person I have heard this sort of situation from. I found the same talk on reddit and that has given me SOME peace of mind that I am not alone here.

I am, in fact, in Japan and have had my PayPal account since 2004 or something (I made it while in high school and well before I moved to Japan). Consensus seems to be this new legislation that we received no notice of - which is just infuriating. Unfortunately, the company I work for has to pay me through PayPal, but I will be reaching out to them about other options because this is nonsense if it turns out to be true.

[Yabbie]

Just got these messages from PP

• We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused. Due to a system issue, your PayPal balance has been automatically withdrawn to your bank account. We are very sorry for this. We have been inundated with inquiries from many people this time as well as our customers. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
• We are investigating this internally as a priority to ensure this does not happen again.
• The department is currently cancelling the withdrawal and the money will be returned to your PayPal balance within a week or two.
• However, depending on the bank's system, the withdrawal may not be successful in some rare cases. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and ask that you check your balance with your bank.

So, it might come back and it might not...

[sweetpinkpixie]

@Yabbie 

Just received that message myself. Some light at the end of the tunnel...but very concerned with the system issue that caused this. What would have happened if there were no linked bank account?! Those what if's for another time, just want to see my money land somewhere and not be lost in cyberspace.

[justinlindekuge]

Same here I did a hard earned favor to feed my family the guy paid me but as soon as the payment went thru it was taken from some account on eBay and now PayPal tells me to bad case closed!? I have suspicion either they don't know how to stop these thieves or they are part of this this scam! This is the 3rd time this has happened to my acct !!!! Same transaction same response from P.P!!!