I wanted to send a friend a payment and pasted his email details into the recipient box. The Paypal system said it didn’t recognize the account and ‘suggested’ an alternative. I noticed this, deleted Paypal’s ‘suggestion’ and re-pasted the details I had saved in my browser. Thinking that was it, I hit send without noticing that Paypal had overrode my ‘pasted details’ and accordingly, the payment went to someone I don’t know. I opened a dispute but Paypal rejected this. I have tried to contact the erroneous payee and so far they have declined to respond. I was waiting to see what happens after ‘30 Days’ hoping I’ll get my money back and then my friend contacted me this afternoon to tell me the EXACT same issue has happened again when another friend tried to send him a payment. I have asked Paypal to explain ‘why’ the architecture appears to be set up to allow the system to override pasted email details. As yet, I have had no response to my question. As for the ‘lucky’ recipient, they surely know these payments are unintentional and with that, I’ll put my trust in karma. Of course, the ‘lucky’ recipient may well have passed on which could explain their lack of response. Nevertheless, this should serve as a WARNING to anyone pasting email account details that Paypal doesn’t ‘recognize’. The irony is that the system worked PERFECTLY when my friend logged in to his account and asked ME for payment.
