Need help with fraudulent transactions causing negative balance

[es2019]

On December 26, 2023, I received a text notification from PayPal asking me if I had made a transaction. I replied “2” for no, and received a follow up text saying that a fraud case would be started and that my account would be limited due to the suspicious activity. 

I then logged into my PayPal account and found that there were actually four fraudulent transactions, totaling several thousand dollars. I immediately called PayPal and spoke with someone. They told me they were unable to stop the transactions, but that they would open a fraud case for “unauthorized activity” for all four of them. 

Since PayPal showed the eBay order numbers for these fraudulent transactions, I called eBay on December 26 to get more details from their end. I was told that all four transactions were from four separate eBay accounts (none of them were mine or connected to me in any way), and that all the purchases took place within a 2-minute window. eBay immediately determined this as illegal activity and suspended all four accounts. However, eBay was unfortunately unable to stop the processing of the purchases. 

Next, I called the police department to start a crime report on December 26. I gave them all the information I had, including the address that these fraudulently purchased items were set to ship to. The address listed had been added as a guest address on December 26 by the criminal at the time the fraudulent transactions took place, and is an address I am not and have never been associated with. 

I saw that the four fraudulent transactions were set to pull from my checking account that I had linked to PayPal, so next I called my bank for advice (also on December 26). They instructed me to reduce the amount of money in my checking account so that when these fraudulent charges tried to pull, they would not be able to. 

Since PayPal was unable to take money from my checking account, they then sent the fraudulent charges to my other linked payment method, which was my credit card. However, because of the large dollar amounts of the transactions, only two charges went onto the card before I hit my credit limit. Currently, the two charges that hit my credit card are being resolved as a chargeback.

However, the other two charges were unable to pull from any payment method and have now been sitting as a negative balance on my account. I am trying to get this negative balance cleared so that I can continue to use my PayPal account, as it is now disabled because of the negative balance. 

I have called PayPal 15+ times in the last two months trying to resolve this case. The initial “unauthorized activity” fraud case from December 26 was denied. PayPal support then switched these cases to “item not received” (though let me reiterate that these were not items I had ever purchased), stating that this was the next step toward getting my cases resolved. The “item not received” cases were also denied because the sellers were able to provide tracking to the address provided, which was again not an address I have ever been associated with. So, PayPal support then switched the case back to “unauthorized activity” and resubmitted the case on February 18. Again though, the case was denied.

I have found other forum posts and it is clear I am not the only person to have had this issue. I am at a loss of what to do next. My PayPal balance is over $3000 in the negative and I am unable to use the account until the balance is removed. The negative balance is a result of fraudulent activity that PayPal’s own automated system detected and alerted me of, and that I reported right away. Has anyone had any luck resolving an issue like this without having to pay the balance?

[kernowlass]

@es2019 

When you file a dispute for unauthorised paypal will check the IP addresses used to see if they were from your or not, if they were you would be denied.

So when you got that text did you click on anything or enter any information? Sounds as if you may have given access to your account in some way via that text?

[es2019]

@kernowlass 

The text message was confirmed to have come from PayPal. Also, I did not provide any personal information through the text and I did not click on any links.

PayPal has not been able to provide me with any conclusive evidence about the IP address. The ship to address for these fraudulent charges was within the same metropolitan area in which I reside, I am not sure if that is affecting their findings due to the proximity. 

[es2019]

UPDATE: 

PayPal finally provided me the documentation they used in my fraud claim. They said my claim could not be deemed fraud because the IP address of the fraudulent transactions was consistent with my history.

However, in the documentation provided, the first usage date of the fraudulent IP address was on the day the fraud took place and it has not been used since. In addition, the fraudulent IP address is connected to a T Mobile device, and I own absolutely zero T Mobile devices and never have. 

There has still been no solution with PayPal, so if anyone has any suggestions of how to clear this up, please let me know!

[ChaosAboundZ]

I am in the same situation PaPal allowed another party to assign they're name and address to my PayPal account and he preceeded over December 2023 to take every deposit refund and even tried to pay for items as linked to my bank and card I've always trusted PayPal as an in-betweener but they are just as bad as the banks they have regarded me as a Merchant when I've never had a business acct I had PayPal 6 years no trouble receiving funds transfer to acct and pay bills online but now I have a Negative Balance and they found the thief in his favour they've looked at no paperwork and even his own statement of criminal offence and intent which they also have Overlooked 

Also I have told them I can't access the acct it's closed also Negative Balance also still open cases also requestfo4 money he owes from theft and also shut down 3 other email accts related so check all others ,this man used a  Utilities Account to prove address's and I had only just ,moved in and he hacked the account emails hedoes it still he has done it  I am receiving bills at my address from people he's done it to before . I don't really trust the police but reported it anyway