[LucyB]

My paypal account has been hijacked but I can't work out how to resolve it.

I never use the account, so all info is out of date: address, phone number, email, card etc. which has made it difficult to log in.

I have finally managed to access my account, and have found a number of transactions; some are payments to my account and some are from my account. I tried phoning them to get the payment out of the account stopped, but they just kept telling me I had to log in to my account to manage it from there, despite me explaining the difficulties I was having. The payment should not have been made as far as I can tell, because the card registered to the account no longer exists. I'm guessing they got away with it because they had got fraudulent payments going in to the account to cover the funds going out.

In the account resolution bit, I am trying to resolve the disputes over the money paid in to the account, but the only options I am given assume that I have tried to scam someone i.e. I can only say that I have or have not posted the items. There is no option to say that I have had nothing to do with it.

Please help! I don't want to end up being liable for this, it comes to about £100.

[iain]

Bollocks, that sucks.

Is there not a way to dispute transactions just because you don't recognise them? It seems to be limited to 45 days since the transaction occurred but just submit it that way and it will at least get it read by a real person. It won't get the payment stopped but you should get it back later.

Go through their process as best you can but don't give them information you don't have to, particularly new card details and such like or they can just take what they think you owe them.
Having been ripped off through Paypal they are only interested in making sure their own bottom line isn't affected, which doesn't include going out of their way to help people who've been defrauded.

Good luck

[Luthor]

Try contacting bank credit/card and asking them to handle it..?

Banks seem to want to regulate online fraud themselves (which means little gets recorded in national crime statistics) and are generally pretty good towards victim customers in my experience.

[Drewski Rootbitch]

Not directly relevant, but I've had one or two issues with PayPal and the process was the same both times...
Upon initially complaining (and feeling like I was getting nowhere ) they suddenly (several weeks later) got back in touch to say the disputes had gone in my favour.
I think this is the problem with not dealing face to face, it's hard to judge where you stand.
Anywho, good luck with it.

[Paul B]

I had a problem with the PBF account recently where, because of our cashflow they'd locked the account and were demanding proof we were a charity etc.

Obviously we don't have that, so I replied in an email stating what we are and what we do and some kind soul obviously ticked the 'yes' box at the other end and it all now works swimmingly!

Can you not talk to a live agent on paypal as you do with ebay?

[tomtom]

Hi Lucy,
Just seen this. MrsTt had same thing but barclaycard stumped up.. My Pp account was also hacked earlier but paypal spotted the behaviour and stopped it. In both cases the resolution process was long slow and not transparent. I've now disabled my paypal account.. They've lost a load of trust IMHO.
Persist and it'll work out but I'm not impressed..
T

[Bubba]

Sounds dire Lucy, hope you get a good result.

Out of interest do Paypal offer any insight as to how this may have happened? Trojan on your PC / weak password / hacked webmail account, etc?

[LucyB]

Thanks for the replies, all.

You can speak to a real live person, but all they do is tell you to log on and sort it out online. Not impressed at all, I shall also be cancelling the account. I think I have managed to log all of them as disputed transactions, I'll just have to wait for their resolution procedures. I don't think any money can leave my bank account, becuse of the registered card being out of date, so even if it goes against me they would probably have a lot of trouble trying to get the money out of me. Hopefully they won't bother!

Be warned all those with PP accounts that you never use!

[tomtom]

PaulB had the best advice to me about Paypal.. Just make sure you check off the box linking your bank card to the account when you're not using it. Then enable when you want to use it.
For me, they're shite and I won't use them again.. (stubborn grumpy got that I am)