Paypal Fraud - what should I do?

jonflat2

Just over a week ago £1300 was fraudently taken from my current account via Paypal.

Paypal must have spotted that I was unlikely to be sending this sort of money to a random guy somewhere in the US, and within around week the transaction had been reversed, and the money returned to my account.

When I rang Paypal to try and find out what happened, they could give no explanation as to how this might have happened, other than me giving out my password (which I obviously have never done).

In fear of this happening again, I have now closed my Paypal account - however should I be taking this matter further, or should I just be glad that I got my money back?

To be honest I'm absolutely fuming that someone managed to access my account and steal that amount of money - but I wonder if taking this further with either Paypal or the police (?) is worth the bother?

TrickyDicky

You may not have given it out intentionally. Make sure you always have separate passwords for every account you have. If someone got hold of your password for something obscure somewhere that also contains your email address, its quite common to try the same email/password combination in paypal. Also, dont have your password as anything to do with any of your personal information, as again it makes it easily guessable.

And well done closing your paypal account. They really are the biggest money grabbers out there who dont stick to the banking code, as they are not technically a bank or credit facility. Avoid using them wherever possible. Im sure it would be illegal for a bank to charge you to take out your own money, but paypal do just that if you withdraw < £50. Criminal.

Dinah93

I had a similar paypal experience about 2 months ago, although in my case £600 was deposited in my account, before it started being withdrawn again. I would never have realised if I hadn't happened to buy something on ebay, and go to pay and it said 'funds' as a source as opposed to 'debit card'. I was then locked out my email account and they changed the password and secret question on both paypal and my email account. I later discovered that filters had been set up on my email account several days earlier to divert all emails from paypal straight to the trash folder, so all these emails i was getting about new deposits and withdrawls that usually would have alerted me werent seen. I froze the paypal account, and have no intention of unlocking it. I have set up a new account for payments in only, off an email address only set up for paypal, with a completely unique password.

olly300

TrickyDicky wrote: »

They really are the biggest money grabbers out there who dont stick to the banking code, as they are not technically a bank or credit facility. Avoid using them wherever possible. Im sure it would be illegal for a bank to charge you to take out your own money, but paypal do just that if you withdraw < £50. Criminal.

It's not illegal for a bank to charge you for withdrawing your money held in an account with them. Banks in the UK don't do this as it would be uncompetitive they however make money by other charges.

Also Paypal is more competitive then UK banks if you want to transfer funds overseas even with their charges.

geordie_joe

I think the main post of the OP is that no harm was done and Paypal did their job, spotted what was going on and corrected it.

Like any big organisation, you will get those who are happy with it and those who aren't. Just look at how many people complain about high street banks. They give other people your money even when you don't have any in your account and then charge you an arm and a leg for being overdrawn.

If the bank is closed and the cash machine is empty, or not working, you get charged for using another banks machine.

I don't think paypal is any better, or any worse, than any high street bank, but if you are not confident using it then you have done the right thing in stopping.