PAYPAL FRAUD! Help!

Barbie_girl_2

Hi money savers!

I need your advice! Last week someone hacked my paypal account and spent hundreds of pounds on vouchers for various things. They bought items from real sellers (it seems) on ebay but they must have done it from their account and then paid with my paypal as my ebay account has no purchase history since my last purchase months ago.

One seller contacted me via a letter in the post (weird!) saying it's not their fault I've been hacked and they're not refunding! Can they do this?!!

The thing is, the money has already come off my visa debit card and put me into my overdraft so I have no money! I have gone through the unauthorised use forms on paypal and phoned my bank but they just say I need to wait for paypal to resolve it. Meanwhile, my account overdraft is charging interest and I have no money to fill my car, food shop, anything!

Has this happened to anyone else and will it be ok? Help!

Thanks!

hermum

Have you phoned paypal, it may be a good idea to do so. Obviously all passwords need changing. I don't know whether talking to ebay as well will be any good as they must be registered with ebay if that's how they bought.
Go to the techie board here & get your computer sorted out asap.
The seller may have sent a letter as proof of postage did it come signed for?
Someone else will be along soon I'm sure, I don't know about debit card charge backs.

pinkshoes

If they used your PP, then did they change the address for where the vouchers are being sent? Can you access this information so that you can provide it to the police?

blue_monkey_2

Yes, or ask the sellers to provide the details on where the goods went to and give these details to the police!

If they were sent recorded there is the proof those people have them (hopefully) but if they were not sent recorded delivery then file for 'non-arrival' and you'll get your money back this way.

However, you need to speak to Paypal now and ensure no further money goes out and stop your cards. But guessing you already did this.

However, you are not going to get a refund imminently unfortunately. Can you speak to your bank and ask them for a temporary overdraft while this gets sorted? And if you already did, what did they say? I believe that you should not get charged any interest/fees if you are overdrawn because of fraud. Who do you bank with?

hermum

It sounds as though the items bought were emailed the the "buyer". OP has had one letter from a seller, so unless that one used the ebay address, sounds as though nothing else was posted.

mikey72

I'll bet the seller that contacted you sent the original item out by normal post, and the letter was tracked, so they can claim they have a tracked delivery to you if you put in an item not recieved. It's probably too late for seller protection, and you can let paypal know what they sent you in any dispute.

slkh

May also be worth adding that there seems to be alot of e-mail's circulating recently claiming to be from 'paypal' saying your account has been restricted and to click on links on the e-mail to resolve the problem, but DON'T! The best thing to do if you are ever unsure is to log into your paypal account and if there is any problem (which there usually isn't) it will tell you there. The e-mail's circulating are very realistic but don't be fooled just always go to your account for confirmation. I know most people probably know about this but there will be people who don't so just thought it was worth mentioning

Savvybunny2009

Something similar happened to me a few years back, the people with my debit card details opened up an ebay account and paypal account in my name and used my card to make large purchases through a dodgy sellers account. I spoke to my bank about it, they cancelled the card, I filled in some forms and after a week or so they decided the pattern of behaviour matched those of typical fraudulent transactions so I was not liable thankfully.

Although paypal were involved your card issuer should be able to do something about this.

Also the voucher purchases you mention may well not have a delivery address, quite often vouchers fr sale on ebay are a way of criminals transferring funds between accounts. I wouldn't worry about the letter, it could well be a fraudster trying to put you off doing anything about it.

Were there any smaller purchases for £1 or a few pounds made before the larger transactions happened?

slkh

Just a thought but could someone of transferred the money from the op's account to another paypal account??

Suzanne_Louise

This happened to me about 4 years ago to the tune of around £500 in 3 separate Paypal transactions. The messages the person used were really horrible. I contacted Paypal as soon as I was aware about it, and they kept telling me that I'd made the purchases but I certainly hadn't. Phoned again the next day and within a few hours, the money had been returned to me. To this day, I still don't know who it was.

Mistral001

It down to Paypal or the credit card company which is backing up the paypal account as far as I can see. Paypal though owned ebay is just another electronic transfer company and your dealings should surely be with paypal in the same way as you would deal your bank if someone hacked into your online banking account.

I can sympathise with you about not having any money for buying petrol or food. It happened to me once when I was going through a cash-flow problem with clients not paying. No money to put petrol in car and no money for food. It was literally a case of not using my car and eating canned and dried food I had in the house for a few days as I had no money avaialble to me from ATM, credit card or anywhere.

If you do not get anywhere and are left without any money for any period of time, then I suggest you see your MP. We are so dependent on electronic money that we forget that when it goes wrong it can leave people without anything and nowhere to go. No friendly bank manager, no friendly social security officer, but often just a few people in a call centre hundreds or thousands of miles away.