Paypal account limited: 'unusual activity in your PayPal account'

bxboards

Hi

Yesterday morning I found a e-mail from Paypal regarding an account limitation.

Too be honest I get a tonne of these and they are usually scam e-mails, although this one did address me as Dear BXB, although I've seen that too, so I thought nothing of it.

However when I came to do a withdrawal by my Paypal app, the withdrawal failed with 'your account is limited'. I usually keep around 1 month of profit in the account for any refunds, so several thousand were locked up in there!

Now the odd thing is that when I went onto Paypal via my laptop, I log in and hit a 'take steps to restore your account' screen which asked me to choose either a mobile phone txt or phone call or email to send me a code. I chose SMS, got a 6 digit code, typed it in, was asked to change my password and that solved the issue. There was no sign of any 'unusual activity', no unexpected payments or withdrawals - nothing! Now the whole thing really feels like a phishing scam, but in this case it wasn't.

The e-mail was 100% genuine and going directly to https://www.paypal.com I was limited - but it was easily lifted within 30 seconds of me entering the code they SMSs'd me. Absolutely none of the wiser as what activity paypal think was going on, as I've been off for a few days and didn't even use Paypal for about 3 days prior, so there was absolutely nothing that should have tripped it.

Very surprised this was actually genuine, but for what reason I was limited, and why it was so easily lifted I have no idea!

soolin

bxboards wrote: »

Hi

Yesterday morning I found a e-mail from Paypal regarding an account limitation.

Too be honest I get a tonne of these and they are usually scam e-mails, although this one did address me as Dear BXB, although I've seen that too, so I thought nothing of it.

However when I came to do a withdrawal by my Paypal app, the withdrawal failed with 'your account is limited'. I usually keep around 1 month of profit in the account for any refunds, so several thousand were locked up in there!

Now the odd thing is that when I went onto Paypal via my laptop, I log in and hit a 'take steps to restore your account' screen which asked me to choose either a mobile phone txt or phone call or email to send me a code. I chose SMS, got a 6 digit code, typed it in, was asked to change my password and that solved the issue. There was no sign of any 'unusual activity', no unexpected payments or withdrawals - nothing! Now the whole thing really feels like a phishing scam, but in this case it wasn't.

The e-mail was 100% genuine and going directly to https://www.paypal.com I was limited - but it was easily lifted within 30 seconds of me entering the code they SMSs'd me. Absolutely none of the wiser as what activity paypal think was going on, as I've been off for a few days and didn't even use Paypal for about 3 days prior, so there was absolutely nothing that should have tripped it.

Very surprised this was actually genuine, but for what reason I was limited, and why it was so easily lifted I have no idea!

Paypal can be pretty random sometimes, perhaps you had had a slight increase in takings that triggered a 'back up' system to ensure only you could access the funds, perhaps it was even that paypal were amazed anyone kept money in the account (Mine is whipped out almost daily as I don't trust them at all). About 12 weeks ago I kept having to verify my account as they said they were detecting I was logging in from a new location (I wasn't) and had the same SMS code thing that you refer to. Mine was also all legit and from paypal, I didn't get any emails though I just got the message when I tried to log in from a clean link.

My issue just went away one day and I haven't had any problems since.

bxboards

soolin wrote: »

Paypal can be pretty random sometimes, perhaps you had had a slight increase in takings that triggered a 'back up' system to ensure only you could access the funds, perhaps it was even that paypal were amazed anyone kept money in the account (Mine is whipped out almost daily as I don't trust them at all). About 12 weeks ago I kept having to verify my account as they said they were detecting I was logging in from a new location (I wasn't) and had the same SMS code thing that you refer to. Mine was also all legit and from paypal, I didn't get any emails though I just got the message when I tried to log in from a clean link.

My issue just went away one day and I haven't had any problems since.

Thanks I am glad it is not just me. Like you I really do not trust Paypal so I withdrew a load of funds after lifting the limitation (which for me is 'unusual activity' ironically!) so there is less than 1k in there now. My items are typically 4 figure sales, so I like to keep money in there for refunds, rather than having to do refunds by e-cheque which take ages.

Something must have tripped it. but like you I have no idea what!

forgotmyname

I had a fairly expensive item refunded and that did come by echeque. I knew it was not the sellers fault and that it would take upto 7 days to clear properly.

I guess some buyers could be annoyed if they didnt have the funds and needed to purchase something else with the money but thats the risk.

I would rather risk that than leave money in paypal.

paulofessex

PayPal Access Card and Pay Pal have today confirmed to me that there is a current problem they are working on.

Currently when using my Pay Pal Access card, instead of the payment being deducted direct from my Pay Pal account it is being processed as an echeque with the funds being requested from my bank account linked to my pay pal account.
In my case this account has insufficient funds, therefore l have today received six bank letters each for £15 and as l use the card daily at the post office l can expect more.

Pay Pal customer services were no help, acknowledging the glitch however the adviser was seriously advising me to transfer funds from my pay pal account to the bank account to pay for my own bank charges!!!!

The try and send you back to Pay Pal Access Card, although it is Pay Pals issue.

My frustration on the phone will continue after a cuppa.

soolin

paulofessex wrote: »

PayPal Access Card and Pay Pal have today confirmed to me that there is a current problem they are working on.

Currently when using my Pay Pal Access card, instead of the payment being deducted direct from my Pay Pal account it is being processed as an echeque with the funds being requested from my bank account linked to my pay pal account.
In my case this account has insufficient funds, therefore l have today received six bank letters each for £15 and as l use the card daily at the post office l can expect more.

Pay Pal customer services were no help, acknowledging the glitch however the adviser was seriously advising me to transfer funds from my pay pal account to the bank account to pay for my own bank charges!!!!

The try and send you back to Pay Pal Access Card, although it is Pay Pals issue.

My frustration on the phone will continue after a cuppa.

I know this is a seperate issue but I did wonder if this was happening in the UK. One of the groups I belong to is actually a US group (I joined by accident) and for about 2 weeks they have been having major issues with everything going from their bank rather than their paypal balance- this is mainly affecting paypal postage and some sellers who are tight on money are finding themselves overdrawn when all the days postage has been taken from an empty bank account rather than from the paypal money.