Paypal debt collection for fraud case

johnapiper

Hello,

Firstly apologies if this doesnt come under Consumer rights??? If anyone can advise a better forum?

Last month, I sadly fell victim to an online scam where someone had hacked a family members facebook account and convinced me to take receipt of a Paypal payment of £300. I was then asked to withdraw the funds into my bank account (Lloyds bank) and pass it onto the scammer's bank account. Since then, the credit card issuer associated with the paypal account which paid me has requested a chargeback, which PayPal instantly awarded them without query. This has left my PayPal account in a negative £300 balance. Paypal has been treating this in my opinion with little consideration to my position as a victim beneficiary of the crime, Paypal has continuously been hounding me with phone calls and emails insisting that I restore the balance on my account. I have contacted them numerous times to explain the situation and provided them with Lloyds fraud case numbers and my crime reference numbers with ActionFruad for the police. But they have shown little care for this and insist that I am liable for the lost £300.

While I understand Paypal's arguement that in technicality I 'Authorised' the payment onward from Paypal into my own bank account. I beelive they are taking a purposeful subjective outlook on the situation and ignoring that I was falsely convinced and instructed to do this.

After I requested a final response on the dispute from Paypal, they have not given me a final repsonse in wirting, simply emailing back to explain that they had disputed the cargeback and the decision was that of the credit card issuers; who have 75 days to respond. Meanwhile they are still treating my account as a negative balance and are threatening to pass me onto debt collection authorities. (Which will pressumably effect my credit rating and add interest to the balance).

I have made a complaint with the FOS and am awaiting to hear back, but I wanted advise as to how I should proceed. A family member has offered to loan me the £300 to pay Paypal back but my fear is that they'll end up keeping the money and i'll have less chance of winning the case if I give them the balance they're after.

PLEASE HELP!
Thanks,
John.

Aylesbury_Duck

johnapiper wrote: »

Hello,

Firstly apologies if this doesnt come under Consumer rights??? If anyone can advise a better forum?

Last month, I sadly fell victim to an online scam where someone had hacked a family members facebook account and convinced me to take receipt of a Paypal payment of £300. I was then asked to withdraw the funds into my bank account (Lloyds bank) and pass it onto the scammer's bank account. Since then, the credit card issuer associated with the paypal account which paid me has requested a chargeback, which PayPal instantly awarded them without query. This has left my PayPal account in a negative £300 balance. Paypal has been treating this in my opinion with little consideration to my position as a victim beneficiary of the crime, Paypal has continuously been hounding me with phone calls and emails insisting that I restore the balance on my account. I have contacted them numerous times to explain the situation and provided them with Lloyds fraud case numbers and my crime reference numbers with ActionFruad for the police. But they have shown little care for this and insist that I am liable for the lost £300.

While I understand Paypal's arguement that in technicality I 'Authorised' the payment onward from Paypal into my own bank account. I beelive they are taking a purposeful subjective outlook on the situation and ignoring that I was falsely convinced and instructed to do this.

After I requested a final response on the dispute from Paypal, they have not given me a final repsonse in wirting, simply emailing back to explain that they had disputed the cargeback and the decision was that of the credit card issuers; who have 75 days to respond. Meanwhile they are still treating my account as a negative balance and are threatening to pass me onto debt collection authorities. (Which will pressumably effect my credit rating and add interest to the balance).

I have made a complaint with the FOS and am awaiting to hear back, but I wanted advise as to how I should proceed. A family member has offered to loan me the £300 to pay Paypal back but my fear is that they'll end up keeping the money and i'll have less chance of winning the case if I give them the balance they're after.

PLEASE HELP!
Thanks,
John.

How was the family member's Facebook account hacked? They must have been lax with their security, so make sure they've tightened that, changed password, etc.

I can see PayPal's point because they weren't involved in the final element of the process, which was you sending your own money from your own bank account to the scammer's account. I can't see what PayPal have done wrong here because it was the negligence of your relative that compromised their Facebook account, you were actually given money (rather than taking it from PayPal) and you authorised its withdrawal from your PayPal account to your own account.

I don't know the ins and outs of how these things are viewed legally, so I don't know if you have good grounds for a complaint, but my layman's view on it is that it's your relative's Facebook (and PayPal?) account that was compromised here so they (your relative) should be helping you with the solution. Unless they were in on it, of course....

SHAFT

johnapiper wrote: »

Hello,

Firstly apologies if this doesnt come under Consumer rights??? If anyone can advise a better forum?

Last month, I sadly fell victim to an online scam where someone had hacked a family members facebook account and convinced me to take receipt of a Paypal payment of £300. I was then asked to withdraw the funds into my bank account (Lloyds bank) and pass it onto the scammer's bank account. Since then, the credit card issuer associated with the paypal account which paid me has requested a chargeback, which PayPal instantly awarded them without query. This has left my PayPal account in a negative £300 balance. Paypal has been treating this in my opinion with little consideration to my position as a victim beneficiary of the crime, Paypal has continuously been hounding me with phone calls and emails insisting that I restore the balance on my account. I have contacted them numerous times to explain the situation and provided them with Lloyds fraud case numbers and my crime reference numbers with ActionFruad for the police. But they have shown little care for this and insist that I am liable for the lost £300.

While I understand Paypal's arguement that in technicality I 'Authorised' the payment onward from Paypal into my own bank account. I beelive they are taking a purposeful subjective outlook on the situation and ignoring that I was falsely convinced and instructed to do this.

After I requested a final response on the dispute from Paypal, they have not given me a final repsonse in wirting, simply emailing back to explain that they had disputed the cargeback and the decision was that of the credit card issuers; who have 75 days to respond. Meanwhile they are still treating my account as a negative balance and are threatening to pass me onto debt collection authorities. (Which will pressumably effect my credit rating and add interest to the balance).

I have made a complaint with the FOS and am awaiting to hear back, but I wanted advise as to how I should proceed. A family member has offered to loan me the £300 to pay Paypal back but my fear is that they'll end up keeping the money and i'll have less chance of winning the case if I give them the balance they're after.

PLEASE HELP!
Thanks,
John.

About what?

Looking at it from PayPal's point of view, given you've gone to Action Fraud you haven't got a crime number and as yet there is no police investigation.

General_Applause

Don't worry about the debt collection 'authorities'. They have as much power as the milkman.


There is no debt until a judge says so and Paypal simply will not take you to court over this.


The 'debt collector' will hassle you by phone or letter. If they are daft enough to turn up at your door (very unlikely), just slam it in their face. They have no power. Even real bailiffs can only force entry to collect unpaid court fines, HMRC tax debt or if they have come to evict you.


The only downside of ignoring Paypal is that you will never be able to use them again, nor will anyone who Paypal deem are linked to you.

steampowered

How did the scammer manage to convince you to transfer money? What were you told?

Gavin83

johnapiper wrote: »

Hello,

Firstly apologies if this doesnt come under Consumer rights??? If anyone can advise a better forum?

Last month, I sadly fell victim to an online scam where someone had hacked a family members facebook account and convinced me to take receipt of a Paypal payment of £300. I was then asked to withdraw the funds into my bank account (Lloyds bank) and pass it onto the scammer's bank account. Since then, the credit card issuer associated with the paypal account which paid me has requested a chargeback, which PayPal instantly awarded them without query. This has left my PayPal account in a negative £300 balance. Paypal has been treating this in my opinion with little consideration to my position as a victim beneficiary of the crime, Paypal has continuously been hounding me with phone calls and emails insisting that I restore the balance on my account. I have contacted them numerous times to explain the situation and provided them with Lloyds fraud case numbers and my crime reference numbers with ActionFruad for the police. But they have shown little care for this and insist that I am liable for the lost £300.

While I understand Paypal's arguement that in technicality I 'Authorised' the payment onward from Paypal into my own bank account. I beelive they are taking a purposeful subjective outlook on the situation and ignoring that I was falsely convinced and instructed to do this.

After I requested a final response on the dispute from Paypal, they have not given me a final repsonse in wirting, simply emailing back to explain that they had disputed the cargeback and the decision was that of the credit card issuers; who have 75 days to respond. Meanwhile they are still treating my account as a negative balance and are threatening to pass me onto debt collection authorities. (Which will pressumably effect my credit rating and add interest to the balance).

I have made a complaint with the FOS and am awaiting to hear back, but I wanted advise as to how I should proceed. A family member has offered to loan me the £300 to pay Paypal back but my fear is that they'll end up keeping the money and i'll have less chance of winning the case if I give them the balance they're after.

PLEASE HELP!
Thanks,
John.

While I have sympathy for you being scammed why do you believe PayPal should be the party out of pocket for your mistake?

born_again

So you family member has reported fraud on their card. Bank claimed money back from paypal....

So just who contacted you and gave you the account details to send the funds too?