Husband's PayPal account hacked, scam transaction, need advice please!

LuciaStar

Hi all. last night, husband got text from PayPal (genuine) saying "transaction xxx for £xxxx from your PayPal account respond 1 if this was you or 2 if it was not". It was not, he responded 2. He ran upstairs and checked his PayPal account on his desktop and saw the transaction. PayPal responded & said a fraud case has been opened. He checked his linked bank account, and the transaction was in pending. Phoned bank to ask to put that transaction on hold but they said they couldn't do that. Really angry about that. Anyhow, today, about 15 hours later, he gets message from PayPal saying transaction was found not fraudulent. So goodbye money we can't afford to lose, over £1300. I've been researching since then, I'm not willing to let this go, it's not right. The purchase was a French tatty jewelry store, bracelets or something, and reviews of the store say it's poor quality stuff. Here is what I have so far, any help or suggestions are very welcome, I'm fuming!

PayPal itself says it takes 10-15 days to investigate fraud, but this was less than 24 hours, I don't think they investigated anything. This rejection was too quick, almost automatic, didn't talk to him, didn't request details, nothing at all. The transaction is completely different to his PayPal history (over 18 years!). Does not fit his pattern at all. So first, call Customer Service agent, bypassing the automated system. Have a method I found online for doing that. Second, go to the dispute center, and Escalate the case. File a police report with local police. They won't do anything but we'll get a report number. Call bank and tell them you want to dispute and reverse that transaction. also ask for new debit card. Then, contact Paypal via social media, public tweets, etc. Down the road, I'm willing to contact PayPal executives to complain. This just is not on!!

I don't think anyone actually did any investigation at all. I think it is automated, but I don't think a human actually did any work on this at all. It's too fast, too cursory. The very fact they flagged the transaction shows them to be in the wrong!!! Paypal doesn't care. I'm willing to make a stink. Any other ideas or feedback? Thanks in advance.

jon81uk

Get your bank to do a fraud chargeback.
Contact Action Fraud or the police.

Remove ALL payment methods from PayPal, change password and turn on two factor authentication.


I had a case where someone accessed my account with a retailer as my password was compromised, but my bank reversed the transaction.

LuciaStar

jon81uk said:

Get your bank to do a fraud chargeback.
Contact Action Fraud or the police.

Remove ALL payment methods from PayPal, change password and turn on two factor authentication.


I had a case where someone accessed my account with a retailer as my password was compromised, but my bank reversed the transaction.

Thanks very much for the advice, will definitely do all of that.

Aylesbury_Duck

Sounds like you're doing all you can do at the moment.

Make sure your husband secures his account.  If someone has been able to spend £1300 on his account, they must have his login details.  Has he lent someone his account at any point?  Are his login credentials the same as those on other accounts, perhaps one of which has been compromised?  Whilst you're doing the detective work, he should change passwords on his paypal account and any other account or website where the same password is used.  And enable multi-factor authentification where available.

DB1904

jon81uk said:

Get your bank to do a fraud chargeback.
Contact Action Fraud or the police.

Remove ALL payment methods from PayPal, change password and turn on two factor authentication.


I had a case where someone accessed my account with a retailer as my password was compromised, but my bank reversed the transaction.

It's unlikely the police will be interested and the OP will be told it's a matter for ActionFraud. Aka nothing will be done about it.

MattMattMattUK

LuciaStar said:

Hi all. last night, husband got text from PayPal (genuine) saying "transaction xxx for £xxxx from your PayPal account respond 1 if this was you or 2 if it was not". It was not, he responded 2. He ran upstairs and checked his PayPal account on his desktop and saw the transaction. PayPal responded & said a fraud case has been opened. He checked his linked bank account, and the transaction was in pending. Phoned bank to ask to put that transaction on hold but they said they couldn't do that. Really angry about that. Anyhow, today, about 15 hours later, he gets message from PayPal saying transaction was found not fraudulent. So goodbye money we can't afford to lose, over £1300. I've been researching since then, I'm not willing to let this go, it's not right. The purchase was a French tatty jewelry store, bracelets or something, and reviews of the store say it's poor quality stuff. Here is what I have so far, any help or suggestions are very welcome, I'm fuming!

PayPal itself says it takes 10-15 days to investigate fraud, but this was less than 24 hours, I don't think they investigated anything. This rejection was too quick, almost automatic, didn't talk to him, didn't request details, nothing at all. The transaction is completely different to his PayPal history (over 18 years!). Does not fit his pattern at all. So first, call Customer Service agent, bypassing the automated system. Have a method I found online for doing that. Second, go to the dispute center, and Escalate the case. File a police report with local police. They won't do anything but we'll get a report number. Call bank and tell them you want to dispute and reverse that transaction. also ask for new debit card. Then, contact Paypal via social media, public tweets, etc. Down the road, I'm willing to contact PayPal executives to complain. This just is not on!!

I don't think anyone actually did any investigation at all. I think it is automated, but I don't think a human actually did any work on this at all. It's too fast, too cursory. The very fact they flagged the transaction shows them to be in the wrong!!! Paypal doesn't care. I'm willing to make a stink. Any other ideas or feedback? Thanks in advance.

What PayPal mean by "not fraud" in this case is that the account was not accessed by their system being compromised. That usually happens when someone has been able to obtain via a third party compromise the email address and password for the PayPal account.

Get your husband to check his email on here, it will tell you if they have been compromised, I would be almost certain it has, as well as his password which you can also check on there. 
https://haveibeenpwned.com/

On PayPal if you go to Settings, then Security and finally Manage your logins you can see where the account has been accessed from, although logins can be removed.

Finally, I am guessing he did not have 2FA enabled? He should enable that, but also on any accounts, as well as changing his passwords on any other connected accounts (eg those that use the same password, those which are linked to the same email etc.).

born_again

How is the paypal account funded from your bank account?
Debit card or Direct Debit?