Facebook Hacked, PayPal Refuse to Help

trashedteen

My FB account was hacked a couple of weeks ago - I didn't think anything of it at the time as it seemed as though all the person did was add another page on my account and create a few posts.

I happened to look through my Paypal last week and noticed Meta has been charging me for an ad campaign. In total there was over £80 taken and many more attempts which were thankfully blocked by paypal. 

For context I did have a business in 2018 which used FB ads and my paypal account was still linked. 

I immediately closed the ad down and cancelled the automatic payment with paypal then raised a dispute. 

Paypal came back a few days later saying the dispute was denied as Meta had provided evidence the transaction was legitimate - the proof it provided was simply a receipt stating how much the ad had cost. I disputed their decision and they have come back again this morning denying this. 

I have tried contacting Facebook and heard nothing. The ads in question are for a business I have nothing to do with - promoting Chinese dropshipping products.

I would love to get some advice on what my options are here? 

gravel_2

Probably not a lot you can do other than improve your personal account security moving forward. 

Zanderman

Surely your complaint should be directed at Facebook not PayPal?

PayPal have merely been paying the bill sent by Facebook, on a payment link which was authorised by you and still live. The fact that FB was hacked is not, arguably, PayPal's problem as how could they possibly detect that?  The PayPal account was not hacked, just used in accordance with your recorded authorisation.

It would be worth paying more attention to your PayPal account in future - surely there would be notifications about those payments?

masonic

So you knew someone was accessing your Facebook account and didn't take any action to secure the account? This is far from the worst that could have happened. Have you at least taken steps to secure your Facebook account now?

How were the PayPal payments ultimately funded?

Rawrzy

Looking at the internet this seems reasonably common, see this thread on paypal's forum, a number of the later posts mention being charged for facebook ads - https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Security-and-Fraud/Unauthorized-payment-to-Meta-Platforms-Facebook-ireland-and/td-p/3006393

I'd probably read through that to see if you can get any ideas. Someone on page 7 was from the UK and had success by going through a different dispute process on paypal. 

Otherwise if that doesn't work you might have to press Meta/Facebook more, as they should clearly have logs that a different IP address purchased said ads.

I'd recommend in future to always have 2 factor on important accounts so people can't get into your account even if they somehow get or guess a password.

Edit: Oh as an extra note, you can try contacting your bank/card provider who funded paypal for those transactions, but be warned paypal might terminate your account if you charge back via the bank/card provider.

trashedteen

masonic said:

So you knew someone was accessing your Facebook account and didn't take any action to secure the account? This is far from the worst that could have happened. Have you at least taken steps to secure your Facebook account now?

How were the PayPal payments ultimately funded?

I rarely use my FB account and had no indication it had been hacked until I tried to log in and realised I was locked out.

Paypal also only send notifications for new purchases. Seeing as my account was already linked to FB and set up for automatic payment, I wasn't notified. 

Paypal was funded by my current account, they had 2 lots of £40 within a few days and I noticed a few days after that.

I have contacted FB and still yet to hear anything from them.

I was just wondering if there were another service I can use to help me, it seems neither FB or Paypal are interested and considering money has been stolen from me, I would have thought it would be treated more seriously. 

Do I need to report to the police?

UPDATE: I did eventually manage to find an option to contact Meta through the ads platform, they do not make it easy. Someone from the team actually called to discuss the details. She's going to raise it with the correct team and said I would hear back in the next 24-48 hours. 

hazzygirl

Did you manage to get back your money? I have had the same issue to the tune of £361 😭 Facebook agreed 4 weeks ago that my account had been compromised but I still don't have a page or a refund, and it's left my paypal with a negative balance as I didn't have enough funds to pay the whole amount. It's made me so depressed I've had dozens of messages/calls with meta and although they admit the problem wasn't caused by me they still have not corrected the issues 😞

masonic

trashedteen said:

Do I need to report to the police?

Potentially you could report to ActionFraud, but don't let the name lure you into any expectations of action.

trashedteen said:

UPDATE: I did eventually manage to find an option to contact Meta through the ads platform, they do not make it easy. Someone from the team actually called to discuss the details. She's going to raise it with the correct team and said I would hear back in the next 24-48 hours. 

That's encouraging. But there could still be a long journey ahead.

trashedteen said:
Paypal was funded by my current account, they had 2 lots of £40 within a few days and I noticed a few days after that.

If it was bank funded (rather than debit card), then payment would have been by direct debit, so you have the option of calling on the Direct Debit Guarantee with your bank if all else fails, since you did not receive advanced notice of these payments, which is a requirement of the scheme. Paypal will not like this though, so only use it as a last resort.