PayPal danger - PLEASE READ

Jordec

Hi All,

Please be aware that PayPal is setting up Automatic Payments without your approval, giving merchants the authority to request any amount of money, at any time and PayPal will take it from your account without checking with you. 

Most traders/merchants are honourable, but PayPal should not set up Automatic Payments without permission from the account holder.

Please check Automatic Payments and any that you haven’t approved, please delete them. I don’t need any replies to this post, I just want to help raise awareness of an issue that can result in massive fraud.

Thank you. I hope this helps some of you.

ColdIron

One word: Paragraphs

Edit: Another two words: Thank you 

booneruk

There's a lot to digest there. I think I'll let others break it down, but the question I have would be who is the merchant that requested the payments? (Paypal wouldn't be the recipients of the money, surely?)

Jordec said:

 We raised a dispute for Unauthorised payments and they found in favour of the seller. We appealed and still they dismissed it. We called (the call was recorded) and the girl said that they knew it was fraud, the company they’d paid was fake. She said we’d be refunded, but then they closed the case again, in favour of the seller! The bank had stopped the card immediately and raised a fraud case, so we at least were reassured that no more could be taken. This was on the evening of Friday 29th August. 

That's a lot going on in such a small amount of time. I doubt the full dispute process would have been completely exhausted after only a couple of days though. Have you still been onto them?

The BBC article I think you mention: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6y42jggdyo
Your (I assume) reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/paypal/comments/1n8940s/paypal_taking_money_without_authorisation/

EDIT - if the mechanism used is Direct Debit, isn't there a guarantee that can have them reversed?

Brie

ColdIron said:

One word: Paragraphs

But Jordec thank you for highlighting this - it's scary what can happen to our hard earned money so quickly.

elsien

 “I haven’t found anyone yet that has no automatic payments set up without their approval. “

Allow me to be the first.  My PayPal account is fine. No merchant authorised payments at all. 

it would be helpful if you named the merchant though, if all these attempts for money have come from one merchant. 

Jordec

Apologies for the rant, but I’m trying to get people to check their accounts, before this happens to them. The merchant that set up the auto payment for this fraud, with no authorisation, was furnitureliquidator. We bought a small storage box for £87.90 on Friday morning. We checked Company status, reviews, they had FBk, Insta and more importantly, they offered PayPal, so we trusted them. We got confirmation from the merchant and PayPal, all looked normal. Then at 22:17 the withdrawals started. No warning, just emails saying it was taken by PayPal. By the time we got into the bank account, it was just in time to see the last payment go. They took just under £7000 in minutes! Then another £3499 yesterday morning. The bank said they would have spotted the fraud pattern, but they trusted PayPal. The bank recalled the £3499 direct debit within hours, when we contacted them. It had been taken using a 99p iCloud subscription that we had trusted them to honour. 

PayPal took this money, not the fake company. PayPal set up the agreement without any authorisation from us. PayPal gave this company permission to use their system, giving us the impression that we were protected. It was because it was PayPal that this happened. The bank would never have let the money leave the account had PayPal not facilitated the theft.

booneruk

elsien said:

Allow me to be the first.  My PayPal account is fine. No merchant authorised payments at all. 

I should have mentioned, checked my PP and nothing untoward there either!

elsien

Okay, so it’s not money from random companies then. It’s someone you’ve bought from, and then they’ve gone mad with further claims. 

What reason have PayPal given  for siding with the company?

booneruk

https://furnitureliquidator.store/ This lot?

Surely if they requested money and PayPal debited you then the money is in furnitureliquidator's hands? if not it would be very easy for PayPal to return you the money. If it is the latter, what do PayPal say when you ask them why they're holding these funds?

Jordec

It’s not ‘unauthorised payments’ that you need to check, it is ‘automatic payments’. Please check again. Even people that haven’t used their accounts for years have found them. I’m not saying they have all resulted in fake transactions, but the risk is there and if you didn’t authorise an ongoing agreement, to withdraw funds from your account without telling you beforehand, then surely you would want to cancel them?

booneruk

Jordec said:

It’s not ‘unauthorised payments’ that you need to check, it is ‘automatic payments’. Please check again. Even people that haven’t used their accounts for years have found them. I’m not saying they have all resulted in fake transactions, but the risk is there and if you didn’t authorise an ongoing agreement, to withdraw funds from your account without telling you beforehand, then surely you would want to cancel them?

https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/autopay/

I've checked. Nothing untoward at all.