This is a warning to anyone who uses PayPal in conjunction with your bank account. Watch your bank statements closely! PayPal has been making fraudulent charges for online dating and other things and charging it to their customers.
I recently had 2 such charges on my checking account from them and I didn't even know I had a PayPal account! Now I'm having a hard time getting hold of PayPal to get this account closed. They want user name and password. But since I didn't even know I had the account, of course I don't know these.
So watch your bank statements closely. Luckily my bank was very helpful about getting these charges removed and reimbursed along with other charges which stemmed from these.
By Cricket from Parkton, NC
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Wow, they must have a very dishonest employee for that to happen. Somebody must be desperate for love! lol
Hi Cricket :-)
Definitely a great tip to always check your bank and credit card statements!
Try this phone number to talk to someone at PayPal: 1(866)888-6080 (it's the customer service number on the back of my PayPal debit card)
The first prompt will ask which type of account you have. It doesn't matter which account type you choose. It will give you more prompts and if none of them are what you're looking for just press "0". If that doesn't get you to a human then just make boo boo's and eventually it will transfer you to a human.
As for PayPal itself, they are not the ones that made fraudulent charges. The fraudulent charges were made by the desperate for love person who is a savvy criminal who knows how to crack passwords or steal personal information.
Best thing to do when having a PayPal account is to apply for their 'debit card' (it's a preferred account) and only place money in to it when you know you are going to use it. The card won't be approved for a purchase unless there is actual money you or someone else have placed in it and is not attached to your bank or credit cards.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the tip. I think it's important to note that it's not Paypal making the charges to people's accounts, but rather a scammer who obtains Paypal user information through some fraudulent means like phishing. Paypal does need to be more on top of these situations, implement more and better safeguards, and provide better customer service for dealing with them, but Paypal itself is not making the fraudulent charges to people's accounts.
I've seen quite a bit of bad press about Paypal's security, especially when it comes to people's checking account information. A Paypal account is very useful, but I restrict mine to a credit card.
Laniegirl - why just to such conclusions? I have been a paypal member over 15 years and have yet to have an issue with them. Common sense goes a long long way
@cricketnc here is their support number 1-888-221-1161
Did you contact your bank and dispute the charges or have the charges reversed?
Also have had a PayPal account for years here with no problems; OP, sounds like somehow, someone compromised your checking account information and then began hitting those "dating sites" and that's how you got those charges--either through phishing, or other means.
I had a friend with a checking account problem a couple of years back--sounds similar to yours but no PayPal involvement at all. In that case, it turned out that one of her teenagers got hold of her bank info and was calling phone dating lines. Just a thought.
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