I have been using Paypal frequently for the past three years. I mostly use it for Ebay transactions both selling and buying. Everything with Paypal had been running smoothly until my account was recently hacked into. The person that got into my Paypal account purchased 9 different, random items totally $2,353.66 that were charged to my bank’s checking account.
This jump in activity on my Paypal account of course sparked an investigation into each of the purchases and labeled each as “Unauthorized Transactions”. I logged into my Paypal as soon as I discovered money missing from my account (thank goodness he/she did not change my pw) and I reset my password and secret questions so this person could not access the account anymore.
So all of that money was withdrawn from my checking account. This happened on October 26th and the money was withdrawn on the 28th. Paypal ruled that all the purchases were not made by me. I actually called and talked to several people at Paypal explaining what was going on. So Paypal said all the money would be transferred back into my checking account. It was, however, already too late. My checking account before the withdrawal only had $30 in it. So 8 transactions actually went through and I was charged between $31 and $36 for each transaction because there was no money in the account aka overdraft. So on October 31st all of the money had been deposited back into my account, but I still had $231 worth of overdraft fees.
My account was still in the negative by about $220. I called the bank and asked if they could reverse the fees and they said I would have to talk to Paypal about getting reimbursed for the charges. Also, if I did not bring my account into a positive balance, my bank would continue to charge me $6 a day for the next 4 business days to a total of 30 more dollars. I had to transfer money from my mom’s account into my checking so I would not continue to be charged.
Now, after spending a good deal of time trying to do all the math involved with figuring out exactly how much money I lost from this entire fiasco, I have reached the amount of $355. This comes from the $231 in overdraft fees and another $124 that Paypal has yet to return because it is still being investigated.
Right now I am trying to get someone from Paypal on the phone to talk about reimbursing me for the overdraft charges. I have a feeling if they actually say they will refund me, it will be a long process. I hope it does not take very long though. I get paid on Monday and I’m expecting my check to be about $325. This still leaves me in debt after what I owe back to my mom’s account plus what Paypal still has to reimburse me for.
I am trusting Paypal will take appropriate action and refund me for my overdraft fees and make sure all the money from the unauthorized transactions are refunded. If you have any questions or want to know what happens from here until this is all settled just email me at [email protected]
