PayPal saga

[MrNumbskull]

This is a somewhat complex story, so I'll try to keep it brief. 

On 6th September, I was the victim of a very sophisticated hack.

I have no idea how it was done, and because of this it really does bother me about online security.

 

I have accounts at several online key retailers.

These keys can be bought (in the form of a code) to enter into online platforms such as Steam, Xbox, PSN etc. 

 

On 6th September I briefly saw an email from PayPal whilst I had my browser open.

It was a receipt for some game keys.

 

I did not recognise the amount (£43.99).

I logged into PayPal immediately (not following the email link) and saw three transactions.

Two transaction from vendor 'A' for £43.99 and £109, and one more from vendor 'B' on the same day for £105. 

 

I logged into the respective websites and quite clearly for vendor A, my account showed two purchases that day for those amounts.

I then logged into vendor B, and saw the single transaction for £105, but this was subject to an identification security check, so had not been processed.

This vendor B transaction was fairly quickly refunded to PayPal as I had contacted the vendor and alerted them to the dispute, along with the fact that the goods had not been released.

 

I went back to PayPal and marked the transactions as disputed.

Within a couple of hours, they replied saying that my claims were denied, and that there was no evidence of unauthorised use of my account. 

 

I appealed the decision and again, they denied the claim with the same line, that they did not see any unauthorised access to my account.

I pointed out that under the User Agreement, I would not be held responsible for transactions that I didn't make, but they ignored that.

 

I have a PayPal credit account with about £280 outstanding.

I was due to make the £100 monthly payment within a week (via direct debit), and guessed that they might try to tag these (now two outstanding) fraudulent transactions onto the DD, and straight out of my bank account.

 

I phoned the bank and cancelled the direct debit (this was on the 6th September evening).

I was not able to remove the bank account from the PayPal account as there were transactions which where pending (the direct debit I guess).

I also removed my credit card from the account on the 8th September.

 

 I have been in dispute with PayPal all of this week.

The first few replies, they suggested that it would be more convenient to call them, but I said that I wanted to use the messaging (email) system so that I'd have a copy of the dispute details. They now won't reply to my emails AT ALL.

I have told them that I no longer have access to a bank account, but I can make a bank transfer (from someone else) to cover the PayPal credit payment.

 

Forward to Friday (13th Sep), I see the two fraudulent transactions totalling just over £150 appear on my credit card statement, even though I had removed it as a payment method (and they let me) 6 days earlier.

 

I have called the credit card company, briefly explained that I removed the card from the PayPal account due to a dispute, and that they had made fraudulent debits to my credit card account several days later. The CC company blocked the card and said they would reverse the transactions.

 

The main problem (assuming the fraud on the CC gets sorted) is that I need to pay the PayPal credit statement shortly.

I was quite prepared to turn my back on them completely.

 

However, I just looked on my credit score thing online, and PayPal credit have been showing the monthly payments (all green) for the last 18 months.

If I don't pay this, it's going to damage my credit rating, and most importantly, is unjust.

 

I see there was some advice about ignoring PayPal debt which I was prepared to do, but it appears that in the case of PP credit, it shows on your file.

If there's an opinion that a single bad debt won't do much to my credit score, I only monitor it now because a mobile phone billing mistake trashed my score a couple of years ago and I din't know about it until I needed to borrow money. (In that case I contacted EE and they wiped that history and my score shot straight back up).

 

PayPal are quite slippery.

I've asked them for an address for UK legal correspondence and they ignored me.

I asked repeatedly for a way to pay them without giving them access to my bank account and they're now ignoring me.

I've reported it to Action Fraud and sent the crime number to them and they've only replied with 'call us'.

 

Advice?