I submitted a payment through a reputable website on Sunday, December 9 using PayPal.
An electronic receipt was received via email on Monday, December 10, acknowledging the payment of $14.00 from my PayPal account.
On the evening of Thursday, December 13, I received an email at approximately 11:06 PM from PayPal advising me that my payment had been sent. I opened the email to discover that a transaction payable to a Yang Li in the amount of $236.00 had been processed through my PayPal account. I immediately signed into my PayPal account, and sure enough, the recent transaction history showed a payment to Yang Li in the amount of $236.00.
I initiated an online dispute/fraud claim with PayPal moments after accessing my account, and then called PayPal on the morning of Friday, December 14. I spoke with a "Corrinne" in the Limitations Department, who advised me that she would expedite my claim and that I should see my funds credited back to my bank account within 24-72 hours. This did not occur.
I called PayPal again on Wednesday, December 19, and spoke with an individual by the name of "Ty," who advised me that I had been misinformed regarding my claim being expedited and that it typically took ten business days to resolve. His exact comment during the phone conversation when discussing the amount in question was, "That's quite a chunk, normally it's like $15.00." There did not appear to be any sense of urgency in resolving this matter at all, although I am sure that had it been his own funds pulled out of his bank account, he would have expected immediate resolution.
PayPal has claimed that it has fixed all of its security issues in the past, and while on hold I listened to their recorded advertisement stating, "think of your PayPal account as your own safe deposit box." This is so far from the truth. This was flat-out fraud. A complete stranger was able to hack into my PayPal account and process a transaction, paying themselves a substantial payment.
PayPal is, of course, emailing the other party in an attempt to resolve this dispute. Do they really think they are going to reply? It was a bogus email account set up for the purpose of ripping off innocent consumers, and PayPal is totally nonchalant about it. Apparently it must happen all of the time.
Meanwhile, PayPal sits on funds that rightfully belong to you.
Do not use this company as a means of transferring money, or for collecting funds on sales or anything where a balance may be kept or your bank information is stored. They are not safe.
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