I logged on my PC this morning just in time to see seven emails from Paypal notifying me they had paid Skype - for seven different charges.
"This email confirms that you have paid Skype ([email protected]) 100.00 EUR using PayPal. The exchange rate for this purchase is 1 USD = 0.771576EUR."
I had never even heard of Skype. So, I signed onto my PayPal account and called them at the same time. After 40 minutes and three transfers, I finally spoke to someone in the 'Resolution Department' who said that they had software that had determined that the charges were fraudulent and that they had refunded all the monies to my PayPal account - in other words, I had approximately a $30 credit before the changes hit - and I had a $30 credit after they refunded... BUT BUT BUT charges of approximately $750 had been passed on to my banking account. And they said there was NO WAY they could stop those charges from going through. AND, by the way, even though their own software had detected the fraud and done the 'refund' - it wasn't a REAL 'refund' - that would occur over the following 3-5 days. I asked that my account be closed (which is something you would think they would suggest to YOU) but they said they couldn't do that as I now had 'transactions pending'. So much for 'help'.
I then had to call my bank - and the bank suggested that I wouldn't be secure unless I closed my checking account and opened a new account. I have had that checking account for thirty years. Now I'm faced with having to contact everyone that is currently 'direct depositing' into my account. I have to re-enter all the info in the 'direct pay' for every bill that I pay. And, I lost all the online data, i.E., transaction data and check data that was connected to that account. And since it takes approximately 3-5 days for a new account to get setup - I lost access to the money in my old account.
Fraud is ugly. And hopefully if it happens to you - PayPal won't be on the 'other side'.
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