Paypal fraud- how hard is it to get your money back?

My boyfriend found a $500 debit on his account this morning from paypal (and believe me- we don't drop $500 on ebay, ever). He called the bank and his bank is AWFUL and won't stop payment. He's going to call paypal to report it as the person changed the passwords to his account too.



A credit card of his was stolen about a year ago and he has since closed it, but I have a feeling the same person found a way into his paypal account.



Has this ever happened to you and what was the outcome? Is he going to get his money back- and when? People who do this sort of thing are just horrible and I don't know how I would live with myself stealing money from someone. Especially $500!
Paypal fraud- how hard is it to get your money back?
I can't believe the bank won't deal with potential fraud. Your boyfriend should call back and demand to speak with the branch manager, or he should go to the bank in person. They *must* deal with a case of potential ID theft.



Please have him continue to contact his bank about this.



I'm so sorry this happened.



Do you have any idea how the person got back into his account? Are you talking about hacking? Maybe look into how to prevent it in the future. My husband and I were hacked twice three years ago. Our bank was good and worked with us, though. It took about a month for their investigation but after that time, even though they didn't actually find the ID thief, they returned the money to our account.



Good luck.
Paypal fraud- how hard is it to get your money back?
You need to go to the bank and talk to a bank officer the debit can be reversed. This is why ebay and paypals have so much trouble. You might even visit with the district attornies office. Yhis is the crime of fraud also go to http://www.ftc.gov and report it there
I agree with melanie. It is hard to believe that the bank will not help you with getting your money back from paypal. They should be able to file a charge back for you for paypal. Perhaps the person you talked to was not very educated in these matters and you should try talking to someone else.
Something similar to this happened to me, but it wasn't PayPal related. Some of this may give your boyfriend some ideas to try...



My bank had called and said there seemed to be suspicious activity on my account -- a lost debit card # that had been closed maybe 7 years ago. So they wanted me to authorize three weird purchases on it.



The lady only was able to tell me a little about the transactions before me cell phone battery weirdly died. Call disconnected.



I broke my neck getting to my bank branch in about 15 minutes and told the customer service lady what happened. She looked it up and said they'd gone ahead and processed it. I was NOT happy - and told three different people at the bank this. They %26quot;had%26quot; to undo this, I kept insisting. I had bills to pay and this was going to cause a shortage...



They said it was their policy to go ahead and process these online purchases, as it wasn't the online stores' fault. They said I could dispute it after the fact.



I told them this wasn't good enough or fair. Or even logical: If the bank knew that use of this old card number was suspicious -- and was suspicious enough to call me for permission -- and I gave NO permission (due to the call being dropped by cellphone), then it's wrong to process it.



Days later, I learned that I'd screamed 'bloody murder' loud enough to enough of the right people. They didn't wind up taking it out of my account after all. ;-)



Bottom line: Get the Fraud Prevention/Investigation dept. (or whatever) of the bank on the phone. These people are out of state, at headquarters. But they have the juice to undo things and protect you, if you tell them you NEVER authorized this, and the bank should have known to ask your permission.