PayPal has stolen my money. $500 is on hold and no reply

You probably heard already that PayPal sucks and here is another proof of these:

PayPal has stolen my $500!

It was a regular transaction, I exchanged with someone egold to paypal, she paid me with PayPal and then I paid her with egold, the same amount - $500.
One day later I see that PayPal took the $500 away from my account and put them on hold. It was 3 days ago. I emailed to PayPal twice and still no reply.

And the worst thing is .. there is really nothing to do with it. PayPal can even close your account and take all your money without ever explaining anything.

Only one hope is left there: if the rumors are true google may launch their own payment processor..

Why do people use PayPal? I've made over 1000 payments with egold and never had a single problem like this one and egold fees are much less, usually up to 1%.

Now, does anyone know any way to contact PayPal in such a way that they will answer?

 

Have you tried calling them? I've had my share of problems with Pay Pal, including funds being frozen but there was almost always a good reason or a way to resolve the problem.

Also what you describe sounds like a blatant fraud, in other words you've been had and I don't believe it's Pay Pals fault. Unless this is someone you personally know, I've heard of that fraud for quite some time.

 

hmm... how would paypal know about your transaction? just curious...

 

500$ is a lot money, PayPal have to respond!

Try to find for similar cases on google(search for 'paypal onhold problems' etc) and then you can probably see what you can do.

 

Sorry to hear that. Their customer service sucks just a little bit. When i first got one of them phishing emails (You need to update your pay pal info, click here and enter your password). So i have forwarded this email to pay pal asking if i should do it. In one week they told me that i should. When i clicked on that link the phishing website has already been suspended by their host.

 

I'm not familar with the person I've traded with, but I have trust in her, though I may be wrong.

Is there a way to cancel payment after it was made, do you think it's possible?

 

That would be on your egold end, what are their terms for fraud? The situation you describe you send me XXX in this currency and I'll send you XXX back is a long time internet based fraud, it's been going on for years. Just as bad or similiar to the Nigerian I want to buy X I'll give you X + 50% just send the 50% back.

 

Yeah, once I received a phishing email like this one too, but I realized quickly it was not real, because
1. I had no paypal account for this email address
2. the url I was redirected to was not from PayPal..

But this time it's a bit different..

 

Yeah, but the agreement was the person sent me the money first, egold has no fraud protection, but they don't do any problems either...

 

I would suggest contacting both egold and phoning pay pal. If you don't have their number you can try 1-888-221-1161

 

Yes with money that did not exist, or was not legally theirs to send. That's the charm in the fraud. What you describe is exactly how the fraud works.

A reason these con artists commonly target egold and the reason I do not use it. I've had an egold account for years, after reading stories on similiar events that happened to you I however have decided not to use it. I hope this is not the case and you'll get your $500 back

 

I understand you, I'll try calling them...

 

Not sure why you jumped on Paypal.. Clearly someone has trying to defraud you.

They got a report on a false transaction and responded until they could investigate. Your issue is with this person you transacted with.. Clearly they are the ones behind your problems. Paypal seems to be doing what they should do in such circumstances.

 

the problem with paypal is that they can get away with it. If you actually read their ToS, they state that they can seize accounts for no reason and hold the money in that account for up to 180 days (6mths), before releasing it to the owner.

It's crap, but they get away with it because of their brand. Most people trust paypal until they deal with something like this, then they become a subscriber to PaypalSucks, which is an awesome website

 

What sense does it make for 1 person to send you $500 just to send $500 back?

Sounds like you're not telling the full story...

 

i also faced same prob once and they stole my $45 and i had proof but they were not ready to listen. i phoned them so many times and in return i was kept on hold for half an hr. I withdrew my all money and closed the a/c there. Opened new a/c there. Paypal's customer support is damn poor.

 

Maybe she made a charge back? and by the way money exchange is not allowed by paypal. They are known to freeze accounts involved in such transactions.

 

I have been reading the posts above and i think we need more information to make a reply in which could help you.
We need to know more details about the transaction your posts have been undetailed.

I will try and help but i need to know the full story.

 

Well If you read PayPals TOS it says You can not use the paypal service to exchange funds. I have emailed them and called them to clarify this as I am a egold trader as well. But they have never limited my account for that reason, once I had some reverse the funds after I have sent the egold now this is like 30 days later. I emailed paypal and told them I had delivered the goods and how can they like 30 days later reverse payment for no reason. PayPal's answer was that the funds were fraudulent, so if the person who sent you the funds claims they were not sent by them or they hacked some one else's account paypal can and will reverse the payment or put it on hold whilst it investigates.

The only other thing it could be is that when they sent you the funds it mentions egold or exchanges and they happen to do an audit on your account or there system flagged it and they are looking whether to limit your account or just hold the funds.

When I do egold exchanges I have a 5-7 business day hold so that the funds can be cleared from paypal to your bank account where they are safe from paypal, and I also have different account just for exchanges.

Drew.

 

Thanks for your post
I'll try to push all my funds from PayPal now. So you mean it's better to write there that you buy goods and don't exchange money and wait few days before the next exchange.. But can PayPal know if you exchanged or bought any goods?