What a night...and day

No. But I wasn't looking for an apology.

The reps were all very polite and nice...but the first three I talked to, kept making mistakes as to what was happening. And they would open a service ticket, and the company rep (the actual tech I didn't get to talk to), would misunderstand what happened, and then I'd get an e-mail saying they couldn't find a fraudulent charge.

Finally, the fourth rep I called had some experience, and knew what happened. And a short time later, I got on the site, transferred the funds, and was relieved.

The problem with the first three reps was that they didn't know how to release the funds. A hold had been put on the account, because of the suspicious activity (the large series of charges made in one day).

Th thought didn't occur to me that I would just lose the money. I've had a few instances like this before....a hacked account, and money being put on hold, because someone was trying to get to it.


I didn't expect an apology from Paypal, because they did nothing wrong. In fact, they prevented my money from disappearing. I never get angry for being inconvenienced at a bank for protecting my money...even if it's from me.

And the bank payed the checks written for several days, , even after I had no money in the account. And no insufficient funds charges either. A phone call alerting me would have been nice though.

Wow Claude so sorry this happened to you. It really sucks going through such a drastic ruse to get hold of so much money.


Glad everything seems like it will be rectified

Yup. They required that I send them a photo of my drivers license. That was fun. I have a land line, and no cell phone. I had to drive to a local printer to have them send the e-Mail with my photo ID. From 8AM till about 3PM, it was running around and phone calls.

But I got the money transferred back into my bank, and there won't be any bank charges for the overdrafts.

Weirdly, this evening, I felt pretty good...like when you have a narrow escape from death, and your nerves calm.

The guy that really helped me told me he had been with Paypal for several years, and had never seen this exact attempt before, slowly trying to take over someone's account by transferring money into Paypal, and then trying to transfer it back out.

On a side note, when I first learned what had happened (late last night), I thought I may be having a heart attack. It was a lot of money, and I normsally assume the worst.

My thought all night was "What if I die before tomorrow? Cheryl will have no idea where the money went, who to contact, or how to get it back."

That was actually my only concern. I knew it would be corrected.

[QUOTE=Dan Riffle;11760338]Well, they do say hackers prey on the elderly...
/QUOTE]

The elderly an' stoopid are an even nichah demographic, which is why I always learnin' on up till muh brain dissolves.

2 rides, 1 mindset.

Thing is, what happens aftah yr apartment been raided an' sum gal shows in the mall in OBVS YR BRA?

Currency fluctuates but hearts should nevah sink.

So I would punch her in the face, grab my bra back, tear her panties off, an' spraypaint her folks' house in blood.

(K so revenge is a dish best served hyperboleed. My peccadillo, naht a universal truth nor nuthin'. Jus' sayin'.)

I hear that quite a lot about just about every company.

But I've never had anything but excellent customer service from any company I've ever dealt with.

When I used to have a store, and we had plenty of suppliers, I would hear other retailers complain about how poorly they were treated by their suppliers. And yet I never experienced that at all.

I finally came to the conclusion that it was just a better story if the customer complained...and played the victim.

the important thing is that we aren't at fault, we blame someone else for our trouble...especially if it's a company....and be the victim of injustice.

It's never us...it's them.

You have to understand human nature. We almost all have a need to tell stories...we also have the need to be seen in the best light.

I used to finance high end vacuum cleaner sales, and other instalment contracts.

Occasionally, I would have to visit the customer. Always...always, I would get a story about how they were treated unfairly by "The company".

Of course, the company consisted of me. So I knew these stories were nonsense.

But why would Paypal close someone's account? Always, because the person did something to warrant that closing.

There are a lot of people that used Paypal for get paid online. I do too.

I've known perhaps a few hundred businesspeople who have had their financing pulled, their Paypal accounts closed, or their bank account closed.

After I hear their tale of woe, I found out what they did. Always always, it's something they did to fully warrant that account being closed. And even after they tell me what they did...it's still that they were treated unfairly, not that they caused it to happen.

People love to tell stories. And in those stories, they are nearly always either the hero or the victim...never the cause of harm...never the one in the wrong.

You'll never hear "I charged the customer twice, and then the customer complained to Paypal, and I lost my account....because it was the fifth time in a month."

That doesn't make a good story. That's why all the stories make them sound like victims.

When we hear these stories, we never get to hear the company's side of it. And my guess is that it's going to be a different story....one full of dates, customer complaints, and receipts.

When you hear about someone having their Paypal account frozen or closed...my guess is that the next company they use will also treat them unfairly...just like the companies before.

Companies don't want to lose the business of good customers. Customer service is designed to solve customer complaints and solve problems, not cost the company money.

So when someone loses their account, it's because they have done something bad, and the company has to protect itself. And if it's really a mistake, the problem is corrected.

Paypal used to be like this more in the past but they have moved more into conventional banking and practices. Having said that they have to be stricter being exclusively online.

I've had several internet service people tell me that your Username and Password are key.

Make each one long, complicated, and include Capitals, numbers and symbols. My new passwords are about 20 figures that are indecipherable.

That's how they usually get into your account. That, or by tricking you to give your information with forged e-mails.

One thing to remember, thieves don't like a challenge. They go after easy pickings. Just don't make it easy.