Watch your checking account for unauthorized ACH transfers to PayPal for fake ebay charges.

[storagecraft-gps]

This is a new thread on an apparent FRAUD problem I posted yesterday . . now I learn it is FRAUD or system errors causing PayPal to pull unauthorized transfers monthly from my Checking Account . . since 2013.   
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PayPal investigated and does not deny these are unauthorized transfers from my checking account.  They told me to have Wells Fargo reverse each transaction from PayPal back to my Checking account.  My problem is the Federal Regulations only allow Wells Fargo to reverse fraudulent transactions going back 180 days.   So I can recover about $200 of thousands transferred.

I should point out I don't know if this is insider-Fraud or System-Error at PayPal, ebay or Wells Fargo.  PayPal offered to give the contact information for their legal department.   Financial institutions will never tell you if unauthorized transactions originated with their organization . . so without a lawyer, I will never know if this was a PayPal problem or an ebay problem or a Wells Fargo problem. 

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This is what it looks like on my Wells Fargo account ( a single fraudulent ACH transfer )

There is a charge like this almost every month as far back as my QuickBooks records go to 2013.

8/16/2018  eBay Inc, Payments     181215 3980AOA728A57  John W. Doe     $42.40

These ACH transfers trace back to PayPal so its not like some outside hacker is benefiting from these transfers.   it has to be an inside job or a computer error originating from one of these three institutions.  

(Its odd that the money was transferred from my account to PayPals accounts and they say they have no record of these transfers)

Please read these 5 points so to avoid a lot comments and questions that are off-track.

1.  yes, Wells Fargo is my secondary funding source at PayPal

2. yes, legitimate ebay fee payments were being withdrawn from my PayPal Balance on the 15th of every month at the same time as the unauthorized ACH transfers for different dollar amounts.

3. yes my PayPal balance was sufficient to cover the all ebay fees on 95% of the instances where money was pulled from checking.

4. Most important - the PayPal investigation already established these were not legitimate transfers but can't or won't  tell me what happened.  This limits their exposure to 180 days of recovery. 

5.  Yes this is my fault for letting QuickBooks categorize these charges as ebay fees and I never noticed the problem until a few days ago.  
  

Bottom Line . . watch your checking account if its linked to PayPal as a funding source.

Wells Fargo has now blocked PayPal from pulling money from my Checking account.

[goodluckselling]

You might want to go to paypal and change your default and or back up payment setting to not included your bank. 

Just because your bank blocked paypal from transferring funds from your bank, you will probably get your paypal account frozen if they are trying to get funds from your bank because you did not change these settings.

I realize this next suggestion is not the same issue but while you are at it why not double check this as well?  Look at your recurring payment dashboard and make sure you do not have a bunch of monthly recurring charges being charged to your account.

Good Luck Selling!

[a_c_green]

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@storagecraft-gps wrote:

There is a charge like this almost every month as far back as my QuickBooks records go to 2013.

8/16/2018  eBay Inc, Payments     181215 3980AOA728A57  John W. Doe     $42.40

Are these payments for exactly the same amount each month?

Is "John W. Doe" a sample name that you are using here, or does that same name appear on the line item each month? If the same name each month, can you tie it to any previous transaction? I'm assuming here that that is the name of the person receiving the payment...?

Are you able to determine exactly when the first one was made? Are you able to pull up your email from that time period, in case there is a mention of something there that might be connected to these charges?

Is there anything at all on eBay that could be incurring a charge like that each month? e.g. some kind of recurring Store charge, or an incremental payment plan?

[divwido]

If those fees had gone to a credit card rather than the bank you'd be able to recoup every penny.

I don't think this is widespread since I check my bank account every morning.

[myescape]

Did you check your ebay account/invoices for these payments?

[storagecraft-gps]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@storagecraft-gps wrote:

There is a charge like this almost every month as far back as my QuickBooks records go to 2013.

8/16/2018  eBay Inc, Payments     181215 3980AOA728A57  John W. Doe     $42.40

Are these payments for exactly the same amount each month?

Is "John W. Doe" a sample name that you are using here, or does that same name appear on the line item each month? If the same name each month, can you tie it to any previous transaction? I'm assuming here that that is the name of the person receiving the payment...?

Are you able to determine exactly when the first one was made? Are you able to pull up your email from that time period, in case there is a mention of something there that might be connected to these charges?

Is there anything at all on eBay that could be incurring a charge like that each month? e.g. some kind of recurring Store charge, or an incremental payment plan?

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My actual name appears each month
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they go back to 2013, there are no email messages related to these items which always coincide with the date that ebay withdraws fee payments from my PayPal balance. 
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I have checked my ebay invoices.   There is nothing on my ebay invoices to match dates or amounts of the ACH transfers.

Remembering the Context . . these are ACH requests from PayPal and PayPal has no record of them.  Sounds like an insider job at PayPal to me because someone has credentials to remove the transfer-record after the money has been pulled from my account.  This sounds crazy I know,  but the money just disappeared and PayPal says to reverse the transfers.

[brites7214]

OMG,

I JUST SAW THAT ON MY CKING OR MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT, IM LOOKING FOR SOMETHING, I JUST PURCHASED FOR 42.40.   I HAVE THE SAME THING, OMG, YOU FREAKING ME OUT, WHAT CAN WE DO

[storagecraft-gps]

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@goodluckselling wrote:

You might want to go to paypal and change your default and or back up payment setting to not included your bank. 

Just because your bank blocked paypal from transferring funds from your bank, you will probably get your paypal account frozen if they are trying to get funds from your bank because you did not change these settings.

I realize this next suggestion is not the same issue but while you are at it why not double check this as well?  Look at your recurring payment dashboard and make sure you do not have a bunch of monthly recurring charges being charged to your account.

Good Luck Selling!

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I just removed the PayPal-Block on transferring from my Wells Fargo account.   Maybe if I  spot an unauthorized transfer in real-time I will be able to get someone to figure it out.  The next transfer will hit my checking account between the 16th and 19th depending on what happens on weekends.

[goodluckselling]

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@storagecraft-gps wrote:

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@goodluckselling wrote:

You might want to go to paypal and change your default and or back up payment setting to not included your bank. 

Just because your bank blocked paypal from transferring funds from your bank, you will probably get your paypal account frozen if they are trying to get funds from your bank because you did not change these settings.

I realize this next suggestion is not the same issue but while you are at it why not double check this as well?  Look at your recurring payment dashboard and make sure you do not have a bunch of monthly recurring charges being charged to your account.

Good Luck Selling!

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I just removed the PayPal-Block on transferring from my Wells Fargo account.   Maybe if I  spot an unauthorized transfer in real-time I will be able to get someone to figure it out.  The next transfer will hit my checking account between the 16th and 19th depending on what happens on weekends.

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I guess that is one path but it is not what I would do in this instance?  Instead of removing the block I would leave it and when paypal tries this transfer your paypal account will probably gets some kind of limitation at which you and paypal could see where that limitation is coming from.

As long as you and paypal know that both parties are trying to find where this is coming from, you should be fine with your direction.

Have you reviewed your recurring payments settings?  I somehow think this is where your issue might be coming from, although it would not generally be a ACH transfer for these kinds of payments, it would be a good place to review for unknown charges.

Good Luck Selling!

[dhbookds]

Are you (is your bank) sure it's PAYPAL accessing the account? as opposed to someone who is using the paypal name but not the real PP "destination" address? 

[daw365]

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@storagecraft-gps wrote:

There is a charge like this almost every month as far back as my QuickBooks records go to 2013.

8/16/2018 eBay Inc, Payments 181215 3980AOA728A57 John W. Doe     $42.40

2. yes, legitimate ebay fee payments were being withdrawn from my PayPal Balance on the 15th of every month at the same time as the unauthorized ACH transfers for different dollar amounts.

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Your actual name appears because it's your account, but you might be paying eBay fees for someone else, hence the different amounts almost but not every month.

[ohnojoey]

Sorry you are experiencing this messy situation. I have no clue. Good luck in fighting this!

I will say that I closed my Wells Fargo accounts a decade ago when they started opening accounts in my name without my permission or knowledge, and charging me monthly fees on free accounts that had the required balances.

(later there was a huge expose in the media of this fraudulent activity of WF signing up innocent customers to unauthorized accounts to steal money from customers)

The final outrage was when they withdrew $10,000 from my account for a $100 check I wrote. It took me over a month to get that back! I would say WF and their CEO's rates as one of the most corrupted business all time.

Just yesterday, I had to change back my chosen payment method (paying from the paypal balance)   It was switched to to charging my bank account,  but not by me.

[brites7214]

They removed the charge, can't find it anymore,

[juststuffisell]

I feel for you. My one and only bounced check happened courtesy of that infamous company AOL who, after cancelling my service, continued to draft my checking account for 3 years after. Back in the heydays - I think 28 years ago or so. I think it was 30 dollars a month or something like that for a service I didn't use, never logged into (they didn't have one record of me logging in and using the service) and did not have an active login to even be able to log into it....

I was furious when it happened, and embarrassed, that I did not have enough money to cover a check due to this..... Moral of the story for me, look at your bank statements every month and reconcile them to your check book - in your case quickbooks.

I do it with mine every month on quickbooks. I find all sorts of stuff - small dollar - that was correct, that I simply missed.

The account charge appears to be paying eBay. It sounds like someone is using your ACH to pay for their eBay fees and using another account to collect payments. Just a guess on my part - I would think the problem might actually be on the eBay side of this, than the Paypal side. It would be interesting to know how that works out.

I wonder if you can report the crime to the FBI - accumulated it is probably a bit of money. Might be a local crime report? Someone is behind it and the money went somewhere....to someone. It is a criminal activity.

Cheers

[daw365]

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@brites7214 wrote:

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@brites7214 wrote:

OMG,

I JUST SAW THAT ON MY CKING OR MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT, IM LOOKING FOR SOMETHING, I JUST PURCHASED FOR 42.40.   I HAVE THE SAME THING, OMG, YOU FREAKING ME OUT, WHAT CAN WE DO

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They removed the charge, can't find it anymore,

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Next time, take a screenshot. You can always delete if you don't need old screenshots or need the space back.