As of yesterday, PayPal has finally restored my money- less fifty dollars that I seem to count that they have not. I will carefully go back over that, and see if they still do indeed owe me fifty or not. If so, I will pursue it further. It is hard for me to track because whoever did this, used different ways for Pay Pal to pay- from my debit/credit card, directly from my bank, etc. That makes the method of returning the money different. Some is reversed through the bank, by pay pal,..some is put into my pay pal account. I say they restored it, but it can take four to ten days for it to be accessible to me. I can SEE it, but I can't use it yet.
The bank removed the NSF fees- but what a pain this has been. I had to print out every email from Pay Pal and all the 'unauthorized transaction' claims I had. Take those to the bank. The bank had me deposit 20 dollars in my account to bring it to zero- and I told them, well, wait now- there was enough in the account that it wouldn't be at zero before my money was stolen. They explained that once they removed the NSF fees, if I deposited twenty dollars, the account wouldn't accumulate MORE fees while I waited to get my money back.
I even told them they were scamming me, as I handed over my twenty dollars.
I signed all paperwork necessary at work so that my paycheck will not be direct deposited- couldn't risk that money being frozen. It has been quite the struggle, with NO money, for this past ten days, or so. But pay day is in my sights now- this Friday- whooo hooooo.
My debit/credit card was canceled- so I had to contact the places that I pay automatic payments to every month and tell them I had ordered a new card- and I will contact them, make a payment, etc...
and in the mean time, I am playing the "please don't shut off my cellphone" game. (Dont even get me started on cellphone companies...and their fees).
What bothered me so much, still does, is I do not know how it happened. I know I was rather confusing when I said that I received a strange email- but it wasn't one of the Phishing Pay Pal ones. It was from someone who had been paid with my account, telling me he had been out of town for four days- but now my status on his web page had been upped to VIP.
I did receive a letter in the mail yesterday from a company stating that my private information may have been 'compromised' when I purchased a gift card. They claim to be the owner/financial provider/ something, for gift cards. It is not specific to what gift card- and Christmas
did just pass. They are telling me to contact all credit reporting companies and my bank, etc. They apologize blah blah blah...I can only think of two cards that I purchased. One was a Visa gift card that I used my debit card to purchase at a store near here, and one was a card I purchased from a grocery store in New York- I bought that online, from their website- and its possible I used Pay Pal to pay for it. I will have to check that to see.
This has been very frustrating, financially painful, and quite the eye-opener. I had not realized how dependent I had become on that plastic card in my wallet until this past week. Until my bank account was empty- and now, frozen. Cash- what a concept. I plan on using this experience to better live within my means, and pay cash for more...and be more protective of my passwords, etc. I really used to think I was too poor to be a victim of identity theft/robbery, etc. And I was wrong.
I will use a separate bank account for Pay pal for now on- and that same one will be used for Christmas purchases. I changed my passwords everywhere- even here, email, Pay Pal, the bank, etc. Probably wont even remember half of them now.
I am almost through this, just not quite.
Thanks for asking.
