Unauthorized Payments to Microsoft Corporation

[Deaddoll00]

I was wondering if anyone has exerienced this:  Last night, I received an email notifying me that several charges had been made on my Paypal account on July 3d (I had a balance on it, which was used on these charges) that I had not authorized or heard of, paying to "The Microsoft Corporation". These are several charges, specifically:

$4.99

$19.99

$49.99

$4.99

$19.99

I've already filed a fraud claim with the Resolution Center, but wanted to document here and also ask if anyone was having the same experience? The transaction details provide zero information aside from the fact that the charges were paid to the "Microsoft Corporation" and a long distance "customer service" contact number, **remove number**.

[muktuk14]

Same thing happened to me. I reported it already to paypals fraud department but glad to see I'm not the only one. I would really like to know how someone can scam a bunch of people like that and paypal take away our money without even asking about it. My invoice said "George". They didn't find that odd at all?

[thexxxtreme]

Had purchases charged thru paypalacct today says went microsoft corp.   billing description was random letters. i know i didnt do anything with microsoft...  transaction was listed as shopping cart??  why cant they give us any details or stop these payments once we call?

[Juicebox]

If you have not received any resolution and your credit card was charged (via Paypal), I would recommend contacting the bank and initiating a dispute with them...if all else fails. I've recently had an incident involving unauthorised transactions on my bank card. I filed a claim, got it expedited, refunded, and now the bank will place pressure on the service involving a financial investigation of the unauthorised transaction.

My affected service was not Paypal, thankfully. Rather, another "reputable" service which I will not name. In the case of cc involved fraud, banks are more thorough and cut throat when dealing with these claims. Good for us.

[yoshyosh]

Same happened to me and have yet hear danything from pay pal after filing a claim. 
I also received an unknown payment for $30.00 from who knows who.  I just know it was international.  The funds were taken out immediately that paid the "microsoft corp."  bill of 49.99. 

Please CANCEL the pre-approved payments if you havent done so for "Microsoft Corporation"  since I'm sure they will keep taking out funds. 

[Gulmot]

Someone made a charge on my account to Microsoft for $49.99 17 minutes after someone had sent me $55 and then canceled the payment.

[jluster]

This seems to be common, at least as far as my circle of friends is concerned. I actually found this trying to help them to resolve the issue. Paypal seems to not acknowledge this happening and I am a little unsure how this works but I think I can offer an explanation on the "someone sent me money and immediately cancelled it" part.

If you wanted to pay someone from a paypal account you don't control you'd have to make sure there's enough money in the account. Now, what if you couldn't check that? Maybe because you are using an exploit that is not based on the user's password but somehwere inside PayPal's system?

You could send that person the money you'd need to make the payment ($49.99 or whatever), make the payment (which now goes through because the person has that much at least in their account - you put it there), and then cancel the payment. This double-dog-disadvantages the person whose account is being used but it makes sure the money goes through.

[Treimor]

Same thing just happened to me this evening.  When I tried to dispute it, it kept saying invalid transaction numbers.  German person's name, using a gxe.de email account, with a german address sent me $55.00, then charged Microsoft Corporation for $49.99

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.

[wulfom]

This also happened to me.

In my case I received two unsolicited payments of $30.00 each which were soon taken back (within 10 minutes). I then was charged 49.99 to "Microsoft Corportation" without my consent. It was done through an open "billing agreement" which had been set up through paypal to allow them to withdraw.

I immediatedly had my password changed and cancelled the "billing agreement". I also reported this to paypal immediately and the case is "under investigation".

I thought my xbox live account may have been hacked, but I called up Microsoft and there were no charges made to my account. I believe that this charge was someone claiming to be Microsoft so it would look legit. I also agree that these unsolicited payments had something to do with the unauthorized charge and somehow were used as a window to my account.

I hope paypal figures this out and I hope I get my 50 bucks back!!

This was very dangerous and I could have been taken for alot more, since I had my paypal setup to charge my dedit card if there are not enough funds in the account. I am going to remove this feature to be safe.

[jluster]

The Microsoft part seems legit. I called the number from the transaction details and it's Microsoft, the seller itself is verified. So the payment was made to them. Now, here's an odd thought - if the person who did it paid their XBox Live or Platinum account with it, then you'd have it easy - call Microsoft tell them you just want to verify what the money was for and that you suspect your kid, get the gamer tag or screen name of the person and take a road trip.

I am not adovacting violence, by the way. Talking to the kid's parents, however...