I believe this too—$1,500 gone just like that. I received a strange email in the morning but ignored it. Then, around 2 PM, my client’s payment was declined. He said the error claimed he was out of the country. This was odd because he used the same card, name, and address that worked two weeks prior.
I sent the client a new quote to see if it would help, but the same error occurred. Frustrated, I called PayPal "support," only to realize I was the entire call was a scam claiming that my paypal account had been hacked and that's why my client couldn't pay. The person on the other end we could stop the hacker out of Ohio if I just follow directions. I'm out of $1,500 because both both PayPal and Cash App refuse to to allow me to file a dispute, blaming me for what happened. My bank and Apple help me reverse my charges. They didn't do anything wrong but helped me.
It felt like too many things went wrong back-to-back. Yes, I regret following the directions of what turned out to be scammers, but I’m a business owner with responsibilities. The root of the issue is that if PayPal hadn’t rejected my client’s payment in the first place, I wouldn’t have needed to contact support. PayPal never informed me via email or text that my client’s payment was denied. However, they did allow me to charge my PayPal business debit card three times, despite all three charges being stopped and pushed through after three attempts. I can’t even file a dispute on those charges—funny how that works.
PayPal has been a nightmare. Just a month ago, they held $3,500 for 21 days, even though I’ve had a business account for over two years and a personal account for more than 12 years. Then they rejected my client’s payment just two weeks after I submitted sensitive documents to them, including wholesaler pricing and supplier information, to unlock my funds. I was furious about providing this information, especially since I already have LLC paperwork and a seller's permit, which they didn’t even ask for.
I think the call I made to PayPal support was somehow rerouted to a scam setup. The scammers knew too much, and while I obviously didn’t record the call, if I had, I believe it would have proven they had access to information they shouldn’t have.
