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F*** you Bank Of America, F*** you Paypal

BrettChaotix

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So I go online to check my bank account today and I notice a $1,500 transfer to my paypal account that I didn't authorize. It happened at 2:08am on Xmas Eve - I was out with friends! I jump over to Paypal and see a instant account transfer to some name and email I've never heard of before. Yup, it looks like someone stole my paypal password somehow and got into my account. I didn't click on any phishing links, all of my PC's are safe, I think I must have checked my paypal account from either a work computer or a friend's computer and that's how I got smacked. I look back at my BoA transactions list and notice it's still in "pending" status. Awesome, I think to myself! Surely, I can call them, report fraud and stop the transaction - after all, the money is still in their hands right?! Nope. According to BoA you have to wait for the withdrawl to be posted before you can actually file a fraud charge... which takes 10 days to process. I have to wait 10 days for them to steal my money before I can take action to prevent them from stealing my money
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OK then, let's call Paypal and make sure the money never gets to our fraudster... Paypal tells me that their system auto-flagged it as a fraud transaction this morning. However, since they haven't received the money they can only file a fraud claim in pending status. If/when they receive the money, they will kick it back to me which will take (drumroll....) 10 days
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Maybe I'm being naive here but this can't be OK, can it? I can understand Paypal's situation but I think BoA should be a little more pro-active at protecting their customers. While on hold for 20 minutes I had the time free to change the passwords on all my accounts.
 

rach2jlc

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Wow... that sounds scary. I think I may do a round of password changes, too. Just to be sure. I guess I've never really thought about how easy it would be for some scammer to transfer money to themselves if they got your paypal password...
 

randallr

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That really sucks. I hate banks and paypal. Such a necessary evil for both.
 

MetroStyles

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That's some bullshit right there. Too bad Amex doesn't have a bank.
 

lee_44106

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That sucks ass.

I have purposely opend a small checking account with no more than a couple hundred bucks, linked to Paypay, just for this exact reason.

Best of luck recuping your loss.
 

dfagdfsh

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the good news is that it might not actually post. it usually takes much less than 10 days, 2-3 business at the most, so if by the middle of next week it hasn't completed you're probably in the clear.
 

Tokyo Slim

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I have a checking account with no money in it , linked to Paypal, good luck trying to steal anything. Bitches.
 

x26

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Originally Posted by rach2jlc
Wow... that sounds scary. I think I may do a round of password changes, too. Just to be sure. I guess I've never really thought about how easy it would be for some scammer to transfer money to themselves if they got your paypal password...

Sorry, too late. I'm off to Rome with your Pot-of-Gold...
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fcuknu

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This actually makes sense. The money has not been transfered from your BOA account into paypals hands yet. Being that Paypal has flagged it as fraudulent, when BOA goes to transfer it paypal will then (or should at least) tell BOA to cancel the transaction. A bank cannot cancel a transaction that is pending, they must wait until the transaction has gone through before they can do anything.

This has happened to me before with my WAMU debit account. Somebody tried to use my card and I saw the transactions online. I called up fraud prevention and they told me that I had to wait until the transactions were complete. When they went through, I called them up and had the charge reversed, no problem at all.
 

TyCooN

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**** ME RIGHT?

My friend had similar **** happen to him. He went straight to Bank of America in person to have a talk with them, and they canceled the transaction + got his cash back ASAP.

You might want to try that. Dealing with them over the phone along with the automated messages = punk ass bitches.
 

jdcpa

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I agree, BofA tends to be a very bad bank in terms of customer service. They are just too big to care.

I had an incident where they had lost thousands of ATM card numbers and the related information. Their solution was to block all the cards in that range. However, they neglected to inform any of those customers (thus me). The only way I found out was when I went to dinner and got the infamous "Sir, there seems to be a problem" responce from the waiter, since the card was declined. Talk about embaressing. Luckly, I had other cards.

I called BofA to see why the card was declined and the basic responce was..."We sometimes black list cards because of our great security...which oddly is frequently required because our central bank security is easily breached. Lastly, due to our great security, its our policy never to inform the customer."

I am sure that is really fun when someone is traveling and only has one card.
 

rxcats

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Around 2 months ago I noticed a charge on my BofA Visa debit card for nearly $200.00 paid to Amazon.com. I knew I hadn't purchased anything through them in months. I first contacted Amazon, and after a quick investigation (a few hours), they determined it was fraud. I notified BofA and they temporarily credited my card for the entire amount; this posted to my account in <24 hours. I then filled out the form they sent me and the credit was made permanent. They also cancelled my card and issued another one. It really went much more smoothly than I thought it would. I still don't know how someone acquired my Visa debit card number; the card was never out of my possession.
 

TyCooN

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Originally Posted by rxcats
Around 2 months ago I noticed a charge on my BofA Visa debit card for nearly $200.00 paid to Amazon.com. I knew I hadn't purchased anything through them in months. I first contacted Amazon, and after a quick investigation (a few hours), they determined it was fraud. I notified BofA and they temporarily credited my card for the entire amount; this posted to my account in <24 hours. I then filled out the form they sent me and the credit was made permanent. They also cancelled my card and issued another one. It really went much more smoothly than I thought it would. I still don't know how someone acquired my Visa debit card number; the card was never out of my possession.
I've gone through the same process a few times with BoA. Sometimes it was clearly fraud, and the temp credit they gave to me wasn't made permanent. It happened all the time on my old computer. Chances are some faulty **** happened online and someone managed to use your debit online.

What are some alternatives to BoA?
 

rxcats

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Originally Posted by TyCooN
What are some alternatives to BoA?


I started wondering the same thing after my experience. I worry everytime I use my credit or debit card online. Even though BofA was good about reversing the charge, it is not an experience I wish to repeat. I thought about buying a Visa "gift card" for online use. At least it has a finite value; if someone tried to charge over it's value, it would decline the charge. I'm sure there is some fee for gift cards, but if it is reasonable, it might be worth it for piece of mind.
 

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