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from the Email-confirmation-just-slows-us-down dept.
Recently, I received an email from PayPal asking to confirm my email address for a new account. Since I do not use PayPal, I figured it was a phishing scam and ignored it. However, I started getting other emails, which included updated address information and a sales transaction. The name for the account was not mine (but the first name was the same), and the address was in a different state.
Looking at the raw email headers, it appeared to be legitimate emails from PayPal. What confused me was that I never responded to the email confirmation message, so why would PayPal allow a person to perform a transaction without confirmation? Since the email in question is a Gmail account, I have had since Gmail beta, I wondered if my account had been compromised, but there is nothing to indicate that. Another idea was someone could be intercepting/listening to my email, but that is a lot of effort to do for a simple paypal transaction.
The likely scenario is PayPal failed to check the account email and suspend any further actions until the address is confirmed. PayPal sends an email to confirm the address, but does not bother to wait for the confirmation.
I called PayPal support, and after some time and educating the support person on how technology works, the person put in a support ticket. Not sure if the problem will ever get resolved or if PayPal will admit they have a problem. As of now, I have not received any more emails. I will have to decide if it is worth my time to call support again and get the disposition of the ticket.
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Tuesday April 18 2017, @10:45PM (1 child)
All these stories about PayPal being shitty and my own experience has been quite the opposite.
A couple of wankers tried to rip me off on eBay, once with a cloned/copied GameBoy Colour cart and once with a broken PowerMac Airport card (shows you how long ago these happened!). The wireless card was being resold by someone who said it didn't work on their machine and it turns out this was because it was broken; the vendor then tries to tell me if the *original* vendor refunds them, they'll refund me. One complaint to PayPal later and they refund what's in the vendor's account - about half the amount - then a few months later I get the rest. That knackered card is still at dad's place somewhere as they stopped responding to all e-mails about it after my initial e-mail.
The only cock-up was I bought something recently and PayPal sent an "e-cheque" instead; turns out this was because I'd let my credit card details lapse and they just hadn't told me about it. Fixed that and it's been fine since, he said with his fingers crossed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @01:48AM
I had a similar happy ending story although not necessarily because of paypal. Bought a phone on eBay and paid with a credit card via PayPal. Used the phone for four months when it suddenly stopped working. Carrier told me that it was just reported stolen and blacklisted (Presumably by the seller). Had to be an insurance scam. EBay and PayPal both told me it was outside the 90 day dispute policy, but the Paypal guy told me to dispute to credit card company. PayPal refunded credit card because seller didn't counter the dispute. I hope the seller pissed.
I don't like the PayPal horror stories, but I haven't had problems.