Just a Paypal Warning

Abby, I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems with them. I've never experienced such problems with them and I truly hope yours are straightened out soon!

Originally Posted by Abby

My SS is only in use for my healthcare and my real bank. Nothing else. I've only been using the thing myself (as far as not being controlled by my parents) for a couple of years.

I don't quite understand what you are saying, esp regarding your parents? Did you just recently get a new SS#? how could you only be using it for 'a couple of years'?

My mom changed my last name to my step-dad's last name when I was in high school and changed my SScard, as soon as I turned 18 I went down to the SS office and changed it back to my 'real name'; the entire time, I have always had the same # since birth.

Deffinetly something to look into and I doubt it has anything to do with PayPal. Banks or creditors will always ask for your SSN to open an acct, they usually don't need to see the physical card, but they do need the #. Best to try to figure out what is wrong with your # now before you try to do something else down the line, like buy a house or whatever.

hope you can get it figured out!

Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

I don't quite understand what you are saying, esp regarding your parents? Did you just recently get a new SS#? how could you only be using it for 'a couple of years'?

My mom changed my last name to my step-dad's last name when I was in high school and changed my SScard, as soon as I turned 18 I went down to the SS office and changed it back to my 'real name'; the entire time, I have always had the same # since birth.

Deffinetly something to look into and I doubt it has anything to do with PayPal. Banks or creditors will always ask for your SSN to open an acct, they usually don't need to see the physical card, but they do need the #. Best to try to figure out what is wrong with your # now before you try to do something else down the line, like buy a house or whatever.

hope you can get it figured out!

What I meant is that my parents have controlled my SS# until recently - I didn't start doing my own stuff till I turned 18 which was in 2009, so it's only been a few years. It has always been the same name & number, lol.

I'm sure it has everything to do with Paypal. While it is true that banks need it to open an account and don't need to keep checking it over and over I have used the card/# elsewhere since the Paypal thing and those companies never said anything bad about my SS either. I think they would say something was wrong if there truly was something wrong with my card. The number/card has never been out of my sight once so I honestly have no idea how it would be anything other than Paypal's fault. That info has only been given to a select few trusty businesses. HOWEVER, I will be seeing what is wrong just in case. Rather be safe than sorry right? Thanks April!

Originally Posted by Abby

That info has only been given to a select few trusty businesses. HOWEVER, I will be seeing what is wrong just in case. Rather be safe than sorry right? Thanks April!

In this case, it's definitely safer! Hackers, and thieves in general, have amazing ways of getting hold of some very important info, without you even knowing so it's very important to check now, later and often, just to be sure. If someone does manage to steal your identity, the faster you find out, the less HELL you'll have to go through to get it straightened out! Hopefully that's not the case though and Paypal will get you set-up. Good luck!

Originally Posted by Abby

It has always been the same name & number, lol.

gotcha, that's where I was confused. Well I hope it's just something silly like Paypal can't read the #s correctly and transposed them or something and nothing sinister like ID theft. Good luck!!

friend had the same problem or should i say i did because i was doing it for him. Its hard being a nice guy

Originally Posted by aboznut

Two ways to deal with this. One, use a credit card other than Paypal to pay for your purchases. Credit cards have protections that debit cards do not. Second, open an account speciffically to use for Paypal. Only put money in that account for Paypal, and only as much as you need. Do not put overdraft protection on the account, and Paypal cannot take more than you put in the account.

My two cents...

The advice about the bank account is spot on! It's also said a lot on the ebay seller boards. Paypal is not a bank and they're not regulated like one.

I do, however, have a couple of friends who love their paypal debit cards and I can understand their appeal. Probably good to double check everything, just to be on the safe side.

Originally Posted by bsharrah

The fact that they are telling you your SS# is wrong should be raising huge red flags.

I totally agree with this. You should find out exactly what is going on.

I'm not a technology maven by any means, but I do think that Paypal might be trying to be careful. I've seen a couple of Craigslist ads where people are offering to buy one's Ebay accounts for $30. There is probably a bunch of fraud attempts via Ebay/Paypal.
Anyone who thinks they should be ultra careful about who they give info to is correct. But by the same token, financial institutions are held accountable (and rightly so) for their actions, and they have a stake in making sure they are dealing with the right person.

Originally Posted by lucille

I totally agree with this. You should find out exactly what is going on.

I'm not a technology maven by any means, but I do think that Paypal might be trying to be careful. I've seen a couple of Craigslist ads where people are offering to buy one's Ebay accounts for $30. There is probably a bunch of fraud attempts via Ebay/Paypal.
Anyone who thinks they should be ultra careful about who they give info to is correct. But by the same token, financial institutions are held accountable (and rightly so) for their actions, and they have a stake in making sure they are dealing with the right person.

My point is I gave them ALL my info, as well as a screenshot of my card, and they still said they couldn't fix the problem. If I give them every ounce of evidence available that I'm me, never caused a problem with my account, etc... I should get a little more help than that. IMO of course. I realize they have responsibilities, but this whole thing is just a bit ridiculous. I'll admit though I haven't further investigated the whole SS thing yet. I strongly believe Paypal is the one at fault just by the way everything has played out. Once I do though I'll update this thread.

Abby, your original thread was on 12/23, today is 2/13. I am not judging nor preaching, but if someone said there was a problem with my SS#, the sun would not set before I initiated efforts to find out why that might be so.
Having been the victim of an identity theft, I can assure you that repairing identity damage is a horrible but necessary hassle, and if it has occurred, the sooner the repair is done, the less damage one suffers.