How do I know? I am homeless and PayPal stole $5414.78 from me.

I am not proud to be homeless, but things happened.

Jesse Money

My life took a drastic turn 3 years ago. I had a business doing almost 1,000,000 per year, several other companies, 5 pieces of property and I was worth over 5 million dollars.
In 1 day I lost almost everything. I had no money to my name, no job and no place to live. I owed out way to much to family members, and was left with Complex PTSD, depression, anxiety and was homeless.
It took a couple of years just to regain some of my self confidence and overcome some of the trauma I endured. I owe much of that to my friends & family for knowing how to save a psychologically drowning person.
After two and a half years I started back where my roots began, in retail, this time selling mostly online. It was a slow journey as I haven't fully recovered.
I was using PayPal's merchant services, having been a loyal business customer for over 17 years. I have done well over 1 million dollars in transactions with PayPal over that time.
Then in April 2019 without any notice I received this message on my PayPal account (Attachment A to the right).
An this is where it gets frightening. I have almost no money but what I did have was in my PayPal account $5414.78. Prior to PayPal limiting my account, I actually started to have hope again that I would be able to pull myself out of being homeless and grow my business.
I called PayPal customer service multiple times and asked what happened and why they limited my account. After many many hours on the phone and escalating the calls, these three things became apparent:

We do not know why your account was limited, you will have to read the terms of use and try and figure it out by yourself.
You will be able to transfer your $5414.78 in 180 days.(I was told this by every PayPal representative)
Send a letter to our legal department and they can tell you why your account was limited.

I sent a certified letter explaining my situation to PayPal's legal department (Attachment B, USPS tracking #70190140000004162357 Signed by E8) and I waited. And waited.... No response from PayPal's legal department.
In mid September 2019 I again called PayPal. I once again was assured that on October 4th, 2019 I would be able to transfer my money into my bank account.
I checked my PayPal account on October 2nd, 2019. I wanted to make sure that what EVERYONE from PayPal's customer service department had told me was true.
This time to my surprise On September 28th 2019 only a couple of days prior to me being able to transfer the money, PayPal had stolen all $5414.78 out of my account without any reasoning as to why. (Attachment C)
I have spent way over 4 hours on the phone with PayPal's customer service. On October 2nd I was told that the AUP department would call me within 12 hours. And once again there was no call.
I was again on the phone with PayPal's customer service: from Grey, to Gene #1296431, to Victoria #Q20041900 before being placed on a hold for an additional 30 minutes and then having Victoria hang up the call on me after being on the line for over 2 hours.
Everyone of PayPal's customer service representatives said: PayPal took the $5414.78 out of my account and not one of them could tell me a reason for doing so. I received no notice, no reason, no call, no email, nothing as to why PayPal stole the $5414.78.
Unfortunately I am still homeless and living in my truck working toward a solution were I can build myself and my business back up.
I would love to say that PayPal has helped me out, but I can only state that PayPal Steals money from the homeless to enrich itself and does everything in its power to lie and have customers run in circles trying to find out why.

Attachment B
4/6/2019
Kenneth Gottfried
1067 S. Hover St. Ste E 178
Longmont CO 80501
Paypal
Legal Department
2211 N. 1st st
San Jose California 95131
Dear legal department,
As a 17yr member of Paypal I was shocked to the core when without any notice my account was limited for life. Attachment A
There was no specific reason as to why my account was limited or given the opportunity to correct my situation.
I have researched and know I am well within Paypal’s guidelines of what I am selling as I have attached many other venders selling the identical item using Paypal’s checkout process. Attachments B
I was hoping you could specifically tell me why my account was limited and our relationship was ended.
I also had all my savings in my Paypal account and this puts a tremendous strain on me as I am homeless and this money was literally going to help me out of my situation.
Thank you in advance for your response
Kenneth Gottfried
keng@hcbbq.com

Indeed, to steal real money you need to reopen account thousand times. It can look suspicious from paypal system, so you will be stopped. I think people use another strategy to steal money from paypal. I took a look at the PayPal Extras MasterCard card statement you sent me from Synchrony Bank and it seems that rather than the account being reopened or activated this is simply a statement about a found credit balance. In this case $0.78. I can certainly understand how the arrival of a new statement on a long closed account can.

Fraudsters sometimes use an automated system to make voice calls, reporting urgent account problems and asking for account information. This is called Vishing. Here’s an example of what a vishing call might sound like:

'This is PayPal calling about a possible fraudulent transaction on your account. Please enter your PIN now to hear the transaction details. We need your immediate response to block this transaction.'

When users enter their PIN or password, scammers get vital information to access the account. So never provide any account information unless you initiated the phone call.

Stealing Real Money From Paypal Without

Caller ID can’t be trusted. Even if the Caller ID says “PayPal,” it’s not enough for you to trust the call. Scammers can easily fake a Caller ID, and it’s impossible to be sure the call is coming from where it says it is.

The Street

Sometimes automated calls will ask you to call back. They leave a number or make it simple to click-call from your smartphone. Don’t call these numbers. If you need to contact us, visit the Contact Us link on any PayPal page for the real phone number.