Weird Paypal payment... any ideas? [solved]

Grunfeld

Didn't want to hijack @Deadman 's "Debit Card Hacked" thread but in a similar vein I saw £40.01 for PayPal go out of my bank account on 24 November.  I have no record of spending it (no emails, nothing). 
Curiously my Paypal statement doesn't show anything for that date or that amount anywhere.  Ebay shows nothing. 
Questioned it with Barclays ("any ideas what this is?") and waited 5 days for some nob in Mumbai to copy/paste what I could already read on the statement, i.e. a payment to Paypal.
Haven't got a clue what that payment is for or what to do next. 
Has anything similar happened to anyone?  Or any ideas how to find out what this is?

boogieman

Sounds very dodgy. If it's not showing up on your PayPal account then it can't have gone to PayPal. I can't offer any advice beyond pursuing the bank for more details and telling them to investigate. Hope you've changed your passwords Oli? 

Emp_Fab

Contact Paypal rather than your bank.  They'll have a better idea of the details of the transaction.

m_c

Just because it shows as PayPal, it doesn't mean the transaction went through your PayPal account.
PayPal offers the option for sellers to accept cards without the buyer needing a PayPal account, however there should be some form of information after PayPal on your bank statement that should help identify the seller.

TheBlueWolf

Ask PayPal to investigate it too.

Fretwired

I think someone has got your credit card details and made a fraudulent payment. Report it to the Barclays fraud team immediately and let them sort it out. I have this sort of thing in the past.

m_c

I'd guess that if it had been a fraudulent transaction, Barclay's would of done something about it when Grunfeld queried it.

Did you pay for something using your card somewhere, as PayPal do provide card readers?

I'm not sure about Barclay's but certainly Bank of Scotland gives enough transaction detail to tell you what the payment method was i.e. Chip&Pin, Online, Cardholder not present.

paul_c2

Yeah, definitely sit down and reconcile all your bank statement payments with Paypal payments and purchases you've made (probably, but not exclusively on eBay), I suspect this is some kind of scam where a fraudulent payment is set up and it looks similar to a genuine Paypal one. Or, someone's bought something using your genuine paypal account; or you were drunk and bought something off eBay late at night.

I know that if you sell on eBay they basically insist that you have a Paypal account and automatically extract last month's seller fees that way - is it this?

Chuffola

Suspect someone has used your bank card to pay their paypal (whatever it was). That's why it won't show on your paypal statement.

Definitely contact the Bank's fraud team and leave them to sort it out. Cancel the card, change your online banking password etc. too.

tone1

Looks like a fuel payment at £40.01...trying to stop at £40 but going over by a penny? Just a thought...or your Mrs has bought you something using your PayPal account 

Fretwired

m_c said:

I'd guess that if it had been a fraudulent transaction, Barclay's would of done something about it when Grunfeld queried it.

No they won't. He just made a query which was answered. You have to contact the fraud guys. We had a spate of it here - someone used my wife's credit card to pay for their gas and electricity and buy clothes and shoes - total bill £1,500. The credit card company accused her of owning the property (which was in Portsmouth). She got her money back. The police weren't interested as the bank returned the money.

Grunfeld

Mystery solved.
Benign (but bloody confusing if, like I was, not sure how the PP system works).  It's kinda bleedin' obvious "when you know how."
Basically:  had a subscription due but it failed because card was old details (cancelled after being lost one night before two chaps looking for a Squirtle found wallet at 3am and returned everything).
Plugged in new card details and sub went.  But.... as a split.  £29.99 from PP balance and £40.01 from the bank to my PP which was the shortfall that had to go from my bank account to top up my PP balance. 
Only worked this out by clicking transaction details of every transaction and saw the amount -- the PP "summary" figure just showed the £70 total, not the split of £40.01 and £29.99.
i.e. it's different from a bank statement where you'll see everything coming in and going out.  So ideally, for me, I'd have seen £40.01 come in and then go out again as part of the £70 sub.

Thanks for input all.  Lesson learned = check every transaction in detail because it's not obvious from the consolidated summary.

EDIT

tone1 said:

...or your Mrs has bought you something using your PayPal account 

I don't think she could get a hit man for forty quid, even in Dagenham!

Deadman

Nice one. At least some dirty chav hasn't f*cked you over.