Two fraudulent charges on my PayPal. What now?

in this case

Two fraudulent charges for sports tickets to a Knicks-Bulls game, totaling $1,855, landed on David Melton’s PayPal account. One, for $1,098, hit a linked American Express card; the other, for $757, left his PayPal balance in the negative.
Melton opened disputes with both PayPal and Amex, and both denied him, insisting he had made the purchases. He had not. He spent hours trying to work out how it even happened.
His case shows a trap that catches a lot of fraud victims: when a thief logs in with your own credentials, the purchase can look legitimate to an automated system. Which raises the question, when the computer says you made a charge you know you didn’t, how do you get a human to actually look?

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David Melton faces a frustrating problem when two fraudulent charges for sports tickets totaling $1,855 hit his PayPal account. His initial disputes with PayPal and American Express fail. Is there any way to reverse the charges?

Question

I had two fraudulent charges show up on my PayPal account for sports tickets to a Knicks-Bulls game.

One charge, for $1,098 (My Ticket Tracker), went to a linked Amex card, and the other, for $757 (Vivid Seats), resulted in a negative balance on my PayPal account.

I opened claims with both PayPal and Amex, but they both denied my dispute. Both companies said I made the purchases, but I did not. I have spent hours trying to determine how this happened.

How can I get these charges reversed?

— David Melton, Monroe, Ga.

Answer

PayPal and Amex should have recognized that you didn’t buy these basketball tickets and should have reversed the charges.

Instead, you got caught in a trap common to fraud victims. When someone gains access to your account to buy tickets, the transaction often looks legitimate to the automated security algorithms used by financial institutions. The computer sees a login with your credentials and assumes you made the purchase.

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That explains why your initial disputes with PayPal and American Express were denied. They were likely reviewed by a computer algorithm, not a human being.

You did the right thing by refusing to accept the initial rejection. You kept a meticulous paper trail of your correspondence, which is essential when escalating a complaint.

You didn’t just rely on the standard customer service chatbots to resolve your problem. When your credit card and PayPal turned you down, you escalated your grievance to a real person with the authority to fix it.

I shared the executive contacts for Amex and PayPal on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org.

When you hit a brick wall with the frontline agents—or when they tell you “no” for the third time—it’s time to climb the corporate ladder. A brief, polite email to an executive can work miracles.

It certainly did for you. The results were immediate. Within 30 minutes of sending an email to PayPal, a team member called you. Later that evening, you received a message confirming that the transactions were indeed fraudulent.

PayPal began the process of refunding both transactions to the original forms of payment. The company removed the negative balance on your account, and you received a credit to your Amex card for the other charge.

Your success shows the true power of self-advocacy. By keeping a meticulous paper trail and refusing to accept a nonsensical automated rejection, you cut through the corporate bureaucracy. You proved that while I can point you in the right direction, the most effective advocate for your problem is often you.

Your voice matters

A fraud victim got told twice that he made charges he never authorized. Melton’s case taps into something a lot of people have run up against.

When you report an unauthorized charge, should a company be allowed to deny the dispute based on an automated review alone, with no human ever looking at it?
Who should carry the loss when a thief uses your real login to make a purchase, you, or the company whose system approved it?
Have you ever had a fraud dispute denied and then reversed? What finally got someone to take it seriously?

💬Read the comments

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Should a company be allowed to deny a fraud dispute based only on an automated review, with no human ever looking at it?

Yes

Fraudulent charges: what to do when your dispute is denied

A denied fraud claim is not the end of the road. Here is what people ask most. This is general information, not legal or financial advice.

Why would a company deny a legitimate fraud claim?

Often because a computer, not a person, reviewed it. When a thief logs in with your real credentials, the purchase can look legitimate to an automated security system: it sees your login and assumes you made the charge. That is how a genuine fraud victim can get an initial denial from both a payment provider and a card issuer.

What should I do the moment I spot an unauthorized charge?

Report it right away to both your card issuer and the payment provider, and clearly label it as fraud rather than a billing complaint. Then change your password and secure the account, since the charge means someone had access. Acting fast and reporting it as unauthorized is what puts your protections in motion.

Am I on the hook for charges I did not make?

Generally, consumers have strong protections against unauthorized charges, and the practical goal is to get the charge reversed once it is confirmed as fraud. Exact rights and timelines depend on the payment method and the company’s process, so report promptly and in writing. This is general information, not legal advice, so check your card agreement or a qualified adviser for your specific situation.

Why does keeping records matter so much?

Because escalation runs on evidence. A meticulous, dated paper trail of every claim, reply, and reference number is what lets you show a pattern of wrongful denial and move the case to someone with authority. Without it, you are starting over each time you talk to a new agent.

How do I get past the automated denial?

Do not treat the first no as final. Ask for the dispute to be reviewed by a human, and if front-line agents will not budge, escalate. A brief, polite email to a company executive, with your documentation attached, often reaches someone who can look at the actual facts rather than the algorithm’s guess.

What if more than one company is involved?

Fraud can span a payment platform and a linked card at the same time, as when one charge hits a card and another drives a payment balance negative. Pursue both in parallel, keep the claim numbers straight, and reference each when you escalate, since resolving one does not automatically resolve the other.

How do I keep it from happening again?

Change your password to something unique, turn on the strongest authentication the account offers, and review which cards are linked and what recent activity looks like. Monitoring your statements and acting quickly on anything unfamiliar is the best defense. For more help, see Elliott Advocacy’s consumer resources.