Fake v/s Real PayPal, who wins?
Happy weekend!
Hi Guys, I would like to share my "Customer Experience" with Paypal and learnings.
A little background
Today I got an email from Paypal saying
"We've detected that your PayPal account has been accessed fraudulently. If you did not make this transaction, please call us at toll-free number +1 (888)-224-7574 to cancel and claim a refund".
Now the journey start
I immediately called the above number to cancel the transaction.
Within the 1st ring, a human picked up my call and assured me that its a fake invoice and he can help to cancel it (+1 for immediate customer attention)
He asked me only the Invoice number (given in the email) to fetch my information (another +1 for not asking for too many details for verifying the account)
Then he asked me for remote access to cancel the account, which caught my attention ;) I denied and disconnected :)
He called me back and apologies for the connection drop and resumed the conversation where left (another +1 for a callback and resume where left, rather than restarting the whole conversation with another agent).
I asked for language support (in Hindi) and he immediately connected me with another Hindi-speaking agent (Mr. Singh).
Another +1 for the quick response and language support.
By now I was sure that it was fake, I log in to my account, and the customer experience with legit #paypal started
1 - I saw the fake invoice and I could see the cancel button. I successfully cancel it.
I wanted to report this as a scam.
2 - I did not give up, Goto Help > Contact us > Dispute a transactions
Issue-2) The system could not find any transactions in the last 180 days. So No Dispute could be reported
Boooom.....
3 - Still did not give up, Contact us > opened a chat window > BOT
领英推荐
Issue-3) After interacting with BOT it ends up saying "No Agent is available in IST time zone (account was created back in India), Please come again tomorrow at 9 AM IST.
>> Grrrrrrr, why can't they redirect to any available agent in the world?
4 - Still fighting, Contact us > look for the toll-free number,
Issue-4>> Could not find the number, it's taking me back to the BOT messenger
5 - By this time I was frustrated and proceed to Close my account.
Issue-5>> Surprise!!!!!
"Unable to complete the request" (refer to the screenshot above)
>> Whatttttttt, More frustration.
6 - Finally Google helped me to find the toll-free. After interacting with AVR for 20 minutes, an angel appears and helped to report the fraud invoice and close my Paypal account.
So Finally I could resolve the issue and close my account to avoid any future hacks.
Learnings
1.?Lack of focus on security?
The email came from the [email protected] account. #paypal could have blocked such emails simply by searching "+1 (888)-224-7574" and some keywords in their content.
2. System not designed for quick actions
#usability is important, A simple #dispute #reportfraud button next to the invoice on the UI could have saved so much effort.
3. Lack of data capturing for further research?
How #paypal is going to differentiate a regular cancel v/s scam invoice in the absence of such workflow?
4.?Companies should prioritize #customerexperience over #profit.
Automated Systems are not Yet mature enough to understand human emotions,?especially in panic situations. Imagine a 911 call went to BOT :). Saving money by replacing humans with automated systems (BOT) may not work always.
5.?Companies should push law & enforcement agencies to take strict action against such scammers. How come there is a whole call center is running by such scammers +1 (888)-224-7574
This whole episode reminds me of Netflix series #jamtara