Is PayPal an open scam at this point?

Nothing about this makes any sense. What you're describing (from your comment) is somebody in the third world who sent money to you... which is a common scam to take advantage of you. It's not PayPal scamming them, it's them trying to scam you.

And second, locking your account but also not returning the money to the sender isn't a thing PayPal is known for doing. You don't explain why you aren't able to recover your account (you should be able to prove ownership of your e-mail/phone number/bank account), and you also aren't explaining how you know the money hasn't been, or isn't being, returned.

In any case, none of this has anything to do with HN, nor does it support your question/accusation of PayPal being an "open scam". PayPal does lots of crappy things, but this in particular doesn't seem to be one of them.

No, it's (obviously?) not a scam.

I think honest people perhaps don't realize how devious dishonest people can be, and trying to scam money out other people via PayPal, or even out of PayPal directly, is a common, frequent, everyday occurrence.

This isn't unique to PayPal. Any payments service is going to spend an enormous amount of time trying to deal with that problem. When it goes wrong, as it occasionally inevitably will, people are very loud about it.

PayPal does have a phone number, in the USA it is 1-888-221-1161, 6:00 AM PT to 6:00 PM PT. Other ways include a text chat service: https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/contact-us

If you don't respond PP give the benefit to the person submitting the ticket. Meaning they would have gotten their money back, and PP would not have awarded it to the person not responding

Generally this sounds off, but these "HN help me get customer support" posts are getting a bit too much

Just to give some context, the sender is from 3rd world country and this is a very meaningful amount for them. I got caught in the middle and feel just horrible.

Paypal is not a bank, but it acts like one, and they can and will freeze your account for minor things. I recall a big donation fund being shut down years ago and the only recourse was refunding to senders, but the international senders they just kept the money because they didn't feel like converting it back to their currency. They do not have regulations like a bank, so your money is really in their hands and you will have no recourse. I always recommend avoiding Paypal.

Paypal is nice as a credit card proxy, I use it from time to time on low quality or shady e-commerce. Those website also tend to support Paypal checkout, removing the need to enter my details or create an account.

Their track record has repeatedly shown that you shouldn't keep a balance on it. If you're a seller, you should look into an alternative that has a functioning support process.

I'm going to start shifting away from my Paypal usage after having some complications with disputing a charge. Never received the item and the process has taken about a month. I mistakenly assumed their dispute resolution was on par with Amex's, but I stand corrected.

No point in using unless I absolutely have to. Convenience sometimes bites you in the ass.

Back in 2019, my business partner sent me $30,000 USD over PayPal. PayPal took a fee of $1,690. At some cases, it is cheaper to buy a plane ticket and travel to get money in person. A year later, they have introduced an additional withdrawal fee of 3%.

** My business partner had problems with a wire transfer, so PayPal seemed as the easiest solution.

I just closed mine recently, for a lot of reasons piling up over the years (like Ally not being recognized as a real bank... rich coming from PayPal)

But most recently the unrelenting flood of money requests, with no ability to disable the feature, is finally what got me to move on

I don't know how this got flagged, if I can appeal to emotion, the sender that lost money, is a nurse and this is almost a monthly salary for her... If somebody can help, please send me a message.

I accept payment cards and PayPal in my SaaS. The PayPal option costs 10% more money (I tell the client about it in advance). Half of people still chooses to pay with PayPal.

I use Paypal to buy stuff on ebay all the time. My wife got locked out more than 10 years ago for no good reason, so I buy things for her if she wants something on ebay.

I closed my PayPal account some time ago. I'd heard too many horror stories like this one.

Can confirm PP is total garbage. Can not get in touch with anyone. My "horror story" is the opposite of yours.

I make a transaction. Item arrives. Money presumably arrives for vendor. Everybody is happy.

Then, out of nowhere, PayPal opens a complaint on my behalf. The vendor is confused, why did I complain? I didn't, but there's no way to enter that into the automated complaint form. I could not reach a real person, and in the end the vendor got a ding and I got money back that I didn't want for a product I had received successfully and that I was happy with. No way to cancel this kafkaesque nonsense in any way.

I never used PayPal again.