My 13-year-old was scammed on Paypal… it says he owes £4,500

My 14-year-old son is being pursued by Paypal for a debt of nearly £4,500 after he was the victim of a scam.

In September 2022, aged 13, he was befriended online by someone claiming to be a well-known Youtuber who makes videos about gaming and football. We now believe he was not the real Youtuber, but a scammer impersonating him. He asked my son if he could design some images for him to use on his Youtube channel, saying he would pay him.

Without my knowledge, my son set up two Paypal accounts. You need to be 18 to do this, and when prompted he said that he was. He accepts this was wrong – but I am furious that he was not asked for any proof of age, address or ID. These are needed to set up a bank account, so why not a Paypal account?

Soon after my son was paid for some sample images, the fraudster tricked him into handing over his Paypal logins and password details. He then changed them, locking my son out of the account.

After that, the scammer used my son’s account to buy several digital products and services, worth thousands. Once he received them, the fraudster then requested chargebacks. By the time my son regained access to his account, Paypal had recognised these chargebacks were fraudulent and wanted the money back – meaning there was a £4,500 debt under my son’s name.

In November, my son broke down in tears and told me all this. Since then, I have made countless calls, emails, letters and messages to Paypal to try and get this sorted, but the debt still stands.

Over two weeks in January, my son received several calls and text messages from a debt collecting company who had been instructed by Paypal. He was extremely distressed by them. I repeatedly provided copies of my son’s passport and birth certificate to Paypal to prove his age, and asked that they only contacted me about this matter – not him. However, Paypal still kept sending emails to my son about the two accounts. 

I am furious about the distress this has caused my son. I’m also worried it could affect his credit rating once he does turn 18. Can you help? Anon, via email

Helen Crane of This is Money replies: I am really sorry to hear that this happened to your son. It is sadly easier than ever to become a victim of an online scam – and despite knowing their way around the web better than anyone, evidence shows that young people are among the most at-risk.

You told me that, like many teenage boys, your son loves gaming and sports – and unfortunately it was this enthusiasm that the fraudster preyed on, pretending to be a popular Youtube video creator and asking him to make some thumbnail images to appear on his page. 

By the time you found out what was happening, the scammer had already disappeared and left your son with nothing but a £4,500 debt.

Your son didn’t have that kind of money in his Paypal account, so the scammer must have used his own card – or money moved from other accounts he was controlling – to buy these digital products, and then requested a fraudulent chargeback once they were received, pocketing the cash. 

Once Paypal realised what happened, it wanted the money back but the scammer was nowhere to be seen. 

You spent weeks getting in contact with Paypal to explain what had happened and try to sort this situation out, but to no avail. 

This ended in a frankly outrageous scenario where your son – since turned 14 – was contacted on his mobile phone by debt collectors working on Paypal’s behalf. 

Thankfully, once you told the debt collection firm he was a minor you say it immediately stopped pursuing him, although the saga with Paypal itself still continued. 

This distressing situation could have been avoided if Paypal had sorted the issue when you first got in touch in November. 

Yes, he broke the rules by claiming to be 18. But teenagers have always lied about their age, and always will – whether it is to sign up to a TikTok account (restricted to ages 13 and up), watch an age-inappropriate film, or buy a drink in a pub. 

And it must have seemed like a harmless fib at the time. All he was doing, in his mind, was finding a way to get paid for his artwork.  

Your question as a father is, why was this able to happen? 

If a 13-year-old walked into a bank and tried to open an account they wouldn’t get very far. They would be asked for proof of ID and address, and then told to come back with a parent or guardian as they were under 16 – the legal age to get a bank account independently.

But Paypal is not considered to be a bank, so customers only need to provide basic personal details such as their name and email address.

People who sign up to Paypal are asked for their date of birth, but in order to get through they can simply lie. Being under 18 breaches the site’s terms and conditions and if Paypal discovers someone using an account is under 18, the account will be frozen but, of course, this is not always discovered.

Not being a bank also means customers using Paypal don’t have access to the same protections when things go wrong.

Most major banks are signed up to a voluntary code of conduct, overseen by the Lending Standards Board, that requires them to refund blameless scam victims in certain scenarios – but Paypal is not. 

Paypal users are also generally not covered by Section 75 purchase protection when paying on credit cards.

Point of difference: Paypal is not subject to the same codes of conduct as high street banks

You have also found Paypal’s customer service to be poor – and it seems many people agree with you. On Trustpilot, 72 per cent of Paypal UK’s reviews are one-star. 

In particular, you say you repeatedly asked for Paypal staff to contact you, rather than your teenage son about this debt but that your son continued to receive messages about it. 

This was because your son’s case was being looked at by two different teams at Paypal, and some of the messages were sent automatically, rather than by a real person – a system that in my opinion almost never works well. 

All in all, you were seriously unimpressed with the way you and your son had been treated by Paypal, and its persistent refusal to stop chasing your son for a debt he did not rack up.  

Only when I contacted Paypal did it finally agree to clear the debt on your son’s accounts, which have now been closed down.

A spokesperson said: ‘Paypal recognises the distress and inconvenience caused to the family [of this reader] by this issue.

‘People must be at least 18 years old to open a Paypal account and use Paypal services. New customers are asked to declare their age when they open an account.

‘Paypal is clearing the full amount of the debt, has closed both accounts and confirm that this incident will not affect [his son’s] ability to obtain credit after he turns 18.’

You have told me you are not happy with this response, and the fact that Paypal has still not apologised to you or your son for what happened. 

I therefore asked if Paypal would compensate you for the distress caused to your son; money which you said you would donate to the disability charity Scope. It declined. 

Finally, I asked whether a credit check had ever been carried out on your son, or a credit file opened. Paypal confirmed it had not, as this is not possible on someone under the age of 18. This at least means your son’s future finances won’t be affected by this sorry episode. 

Nonetheless, you remain frustrated at the fact this has only been sorted thanks to my intervention – and that your son was able to get a Paypal account without your knowledge or consent. 

It is not Paypal’s fault that your son was scammed – but the lack of proper age checks on its platform mean that more young people could be left vulnerable to these nasty chargeback frauds.