Unable to retrieve$ 700 from her deceased husband

Photo Marie-Ève Dumont
Claudette Larocque has sent 13 pages of documents to PayPal to prove the death of her husband and recover the money, without success.

Marie-Eve Dumont

Friday, 23 march, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Friday, 23 march, 2018 01:00

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A 73-year old woman is unable to grieve, because she is fighting for nearly a year, with the company’s online payment PayPal to recover the $ 700 that are in the account of her deceased husband.

“It is immense stress for me. It pushes back the time when I will be able to move on to something else because it is the last thing that remains for me to adjust to the estate of my husband, ” says Claudette Larocque, who lost his spouse in march 2017, after 35 years of marriage.

Ms. Larocque claims to have called over thirty times the company PayPal since last year so that the money parked in the account of her husband being transferred in his.

Ms. Larocque has never had access to the account of her husband since his death. He is kind of frozen since last year. So, it was Impossible for her to attempt to spend the money to empty it.

PayPal asked her a battery of documents to prove the death of her husband in order to make the transfer and close the account.

13 pages

“I sent 13 pages of documents, the death certificate, marriage certificate, will, our two identity cards, it was never enough. I have never sent all the papers to close his other accounts and it only took a month or two to adjust all the rest, ” sighs the man in his seventies.

He has even taken it to return it three times because they had been lost by the company or the employees said they did not have receipts.

During each call or email exchange, or on Facebook, she spoke to a different person at PayPal, so you can not be able to do a follow-up.

“I was told several times that everything should be settled and they would call me back in the day, while it has never been done. When I asked for a number to be able to talk to the same person, I was told that this was not possible, ” she says, discouraged.

“It’s my money “

Ms. Larocque has thought several times to be let down, tired, multiply the number of calls and approaches on the internet so that it is not very clever from behind a screen in addition to being badly affected by his grief.

“I begin a little to get over his death, but it is not the end. It is my money, I don’t want to leave it to a company billionaire “, she insists.

Once joined by The Journal, PayPal has assured that the case of Ms. Larocque was a “top priority” and that he is already working with her to find a solution quickly.

The giants of the internet need to be vigilant

“The big companies are unfortunately not the distinction between a person who wants to defraud and another who is deceased,” said Steve Waterhouse, an expert in computer security.

Photo courtesy, www.afiexpertise.com

Steve Waterhouse, an expert in computer security

The web giants such as PayPal have no choice but to be vigilant to ensure the security of their customers ‘accounts since the fraud attempts are common,” says Mr Waterhouse. The fact that these companies do business around the world, where the official documents and the rules are different, adds to the complexity of the files.

“These companies are systematically exposed to fraud. They do not want to continue because they would have allowed an attacker to take money from the account. It must be waterproof. It is therefore normal to ask for the evidence. They must do this all the time to submit forged documents, ” insists the specialist.

Adding to the testament

However, it is not normal to have a period of one year to close an account, ” says Mr Waterhouse.

“I am surprised that it takes so much time. It is the zeal or neglect “, he believes.

To avoid such problems, Mr. Waterhouse considers that it would be a great time to include information on its electronic accounts in the wills.

“It is not stupid to think in the modern era. A will should include the access codes, the passwords list and a signed power of attorney to allow someone to access our accounts to our death. One might also include what we want it to happen with those, if we want this to be a page in memoriam for example, ” suggests the expert.