Cedar Point Charged My PayPal For Purchase I Didn't Make

I had done the payment plan for 3 season passes starting last August. They took $60 on the 18th of each month until March. On March 1st, I called them and paid it off early.

They did not charge me the $60 on the 18th, so I thought it was all taken care of.

Last night, or I should say this morning at 23:03:12 PDT (2:03AM Eastern Time) I got an email from PayPal with a receipt for payment of $300 to Cedar Point. When I logged into my PayPal, it just said it was a pre approved payment.

I have made no purchases of any kind, PayPal or otherwise from Cedar Point since buying 2 Winter Chill Out Tickets in January. (I paid off the passes with a credit card over the phone).

I will call their offices as soon as they open at 9AM, but thought I should warn everyone to check their accounts to make sure this did not happen to them as well.

This is a huge hit for me and I am worried sick. Will also call my bank at 8AM as soon as they open and see if it can be stopped.

This is one of the reasons I do not care for automatic deductions as it can create problems. When I do use these services I always link a credit card instead of an actual bank account. At least that way I'm not actually out any money if there is an issue.

I understand this is frustrating but I'm sure the park will resolve this for you so I wouldn't worry too much.

Yup I got popped for $140 at 7:31am this morning as well via PayPal... Curious to find out if it's a PayPal issue or an error on Cedar Point's end.

I just talked to someone at CP who says it has happened to a lot of people and they are working with IT to get it resolved. They are saying at this point it looks like it is on PayPals side. Hopefully this will be resolved soon!

I'm sure they will have it resolved soon, I wouldn't worry about it, you will get your money back.

They got me for $155 and I only have 1 payment of $31 left on my installment plan, so that's not going to work. I just called CP and they said it hit everyone that has Paypal for their installment plan, and it is actively being worked on to get the funds credited back to everyone that was affected. They are hoping to have it resolved before the end of today, and I was told to keep an eye on my account for any activity. They were also not sure as to whether it would be CP that notified us of the fix, or if it would be Paypal.

I got hacked last night after buying coastermania tickets. I did not use PayPal and I got hit for three $50 charges to some online company that sold gift cards. So today I had to cancel my card. Total pain in the butt!

I wouldn't put it behind me that it was someone who works at the park. just my 2 cents

I am on a recurring payment plan for my Hotel Breakers stay and my Discover card got hacked this past week for a purchase of some sort of gifts website. This doesn't sound like a coincidence.

Paypal toll free number 1(888)221-1161. Ebay's 1(866)540-3229.

As a past victim of fraud, the best thing you can do is once the charges have cleared, dispute the fraudulent charges with your credit card company, report the card info possibly stolen, and get a new one.

I noticed something suspicious on my email server on March 12th. If you ever get an official looking email on your email server (AOL,gmail,yahoo,etc.) claiming to be from Ebay/Paypal notifiying you of possible breach or needing update/changing of your password. Do NOT click the link to update your info. These are from crooks who prey on the unsuspecting to steal their info. ALWAYS go to the direct site's personal info link to update/change your passwords, NEVER go through an email link. Lesson badly learned here.

Contact Ebay/Paypal immediately if you get/recently have received one of these emails.

Those affected I advise you to change your paypal/Ebay passwords immediately, don't use similar ones that you use for other accounts. And please get rid of garbage internet security programs such as Norton or AVG who only do monthly virus,spam,malware updates. I've been hacked a few times through these programs. Go to your local Best Buy and invest $80 into a decent Internet Security program such as Kaspersky Internet Security which checks/updates on an hourly basis around the world for these things. You can also install the program on multiple devices. Money well spent.

I just randomly got an email saying in was refunded $248.00 USD .. but I never saw any other charges.. I'll keep an eye out.

Edit. It was from PayPal

I was refunded my $140. Thanks CP & PP for resolving this quickly!

Same here. I have a refund pending in my paypal balance for the full amount that was mistakenly withdrawn.

Use credit cards... they won't harm your cash flow in the event of an errant computer system, and you aren't liable for illegitimate charges. I don't understand why people won't do this.

Some people don't have credit cards, some people can cover a relatively small mistake. Lots of reasons.

Its so easy to get a credit card. No reason not to do it. I use my credit card for all purchases and just pay the balance off at the end of the month. No interest charges and I get all those rewards points that really add up quickly.

That's not a reason. It's not hard to get a credit card unless you have totally ridiculous credit.

PayPal is a credit card of sorts. I don't think anyone complained of overdrafts. Also PayPal ties to credit cards, and has its own credit card service. The argument is compleaty irrelevant, no need to inject opinion when it's not warented. Some people don't want credit cards and think they end up causing more harm than good.

The problem has been resolved, no problems.

Paypal has always been sort of shady. I don't understand the benefit, personally.

Having just sent someone money via PayPal.... PayPal is an easy, convenient way to send people money. A couple of clicks, enter the amount, click and done. I could have sent the money using my bank's website, but that's more involved.