Money sent to wrong account, PayPal says they can’t return it.

A few months ago I sent $40 to my friend to pick up some food on the way to my house. I typed her name into my PayPal app, it pulled her info from my contact list and I hit send, via friends and family.

She never got the money. Apparently someone who used to have her phone number, over 10 years ago, still had her number associated with his account.

Only when I looked at the confirmed transaction did I see that it went to someone else’s name.

I’ve called PayPal numerous times now, and escalated to higher ups and they each tell me a different story. The last one who seemed to have the most authority told me that the owner of the account I sent money to needs to return the money and they cannot. They did tell me he hasn’t touched the account in years, and the money is still there.

They told me it was my responsibility to verify I was sending money to the right account and also that I would need to get in touch with the account owner to ask him to return the money. Which is impossible because the phone number listed is not his anymore.

Thing is when I hit send the app displayed her name as the recipient, then changed it to this other fellow once the transaction completed.

I sent the money from my PayPal balance so I can’t dispute with a cc company.

The reps from PayPal have emailed him numerous times and not gotten a response.

Is there anything I can do here.

Has anyone else had a similar situation??

Help!