Myth # 155: PayPal can take money from your checking account without your permission.
Fact: No matter what you’ve heard from “PayPal Scam!”
Web sites, PayPal cannot take money from your checking account without
your authorization.
In fact, in mid-2004, PayPal updated its User Agreement to clarify this point, explicitly adding language that emphasizes that the company cannot siphon money out of your account without your permission. That neatly quashes the objections of some of the more paranoid PayPal users who were convinced that PayPal routinely cut its losses on chargebacks by retrieving funds from user accounts when necessary.
PayPal can and does freeze the funds in PayPal accounts when chargebacks exceed account balances, or fraud is suspected. However, that’s fairly rare. The important and comforting thing is that PayPal keeps its fingers out of your bank account.