Urgent Ebay Help - I've been scammed!

[wilksj01]

Hi,

I recently sold my Nokia 8800 Sirocco on eBay. They buyer made the payment the next day and so I sent the phone via Royal Mail Special Delivery.

I then transferred the money from PayPal to my bank account. The money appeared on Friday as did an e-mail from PayPal saying that they have frozen the funds as they believe the transaction was unauthorised.

I logged on to PayPal and it advised that I needed to provide them with a tracking number which I did. Now this morning I get another e-mail saying that it had now been resolved and the money had been returned to the buyer.

I contacted PayPal and they just basically said tough as I wasn't protected and then hung up on me. I now have no phone and -£350 in my PayPal account. Luckily the money was moved to my bank account so PayPal won't be able to get it off me but I'd still like to get the money back.

Has anyone had any experiences like this before or any advice on what I should do?

Kind regards,

Wilksj01

[Sinizter]

Nothing you can do. This happened to me too - a few years ago. PayPal will apparently investigate for 30 days and give you nothing.

If you sent it Special Delivery, pay to get the signature sent to you and then file a small claims court case for your money. If the person who scammed you does actually live at the address and it is their signature on the strip, you may get your money back.

If someone else just used that as a drop point and the person can prove that they didnt receive the phone of if the signature is someone else's then you're out of luck even through that route.

[Gerschwin]

You could inform the police as well.
You can provide Paypal with evidence this wasn't unauthorised (if the Paypal of the buyer is linked to the Ebay account) - they resolved it in favour of the buyer without the 30 day response time (or however long) for both parties - doesn't sound the norm.

[MD]

check to see if the address in the email you recevied that said you had been paid states confirmed underneath it. If it does then you are fully covered. PayPal will try to get out of anything they can.

Also the bad news for you is if your PayPal account remains in -£350 for too long they can withdraw the money from your bank card/accoutn which is linked to your account.

So don't think you have got away with it just because your have withdrawn the funds to your bank account.

Matt.

[jackvdbuk]

check to see if the address in the email you recevied that said you had been paid states confirmed underneath it. If it does then you are fully covered. PayPal will try to get out of anything they can.

Also the bad news for you is if your PayPal account remains in -£350 for too long they can withdraw the money from your bank card/accoutn which is linked to your account.

So don't think you have got away with it just because your have withdrawn the funds to your bank account.

Matt.

what if you cancel the direct debit with paypal?

[wilksj01]

jaclvdbuk - That's just what I had in mind. I am also going to cancel my credit card that I have registered with them.

I have e-mailed the guy to ask what he is playing at and I will call the police after that to see what they can do.

I can't believe it is so easy for people to get away with ripping you off on eBay. Well actually I can.

I'm so angry!

[GoNz0]

yep tell your bank to stop the DD with gaypal.. if you have your money then do what u need to stop paypal taking it back.. and if they start to threaten legal stuff, reply with F**K OFF!

works both ways if they want to be arses.. civil matter so they cant take the money from you.

[Sinizter]

So Paypal cant mess up your credit rating due to money owed or some such ?

I have heard that paypal tend not to pursue such debts. But it would not be worth messing up your credit rating for.

[GoNz0]

they would have to take you to small claims court, then they would not show at court as its only a scare tactic, so long as you go you will win the case anyway..

[Gerschwin]

What I don't get is how Paypal resolved it in favour of the buyer with no correspondence - usually 30 days in dispute......

[Clunk]

What I don't get is how Paypal resolved it in favour of the buyer with no correspondence - usually 30 days in dispute......

It was probably a stolen card, or some kid used his dads card etc.

I would also cancel the direct debit, and call paypals bluff. They did it to me recently on fleabay, I sent an item of similar value to yours, and the buyer claimed it wasnt working, yet I had tested it thoroughly before sending, plus it had a lifetime manufacturers warranty.

The buyer was verified, but had only been a member for around 2 months and had around 17 feedback, and I had over 500 feedback, with only 1 negative, and paypal took the side of the buyer, and took the money back immediately. Then the dispute took around 6 week, and paypal found in favour of the buyer, but the buyer had obviously done a runner as they didnt return the item (luckily), so the case was closed.

The moral of the story is, dont use paypal for selling high value items, for all the protection it offers, you might as well send the buyer the item plus a full refund as well to save time.

[MD]

as far as I am aware you can't cancel the card if you have a pending dispute on your account.

And its not a direct debit so you can't cancel that either. It's treated like a card transaction.

[DeludedGuy]

as far as I am aware you can't cancel the card if you have a pending dispute on your account.

And its not a direct debit so you can't cancel that either. It's treated like a card transaction.

If that the case, cancel your card with your bank, say you lost it.

[GoNz0]

paypal is setup as a DD on my account fyi

[aidanjt]

as far as I am aware you can't cancel the card if you have a pending dispute on your account.

And its not a direct debit so you can't cancel that either. It's treated like a card transaction.

Even at that, you can still contact your bank by writing and inform them there's to be no debit transactions to out of your account by BACS, DD, or any other means from date of receipt unless explicitly authorised by yourself.

I can't understand how Paypal thinks this is reasonable behaviour on their part, they should make some sort of reasonable attempt at communications with the seller to provide evidence to defend against what they're accused off, fraudulent creditcard transactions via them is their responsibility (as a proxy bank merchant) to ensure buyers security and intent, not the seller.

[peterb]

If Papal does make a dd transaction , you can claim that back unfder the terms of the direct debit gurantee - it is then up to Paypal to prove that the transaction is correct. That does NOT apply to credit card transactions thgough - getting that back if PP take it will be harder.

Although PP is an E bay company, it is separate, so you could raise the issue with E bay. Paypal are also regulated by the Financial SDervices Agency, so you could raise the issue with them.