Scammed on ebay - will Paypal refund me?

[vaio-fx]

Ok I know I have been stupid and fallen into this guys trap but heres what happened. I won a laptop on ebay (Dell XPS M1730 for £500). I paid for it instantly on ebay. The guy then phoned me and explained that he would not send the laptop to me until the money had cleared from Paypal (to do this you need to leave positive feedback - so I did). It has been 2 weeks, I kept sending him messages asking for tracking info but he wouldnt give it to me he always "read it himself" ,I have no laptop and he has deleted his ebay account and switched off his phone permamently it seems. Becuase I left feedback, he will now be free to do what he likes with the money, such as withdraw it to his account. I started a claim in Paypal, but will there be any way for PayPal to get this money back/will I get a refund, or are all hopes lost? Thanks

I wrote that in yahoo answers yesterday, but it didn't really get me anywhere so I was wondering if you guys could help me. I have found out now that he is definately a scammer, someone left him negative feedback (seems they were scammed £340 over an iPhone) and therefore his account has been suspended I think, he didnt delete it. Anyway he could easily withdraw my money out of his paypal and bank account so that he no longer has it available for paypal to take back. So if he has no funds, how can PayPal refund me? Would they refund me themselves or have I lost £500!?!? :O Thanks

 

[Teny]

Well, if the guy still have his paypal account opened and is connected to his bank, you can still get your money back. When you file a dispute, paypal locks the sellers account from changing any information. If he has no money in his paypal account, then there would be an negative amount on him, and would most likely withdraw from his bank to refund you.

You could go to your bank and tell them about it, and see if they can do anything. I was told to always tell the bank, and they would refund the money (after they checked) if you paid with an credit card.

Since you never got a tracking information, you have an high possibility to win the case.

IIRC, paypal requires you to enter either a bank or some sort when they sold something at a high value, if they don't, then they wouldn't be able to get the funds.

Doesn't it take months for a dispute to clear? Last time I remembered, paypal took about 3 months.

 

[IowaBoy]

Complete the PayPal claim. They should return it. Just put what you posted in the claim.

 

[vaio-fx]

Thanks for the replies, his PayPal account is still open, but I have been googling this and reading that if he had no funds in his actual PayPal account they can't do anything. Plus I used a debit card so cant do a chargeback! I'm really quite worried about this.

 

[nevermind1534]

Yes, they can. They give his account a negative balance and won't let him open any more paypal accounts. He made you leave positive feedback so it would look like you got it. never leave positive feedback before you get an item. Paypal should still be able to get your money back, though.

 

[Fanatic4Christ]

Thanks for the replies, his PayPal account is still open, but I have been googling this and reading that if he had no funds in his actual PayPal account they can't do anything. Plus I used a debit card so cant do a chargeback! I'm really quite worried about this.

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
someone bought a watch off of me, he was in another country that had HORRIBLE HORRIBLE postal service... so after about 1 month of not receiving it he filed a claim, while i sent it, i was wondering what happened and thought that he just scammed me!!! so ended up almost going into credit collectors from paypal... So i was out about 300 bucks and paid the money back to paypal FINALLY... then comes in the mail the watch back to my address... about 4 months later after being sent out it BARELY got returned...

now, i didn't have any funds in my paypal account and they just made me go into debt.. paypal is like a credit card company...

i wouldn't worry to much about it if i were u

 

[Teny]

He made you leave positive feedback so it would look like you got it.

But the whole no tracking number would favor the buyer. Even if they buyer received the item with no tracking number, he/she can still get the money back and get to keep the item because without any proof of tracking, it's like the item never was sent out.

 

[dude_56013]

Ok I know I have been stupid and fallen into this guys trap but heres what happened. I won a laptop on ebay (Dell XPS M1730 for £500). I paid for it instantly on ebay. The guy then phoned me and explained that he would not send the laptop to me until the money had cleared from Paypal (to do this you need to leave positive feedback - so I did). It has been 2 weeks, I kept sending him messages asking for tracking info but he wouldnt give it to me he always "read it himself" ,I have no laptop and he has deleted his ebay account and switched off his phone permamently it seems. Becuase I left feedback, he will now be free to do what he likes with the money, such as withdraw it to his account. I started a claim in Paypal, but will there be any way for PayPal to get this money back/will I get a refund, or are all hopes lost? Thanks

I wrote that in yahoo answers yesterday, but it didn't really get me anywhere so I was wondering if you guys could help me. I have found out now that he is definately a scammer, someone left him negative feedback (seems they were scammed £340 over an iPhone) and therefore his account has been suspended I think, he didnt delete it. Anyway he could easily withdraw my money out of his paypal and bank account so that he no longer has it available for paypal to take back. So if he has no funds, how can PayPal refund me? Would they refund me themselves or have I lost £500!?!? :O Thanks

Shoulda been your clue that it was a scam. You don't post feedback until the transaction is totally complete.

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
someone bought a watch off of me, he was in another country that had HORRIBLE HORRIBLE postal service... so after about 1 month of not receiving it he filed a claim, while i sent it, i was wondering what happened and thought that he just scammed me!!! so ended up almost going into credit collectors from paypal... So i was out about 300 bucks and paid the money back to paypal FINALLY... then comes in the mail the watch back to my address... about 4 months later after being sent out it BARELY got returned...

now, i didn't have any funds in my paypal account and they just made me go into debt.. paypal is like a credit card company...

i wouldn't worry to much about it if i were u

That's why I never ship or receive from other countries. Half the time you're okay, the other half you're asking for trouble.

 

[Teny]

That's why I never ship or receive from other countries. Half the time you're okay, the other half you're asking for trouble.

Yeah, the only dispute I was filed against was because I shipped outside of the US. I told in my description that I wouldn't ship out of the US, and yet the buyer still bought it. I didn't feel like listing it for the 3rd time, so I just shipped it to him, and it "broke" along the way, so he filed a dispute against me. He took the dispute off because I told him I bought insurance for him (even though he didn't want to), and take it to USPS and tell them about it.
Now I am dealing with being sent the wrong item, and have to wait about ~10 before I get what I actually bought, and I bought it over a month ago.

 

[root]

Have a read on paypalsucks...


even if there are no funds in a paypal account, paypal could, in theory charge an amount to the scammers bank account, but then they'd likely be taking funds without authorisation and end up in trouble themselves.

so what happens is you lodge a complaint and you say, he's got my $300

paypal look at his account, if there is $300 in there, they'll take it back, and refund you. if there isn't $300 there, then they will say that there is nothing that they can do. or they'll say that they've found in favour of the scammer, basically they won't give you your money back.

Personally I have removed my bank details from paypal, and only left a credit card registered there because that affords you some extra protection.

you might find that your bank account offers you some protection.

If paypal won't refund you then you need to approach your bank, and let them know what's going on, that you paid for goods that were never received. ask them to do a charge back/claw back. -that might be specific to Britain, but I doubt it.

this basically means that the bank will send paypal notification that the bank wants the money back. paypal can contest this, but they aren't exactly likely to be successful since you've paid for goods and not got the goods.


word of warning. paypal don't like this at all....

if you need to go to these measures, make sure that there is no money in your paypal account, and remove your bank account details from your paypal account.

if there is money in your paypal account and you end up having to go to the bank to get some justice then paypal will likely freeze your account making it so you can't access any money that you have in there, they will say that they have monitored fraudulent activities on the account.