Dodgey Paypal Payment Sent - Whats the scam?

SimbaSimon

I've had a paypal payment for nearly £600 go from my debit card. The ebay account that used my paypal account isn't mine and it was for an iphone 3gs in the states. The delivery address was in the US but yet the address doesn't appear in my address book so I'm not sure how they've done that either.

Paypal have flagged it up and limited my account (after the payment was sent!) and a dispute is raised with paypal aswell as cancelling the card etc. Whats the scam though? The seller looked genuine but the buyer paid (with my paypal account) and left feedback the same day saying fast delivery (bloody fast if it only took an hour!). Is this just some really large money laundering scam with my money?!

Any ideas....

VanyaHargreeves

....wait, so someone has paid for something you haven't bought with your money?

They hack into your account, buy expensive things, hope the seller is stupid enough to send the item to an address they request it to be sent to instead of the paypal address, and they have a free item?

soolin

Assuming you haven't fallen for a phish then get to the techie board fast and sort out the security on your PC. If they can get access to your paypal account then your other internet applications may also be at risk.

frivolous_fay

Try to get hold of the seller and tell them your account was hacked, and not to send the item.

SimbaSimon

Yeah they had the password to the paypal account somehow, but I'm not sure how. Laptop is all fine and clear. I can only think I've used the same password somewhere else and they've tried it and got in.

The buyer doesn't seem to post the actual item. The buyer (again, not my ebay account) left feedback straight away saying thanks but this is only an hour after buying the item (with my paypal account). By the looks of it he's brought 3 iphone 3gs, no doubtly using the same trick on all 3 with 3 different paypal accounts.

All 3 have been left feedback nearly immediately after buying the item which seems strange.

Enfieldian

Sounds like the "seller(s)" is/are in on this as well then.....

frivolous_fay

My guess is the buyer leaves feedback to encourage the seller to send promptly.

What would the point be of the seller being in on it too? The money would keep getting clawed back as fraudulent payments.

NotQuiteNorbert

I suspect the scammer leaves feedback in order to 'release' funds to the sellers to encourage them to send. They're buying high end items, so is it possible that these would be subject to the 21 day hold unless positive feedback is received? Funds are released, items sent, then funds are then clawed back by Paypal as being fraudulent.

tajna

I have had this happened to me last year and of course that the seller was involved. It took about a month for Paypal to sort it out and refund the money. Needles to say, I have changed all of the passwords immediately.

SimbaSimon

What bothers me is that ebay/paypal are so slow at stopping this.

Heres the profile of the ebay page. http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/uvaihim832

If you check the feedback left they've brought 3 iphones and a macbook in the space of 24 hours and ebay have flagged atleast one of these transactions (mine) as fraudulent so why isn't this account blocked! They are so slow to react! Grrrr...

So annoyed.

And the cheeky **** had the cheek to leave feedback for them when brought with stolen money.