PayPal Advice...Stolen credit card used to purchase goods :(

becky_sleaf

Hi there,

A friend of mine is having a PayPal nightmare. Basically they sold a phone on Ebay & the buyer asked for the phone to be sent out to her family abroad...Lithuania I think. My friend agreed but said she would not send it until the funds had cleared into her bank account. The buyer agreed to this & when the money went into the account my friend sent the phone as agreed & it was tracked.

Well since then PayPal have given the buyer their money back. So my friend had £221.00 owing to PayPal. So of course she contacted PayPal straight away. When questioned PayPal said that it was a copyright problem.

Since then my friend has contacted PayPal again who have since changed their mind & are now saying that it is because the buyer used a fraudulant credit card. So my friend has been told tht she needs to pay this £221.00 back to PayPal.

Is their anything she can do? She is getting herself into a bit of a state about it as she is a lone parent bringing up two girls & doesn't have that sort of money to pay it back. They did say they could agree a payment plan if need be. As you can imagine though she is very upset as she has neither phone nor money in that case.

Has anyone got any useful advice or had this happen to them?

Thanks

suburbanwifey

becky_sleaf wrote: »

Hi there,

A friend of mine is having a PayPal nightmare. Basically they sold a phone on Ebay & the buyer asked for the phone to be sent out to her family abroad...Lithuania I think. My friend agreed but said she would not send it until the funds had cleared into her bank account. The buyer agreed to this & when the money went into the account my friend sent the phone as agreed & it was tracked.

Well since then PayPal have given the buyer their money back. So my friend had £221.00 owing to PayPal. So of course she contacted PayPal straight away. When questioned PayPal said that it was a copyright problem.

Since then my friend has contacted PayPal again who have since changed their mind & are now saying that it is because the buyer used a fraudulant credit card. So my friend has been told tht she needs to pay this £221.00 back to PayPal.

Is their anything she can do? She is getting herself into a bit of a state about it as she is a lone parent bringing up two girls & doesn't have that sort of money to pay it back. They did say they could agree a payment plan if need be. As you can imagine though she is very upset as she has neither phone nor money in that case.

Has anyone got any useful advice or had this happen to them?

Thanks

The scary thing to watch here is that PayPal will issue proceedings against your friend if she doesn't either pay the money back in full or agree a payment plan. Sadly, PayPal will not care that your friend is a lone parent nor that she cannot afford it. If the credit card used was stolen and the transaction was fraudulent, it is only right and just that the card holder has had their stolen money refunded. You would expect that if it happened to you wouldn't you?

However, this is terrible for your friend. She loses the phone and her money. Sadly, there is nothing she can do it's just one of those horrible things that happen in life.

It is always advisable to send items to the winning bidders 'registered paypal address' - this is the best protection you can have. But, this still does not protect you from someone paying with a stolen card and losing your money and the item.

cyberbob

There are two reasons I can think of why your friend isn't covered by paypal seller protection. If she waited for the money to go into her account that would more than likely have been more than 7 days (also as she has discovered this is a pointless thing to do). To be covered on ebay by paypal seller protection items need to be dispatched within 7 days. The other thing is did the online tracking include a siganture items over £150 need to have a signature viewable online to be covered.

So why did paypal give the money to the buyer did they open a dispute? Its very difficult to tell excactly what has happened without all the details but those are my immediate thoughts

cyberbob

suburbanwifey wrote: »

It is always advisable to send items to the winning bidders 'registered paypal address' - this is the best protection you can have. But, this still does not protect you from someone paying with a stolen card and losing your money and the item.

If she had adhered to all paypal rules even with a stolen card she would have been covered and not lost money. Its because as far as I can see at least one maybe more procedures have not been followed. It looks like her friend just didn't understand what needed to be done to protect yourself

Sugar_Coated_Owl

I didn't think phones could be insured if sent abroad?

frivolous_fay

razorbladekisses wrote: »

I didn't think phones could be insured if sent abroad?

Yeah... that's another matter... but as insurance is for the seller's benefit, it's unlikely PP care about that.

INT1

So if the seller had sent within 7 days to a Known address on the Pay Pal account, the seller would of been covered?
Feel so sorry for that woman now who has lost the £200 odd and obviously also lost the phone.
Pay Pal should be doing Address verification checks to stop this happening with any credit card that is registered to a Pay Pal account and only then should that address be the known address on the account.

cyberbob

aldo wrote: »

So if the seller had sent within 7 days to a Known address on the Pay Pal account, the seller would of been covered?
Feel so sorry for that woman now who has lost the £200 odd and obviously also lost the phone.
Pay Pal should be doing Address verification checks to stop this happening with any credit card that is registered to a Pay Pal account and only then should that address be the known address on the account.

Without knowing the full ins and outs to me it looks like there is more than one reason the OPs friend wasn't covered by paypal. The 7 day rule is one. I'm also guessing that there tracking may not have included an online signature (you need that for items over £150). They may have sent to the paypal address but the OP doesn't say but chances are that in the original transaction seller protection may not have been eligible due to the country and the type/cost of item. Paypal tell you in the email confirming payment and also online, but its amazing how many people don't check this.

The address the credit card is registerd to really isn't that important to us as sellers (as if you follow correct procedures paypal will cover you). The Paypal seller protection rules are quite straightforward if you follow them you are protected. There is the issue sometimes of Paypal not knowing there own rules so you sometimes need to nudge them.

Not to sound too harsh as much as i'm sorry for anyone who loses money. It seems to be a bit like greed before common sense and research. A little research could have some them a lot of money and heartache. I don't send items more than £39 abroad as they are too difficult to insure and get proper guaranteed tracking (even airsure doesn't guarantee a signature) I don't send mobiles abroad as you can't insure them and you can get good prices in the U.K.

This just sounds like one of the many cases of an inexperienced seller not understanding how to protect themselves and getting scammed

becky_sleaf

Hi there,

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of you who have replied.

I'm thinking that she sent it to the address that the buyer asked her to which was abroad so it won't be the same as that registered to the account. I've just tried to call her to check this but she's at the school nativity. She has only just set up her Ebay account so she has been stung badly by the sounds of it.
It's so unfortunate that some people pray upon those who have new accounts & are therefore not really aware of all the scams that take place.

Thanks