Paypal conspiracy

paypal_is_not_my_friend

I hope this is in the right section, my story goes like this. I sold an item for £185 on ebay to a buyer with zero feedback. The buyer immediatly paid with paypal and made contact to ask when the console might arrive. I sent the console the day after item was paid for via Royal Mail recorded delivery. I left good feedback and everything seemed to be ok.

Nearly 2 months later I receive a chargback for £185 claiming the transaction had been unutherised by the cardholder. This took my paypal balance down to -£185. I had no intention of paying this off as I knew the item had been sent and I had no contact from the buyer asking where the item was. The buyer also mentioned that the console was for a birthday present so obviously if there was a problem they would have got back to me much earlier, At this point I knew it was likly a scam and had no intention of refunding paypal £185.

One week after receiving the chargeback my paypal account is hacked and my bank account was virtually emptied. I phoned paypal who froze the account while they investigated and within 5 days they refunded the money back to my bank account minus the £185 I owed them.

Heres the kicker. In all my life of using the internet and paypal (7 years) I have never had any account from any website hacked or tampered with. I am very prudent when it comes to online security and I never leave anything to chance, I know how to spot a scam and I have never fell for anything. Therefore I pose the question, what is the possibility Paypal used a fake hack on my account to reclaim the funds I owed to them? Is it purley coinsidence that in 7 years of using paypal my account is hacked a week after receiving my first chargeback.

I tried my best to dispute the chargback but paypal or rather the buyers bank decided against me and no money has been refunded to me. I still had the receipt for sending the parcel but not adaquete proof of postage which must have got lost. Who has the time to hold on to receipts for 2 months in todays busy lifestyle. Is there anything I can do to reclaim this money from paypal as I have no confidence in there so called investigation and they do not pass on any details so I can follow it up myself. Can I inform my bank that an unautheriesed payment was made and not all of they money was refunded, essentially paypal has took my money without my permission or consent. I hope all of this makes sense and I would be very grateful if anyone can give some advice as on what to do from here.

custardy

paypal_is_not_my_friend wrote: »

I hope this is in the right section, my story goes like this. I sold an item for £185 on ebay to a buyer with zero feedback. The buyer immediatly paid with paypal and made contact to ask when the console might arrive. I sent the console the day after item was paid for via Royal Mail recorded delivery. I left good feedback and everything seemed to be ok.

Nearly 2 months later I receive a chargback for £185 claiming the transaction had been unutherised by the cardholder. This took my paypal balance down to -£185. I had no intention of paying this off as I knew the item had been sent and I had no contact from the buyer asking where the item was. The buyer also mentioned that the console was for a birthday present so obviously if there was a problem they would have got back to me much earlier, At this point I knew it was likly a scam and had no intention of refunding paypal £185.

One week after receiving the chargeback my paypal account is hacked and my bank account was virtually emptied. I phoned paypal who froze the account while they investigated and within 5 days they refunded the money back to my bank account minus the £185 I owed them.

Heres the kicker. In all my life of using the internet and paypal (7 years) I have never had any account from any website hacked or tampered with. I am very prudent when it comes to online security and I never leave anything to chance, I know how to spot a scam and I have never fell for anything. Therefore I pose the question, what is the possibility Paypal used a fake hack on my account to reclaim the funds I owed to them? Is it purley coinsidence that in 7 years of using paypal my account is hacked a week after receiving my first chargeback.

I tried my best to dispute the chargback but paypal or rather the buyers bank decided against me and no money has been refunded to me. I still had the receipt for sending the parcel but not adaquete proof of postage which must have got lost. Who has the time to hold on to receipts for 2 months in todays busy lifestyle. Is there anything I can do to reclaim this money from paypal as I have no confidence in there so called investigation and they do not pass on any details so I can follow it up myself. Can I inform my bank that an unautheriesed payment was made and not all of they money was refunded, essentially paypal has took my money without my permission or consent. I hope all of this makes sense and I would be very grateful if anyone can give some advice as on what to do from here.

well you may feel you dont have the time to hold onto receipts but as you have found out it cos you £185
paypal took the money as per the T&Cs you agreed to
the very same ones that allow you to stop a charge back via your proof of postage/delivery

sw13510

Similar story for myself! I sold an item for almost £500 (although a huge chunk was taken by paypal 'fees'). Anyway, the buyer opted to collect in person and, as I am not a frequent ebay user didnt think anything of it, plus I wanted to make sure the item got to the buyer intact and (stupid me!) thought this was a more secure way to do it.

Well not in Paypal's world!

I was then harassed for almost 4 months to pay the chargeback I was subsequently landed with (fraudulent credit card transaction apparently), and since I had no proof of postage I apparently didn't have a leg to stand on. And I'm one to really panic about this stuff. However, I contacted everyone I could possibly think of - TS, OFT and sent countless emails to Paypal themselves. Just keep on at it until they realise you're not going away without a fight. Eventually I contacted Robert Caplehorn, 'VP Legal' (ppelce@paypal.co.uk). I was told there would be an investigation into the matter and then I was contacted and told that as a 'goodwill gesture' they were taking my account out of my negative balance. Sure enough, I checked my account and they were as good as their word.

As for the bank charges, it sounds like it was indeed Paypal. The only way they didn't get money from my account was because I have online banking and when they started telling me I had to pay the money I cancelled the direct debit. Didn't stop them trying to take the money though.

The only advice I can give you is DO NOT STOP HARASSING THEM with emails, tell them about your years of loyal custom, make sure they know they will UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES get the money from you.

custardy

sw13510 wrote: »

Similar story for myself! I sold an item for almost £500 (although a huge chunk was taken by paypal 'fees'). Anyway, the buyer opted to collect in person and, as I am not a frequent ebay user didnt think anything of it, plus I wanted to make sure the item got to the buyer intact and (stupid me!) thought this was a more secure way to do it.

Well not in Paypal's world!

I was then harassed for almost 4 months to pay this, and I'm one to really panic about this stuff. However, I contacted everyone I could possibly think of - TS, OFT and sent countless emails to Paypal themselves. Just keep on at it until they realise you're not going away without a fight. Eventually I contacted Robert Caplehorn, 'VP Legal' (ppelce@paypal.co.uk). I was told there would be an investigation into the matter and then I was contacted and told that as a 'goodwill gesture' they were taking my account out of my negative balance. Sure enough, I checked my account and they were as good as their word.

As for the bank charges, it sounds like it was indeed Paypal. The only way they didn't get money from my account was because I have online banking and when they started telling me I had to pay the money I cancelled the direct debit. Didn't stop them trying to take the money though.

The only advice I can give you is DO NOT STOP HARASSING THEM with emails, tell them about your years of loyal custom, make sure they know they will UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES get the money from you.

for yourself
you fell for a classic scam
you have no proof the buyer got the item

paypal_is_not_my_friend

Thanks for the advice. I do actually have the post office receipt for sending the parcel but there is no tracking number. I,m quite sure its all I received when I posted the item but it is not acceptable proof because there is no postcode or address mentioned on it. I also insured the item but that was useless because you can only make a claim 30 days after postage/collection.

I won't go down without a fight, its a shame paypal stole the money from my bank account otherwise I would have never reimbersed the negative balance and told them to go to hell. I don't like the way they set there policys, they should make everyone verify themselves as much as possible before they are allowed to receive any payments. They also did'nt consider that the buyer had zero feedback and had an unconfirmed paypal account. Whereas I was fully confirmed, have 100% feedback and have been using ebay for 7 years.

sw13510

custardy wrote: »

for yourself
you fell for a classic scam
you have no proof the buyer got the item

Yes but Ebay- the forum I used - is a sister company to Paypal. They offer collection in person (without explicit warning of the consequences) Why offer this if I will be punished for trying to make sure the buyer got the item securely? As I said, I'm not a regular Ebay user- I dont know the ins & outs of the rules. I'm not going to sit & waste hours of my life reading t&cs that NOBODY bothers to. Forgive me for thinking that handing an item over in person is more secure than posting it. I'm not exactly clued up on scams. I sold an item in goodwill expecting a customer to be properly investigated by Ebay before being able to bid.

As the original poster pointed out, Paypal should take into account long-time users with 100% positive feedback over a fraudster. But they dont because they dont want to part with their 'hard-earned' cash.

custardy

sw13510 wrote: »

Yes but Ebay- the forum I used - is a sister company to Paypal. They offer collection in person (without explicit warning of the consequences) Why offer this if I will be punished for trying to make sure the buyer got the item securely? As I said, I'm not a regular Ebay user- I dont know the ins & outs of the rules. I'm not going to sit & waste hours of my life reading t&cs that NOBODY bothers to. Forgive me for thinking that handing an item over in person is more secure than posting it. I'm not exactly clued up on scams. I sold an item in goodwill expecting a customer to be properly investigated by Ebay before being able to bid.

As the original poster pointed out, Paypal should take into account long-time users with 100% positive feedback over a fraudster. But they dont because they dont want to part with their 'hard-earned' cash.

but whats the point of having procedures to protect buyers & sellers if PP can over rule them for a 'long time user'?

sw13510

custardy wrote: »

but whats the point of having procedures to protect buyers & sellers if PP can over rule them for a 'long time user'?

I'm not saying that should be the deciding factor, I'm saying it should be taken into consideration. For example, in my case I sold an iphone. After my transaction bombed & the chargeback issued, I went to the buyer's account to find he had ONLY been buying iphones as a relatively new buyer. Now Paypal state that mobile phone sales are at a high risk of fraud, etc, so why not give a little more credibility to someone with 7 years and 100% positive over a relatively new person buying only iphones? Anyone with a shred of common sense can see who looks dodgy in that situation! It cant just be 'one rule suit all', they need to take into account all the facts or else genuine ebayers get tarred with the same brush as these cowboys.

joycee98

Did you look on the receipt for 14 digits - generally about half way down the receipt it usually has UK at the end of it. Whenever I post at the post office the number is on the receipt, they are suposed to point it out to you but most times they don't. If I was you I would scrutenise your receipt just in case those 14 digits are sitting in the middle of it. Here is an example - [FONT=&quot]XA830383464GB there will be 2 letters at the beginning, 10 numbers in the middle and GB at the end
[/FONT]Then go on line and track it.

Buttercup2305

'n--9887654321=-097trewq