Is there any higher power than PayPal?

Unity

I have been scammed. I decided to take up an offer and clicked on a ‘Buy Now’ button on a Facebook ad for an offer at £41.70. The page immediately disappeared so I was immediately on the alert as I didn’t have time to take a screen shot. A couple of days later a transaction appeared to Clickbank.com via PayPal for £237.44. 
I raised a dispute via PayPal, explained that I had authorised a payment of £41.70 but had been charged £237.44 and that I had not had any success with the seller. I got a reply later that day saying ‘amount authorised, no refund, case closed.’ No explanation -zilch! 
I have contacted my credit card company, but other than that is there any higher power than PayPal? Their attitude  seems atrocious. I was very careful to select the offer I wanted, this is really not my error.

[Deleted User]

Chargeback against your credit card and failing that ombudsman service

Unity

nerox said:

Chargeback against your credit card and failing that ombudsman service

Many thanks for this, I wasn’t sure if the Ombudsman would cover it.

MalMonroe

Unity said:

I have been scammed. I decided to take up an offer and clicked on a ‘Buy Now’ button on a Facebook ad for an offer at £41.70. The page immediately disappeared so I was immediately on the alert as I didn’t have time to take a screen shot. A couple of days later a transaction appeared to Clickbank.com via PayPal for £237.44. 
I raised a dispute via PayPal, explained that I had authorised a payment of £41.70 but had been charged £237.44 and that I had not had any success with the seller. I got a reply later that day saying ‘amount authorised, no refund, case closed.’ No explanation -zilch! 
I have contacted my credit card company, but other than that is there any higher power than PayPal? Their attitude  seems atrocious. I was very careful to select the offer I wanted, this is really not my error.

You could also try getting your money back using Section 75. Chargeback is something your bank is not required by law to do, whereas Section 75 is, as Martin says, "it isn't the credit provider being nice. It's a legal protection put in place so that you're never in the position of paying off debt for something you didn't receive or wasn't as it should've been."

PayPal is notoriously difficult to get money out of. My friend had a terrible time when someone in the USA tried to scam her using PayPal - and incredibly PayPal actually took the side of the scammer. My friend sent an email to the Guardian - your.problems@observer.co.uk
It sounds a bit of a faff but she did get her money back!

Supersonos

I had problems with PayPal about 12 years ago and learnt how hard they are to deal with and how they're judge and jury.  I've not used them since and would advise the OP to learn from this unfortunate situation and to do the same.

Good luck getting your money back, but I fear you may have to write it off.

waamo

MalMonroe said:

Unity said:

I have been scammed. I decided to take up an offer and clicked on a ‘Buy Now’ button on a Facebook ad for an offer at £41.70. The page immediately disappeared so I was immediately on the alert as I didn’t have time to take a screen shot. A couple of days later a transaction appeared to Clickbank.com via PayPal for £237.44. 
I raised a dispute via PayPal, explained that I had authorised a payment of £41.70 but had been charged £237.44 and that I had not had any success with the seller. I got a reply later that day saying ‘amount authorised, no refund, case closed.’ No explanation -zilch! 
I have contacted my credit card company, but other than that is there any higher power than PayPal? Their attitude  seems atrocious. I was very careful to select the offer I wanted, this is really not my error.

You could also try getting your money back using Section 75. Chargeback is something your bank is not required by law to do, whereas Section 75 is, as Martin says, "it isn't the credit provider being nice. It's a legal protection put in place so that you're never in the position of paying off debt for something you didn't receive or wasn't as it should've been."

PayPal is notoriously difficult to get money out of. My friend had a terrible time when someone in the USA tried to scam her using PayPal - and incredibly PayPal actually took the side of the scammer. My friend sent an email to the Guardian - your.problems@observer.co.uk
It sounds a bit of a faff but she did get her money back!

Section 75 doesn't apply to PayPal purchases so you won't get any joy there.

[Deleted User]

Unity said:

I have been scammed. I decided to take up an offer and clicked on a ‘Buy Now’ button on a Facebook ad for an offer at £41.70. The page immediately disappeared so I was immediately on the alert as I didn’t have time to take a screen shot. A couple of days later a transaction appeared to Clickbank.com via PayPal for £237.44. 
I raised a dispute via PayPal, explained that I had authorised a payment of £41.70 but had been charged £237.44 and that I had not had any success with the seller. I got a reply later that day saying ‘amount authorised, no refund, case closed.’ No explanation -zilch! 
I have contacted my credit card company, but other than that is there any higher power than PayPal? Their attitude  seems atrocious. I was very careful to select the offer I wanted, this is really not my error.

This doesn't make sense. Pages don't "instantly disappear", even on FB. What was the product and the seller? Of course, almost every purchase on FB is a scam but it's usually people being greedy and trying to buy a product that is "too good to be true price".
What is listed under the transaction in your Paypal account? The transaction would have been there immediately - what amount did it show? 
How did you pay on Paypal? Was it a normal transaction or did you use 'friends and family' for payment?  

George_Michael

camelot1971 said:

Unity said:

The page immediately disappeared so I was immediately on the alert as I didn’t have time to take a screen shot. 

This doesn't make sense. Pages don't "instantly disappear", even on FB. 

I think what they meant was that the checkout or "pay now" page disappeared as soon as they paid and this is something that does happen with a lot of websites.
What normally happens is that once you click the pay button, the website then takes you a confirmation of payment page showing the amount paid or some sort of order reference and it doesn't sound like this happened in the OP's case.

born_again

\let me guess this was for face cream or some diet supplements?

This is quite common. It is the way they work, they advertise a price per item, but when you pay it is for X months supply.
Given this is via PP & clickbank, then no S75 ( no debtor/creditor link)
Have any good arrived?

As to the page disappearing when you click on it, how did you enter any details? Even a buy it now offer takes you to your paypal account to confirm the details Inc the amount to be paid.

Unity

George_Michael said:

camelot1971 said:

Unity said:

The page immediately disappeared so I was immediately on the alert as I didn’t have time to take a screen shot. 

This doesn't make sense. Pages don't "instantly disappear", even on FB. 

I think what they meant was that the checkout or "pay now" page disappeared as soon as they paid and this is something that does happen with a lot of websites.
What normally happens is that once you click the pay button, the website then takes you a confirmation of payment page showing the amount paid or some sort of order reference and it doesn't sound like this happened in the OP's case.

That is exactly what happened, 
Rather surprisingly I have just received a further email from PayPal saying they have reviewed the case and have now decided in my favour. Maybe this is after they found out both myself and the husband are former journalists and he used to work for Trinity Mirror, or maybe not ......

Unity

born_again said:

\let me guess this was for face cream or some diet supplements?

This is quite common. It is the way they work, they advertise a price per item, but when you pay it is for X months supply.
Given this is via PP & clickbank, then no S75 ( no debtor/creditor link)
Have any good arrived?

As to the page disappearing when you click on it, how did you enter any details? Even a buy it now offer takes you to your paypal account to confirm the details Inc the amount to be paid.

I had entered my details to buy a book and already paid for that and the payment went through without a problem, however to order the accompanying product it just required a click to buy and that was where the scam occurred. I suppose I should count myself lucky that in years of Internet shopping it is the first time anything like this has ever happened.