Ebay/PayPal scammed

koahhe · 12 January 2019 at 8:23PM

Hi everyone

I would appreciate if someone offer some advice on the below.

I have sold a phone on ebay which was collected from my home and the owner of the eBay and PayPal account has claimed to PayPal that the account was hacked and he didn't authorise this payment. It was a Samsung Note 9 phone and I sold it for £665.

Before I gave the phone to the buyer I have asked him to leave me a feedback on ebay to say that he collected the phone and he is happy with it. I thought this will cover me but PayPal apparently only offers seller protection if the item was posted with a tracking number. Ebay have said that they released the funds and they can't help me with anything and it's just between me and PayPal.

PayPal have started their investigation and after two days they decided that it was indeed a fraudulent transaction. I have withdrawn the funds from my PayPal account as soon as the payment cleared so my account is now on a negative balance.

What are my options now? Will PayPal chase me for the money? I was able to unlink all my cards from my PayPal account so they can't charge them. Shall I take eBay and PayPal to small claims courts and accuse them on neglect? At the end of the day they are the ones that got hacked. Also as a seller on eBay you are forced to accept PayPal as a payment method but I in my opinion they should not allow PayPal payment for collection only transactions if they know that the seller is not protected. Obviously they are very happy to get their fees from these transactions but when something like this happens they don't want to know.

I would be very grateful if someone could help with some good advice. Thank you in advance.

marcarm · 12 January 2019 at 8:28PM

This is an age-old scam that you have fallen for.

You cannot accuse them of neglect, if you had read the small-print, you will see seller protection only kicks in when you post to the registered address with tracking, no proof of delivery then no seller protection.

YOU should not have allowed paypal payment for a collection item, do you have any details for the buyer at all?

You should be contacting your service provider and getting the phone blacklisted, so at least they have nothing to show for their scam.

To anyone else reading who might be thinking of this, don't do anything that you THINK may cover you, make sure first by reading the terms that you have signed up for.

CoolHotCold · 12 January 2019 at 8:36PM

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

But it's a scam as old as ebay.

Pay through Paypal and then collect in person, and then claim through Paypal the payment wasn't authorised or the item wasn't received.

And because you didn't follow the seller protection on paypal which states youre only protected if you send to this registered and verified address.

I'm afraid you're out £665 and will either have to pay Paypal or they'll refer it to their debt recovery team.

Mr.Generous · 12 January 2019 at 8:41PM

Tell them you will report it to the police and use your home cctv footage of the person collecting the phone to assist in the investigation. Then see what they say. Did you clock any car they arrived in?

waamo · 12 January 2019 at 8:43PM

How can you take them to the small claims court when you haven't actually lost any money yet?

If anything it's them that will be taking you to court.

koahhe · 12 January 2019 at 9:00PM

marcarm wrote: »

This is an age-old scam that you have fallen for.

You cannot accuse them of neglect, if you had read the small-print, you will see seller protection only kicks in when you post to the registered address with tracking, no proof of delivery then no seller protection.

YOU should not have allowed paypal payment for a collection item, do you have any details for the buyer at all?

You should be contacting your service provider and getting the phone blacklisted, so at least they have nothing to show for their scam.

To anyone else reading who might be thinking of this, don't do anything that you THINK may cover you, make sure first by reading the terms that you have signed up for.

I have the buyer's details but what can I do with them if he says he's account was hacked? The phone is blacklisted already.

marcarm · 12 January 2019 at 9:18PM

koahhe wrote: »

I have the buyer's details but what can I do with them if he says he's account was hacked? The phone is blacklisted already.

His account has not been hacked, that's where the scam comes in.

He SAYS it is an unauthorised transaction, does not mean that it is.

Are the buyers details genuine?

pinkshoes · 12 January 2019 at 9:25PM

Paypal makes it VERY clear saying that to have protection you MUST send it tracked to the PayPal address.

I'm amazed they bothered going down the hacked route. A scammer could have just claimed to have not received it to get their money back.

By unlinking your cards from PayPal, it is PayPal losing out, not you. Obviously you will be barred from ever using PayPal again, and might get away with it, but at that amount, PayPal might take legal action against you to recover the money.

koahhe · 12 January 2019 at 9:47PM

Before handing over the phone I have asked the buyer to give me feedback on ebay saying that he collected the phone and he is happy with it which he did. I have sold and bought a lot of stuff on ebay for more than 15 years and was aware of the scams going around but I thought that as long as I have the eBay feedback left on my account I will be safe.

The registered address on buyers account is somewhere in Lincolnshire and I live in London so it's not very convenient for me to pay them a visit. I wish I had spotted that before handing over the phone but everything happened very quick. He got in touch, paid before arriving and collected it in about 30 minutes.

gardner1 · 12 January 2019 at 9:52PM

"I have sold and bought a lot of stuff on ebay for more than 15 years and was aware of the scams going around".........cant believe the OP has never heard of cash on collection

koahhe · 12 January 2019 at 10:36PM

marcarm wrote: »

His account has not been hacked, that's where the scam comes in.

He SAYS it is an unauthorised transaction, does not mean that it is.

Are the buyers details genuine?

The buyers details are genuine. The address on the eBay account is a address of a nursery in Lancashire and I have called the number on the account and spoke with a lady who seemed very genuine, I have recorded the conversation. She said she didn't use ebay for a very long time and the day before she noticed the PayPal transaction on her account. I have searched her and the nursery is registered with Ofsted on her name. The phone was collected by a guy who said he is buyers boyfriend. He was logged in on her ebay account and he left me feedback before leaving my house. Unfortunately I don't have any details of this guy. I have it reported to the police and Action Fraud and that's where it will probably end.

Ebay/PayPal scammed

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free