I 'owe' Paypal £5,000, any advice?

Shembler · 19 July 2019 at 12:09AM

Hi all. First time posting here.

I sold some bitcoin a few weeks ago and the guy I sold to paid via Paypal. £5,000 in total.
The trade went through and everything was great until a few weeks later when I was told by paypal that the payment was unauthorised and that they were refunding the buyer.
They also decided that this meant that I owe Paypal £5,000.

If the payment was fraudulent in the first place. If the account it came from was hacked, I'd have thought that was Paypal's issue to deal with. Passing on the debt to me seems like a stretch.
The money is currently sitting in my bank account, and my Paypal account is sitting at -£5,000

I've been getting frequent calls and threats that they'll sell off the debt to a collection agency.

I saw some situations similar to this by searching around, and the consensus seemed to be that you can fairly safely ignore all this. Is this still the case? any advice on how to deal with this?
I'm not exactly in my comfort zone in dealing with this.

Thanks for any advice!

KatrinaWaves · 19 July 2019 at 7:50AM

Where are you saying you can ‘safely’ ignore this? It is likely they would take you to court over this sum.

I thought bitcoin trades were highly regulated now, therefore can you report this fraudulent trade to whoever manages the trade?

[Deleted User] · 19 July 2019 at 8:05AM

Shembler wrote: »

Hi all. First time posting here.

I sold some bitcoin a few weeks ago and the guy I sold to paid via Paypal. £5,000 in total.
The trade went through and everything was great until a few weeks later when I was told by paypal that the payment was unauthorised and that they were refunding the buyer.
They also decided that this meant that I owe Paypal £5,000.

If the payment was fraudulent in the first place. If the account it came from was hacked, I'd have thought that was Paypal's issue to deal with. Passing on the debt to me seems like a stretch.
The money is currently sitting in my bank account, and my Paypal account is sitting at -£5,000

I've been getting frequent calls and threats that they'll sell off the debt to a collection agency.

I saw some situations similar to this by searching around, and the consensus seemed to be that you can fairly safely ignore all this. Is this still the case? any advice on how to deal with this?
I'm not exactly in my comfort zone in dealing with this.

Thanks for any advice!

If the payment was fraudulent you owe the money back. You had no right to the money.

Aylesbury_Duck · 19 July 2019 at 8:06AM

I wouldn't choose a course of action just because the general consensus from a bit of googling says so. At the very least, PayPal will probably suspend your account until this is resolved and as Katrina says, I can't see them writing off that sum so easily.

You need some proper advice. It's beyond DIY internet searching and strangers on forums, unless the sum is trivial to you.

Mr_Singleton · 19 July 2019 at 8:10AM

Was the hacked account holder negligent? Would be a nice little scam if account holder had a 'mate'. Seems odd that you can spend £5k just like that..... then again PayPal no doubt covers itself within the T&C's

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head · 19 July 2019 at 8:20AM

If you 'owed' Paypal a couple of hundred then reading around yes you can probably safely ignore seems to be the answer but 5 grand is a lot of money and their acceptable use policy appears to prohibit selling bit coin:

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/acceptableuse-full

(h) involve currency exchanges or cheque cashing businesses,

Have you reported what happened to the police or action fraud?

Kentish_Dave · 19 July 2019 at 8:34AM

The buyer’s had you over here. Hopefully you got proof of address and ID before selling, I’d suggest starting by asking them how they intend to pay.

kazwookie · 19 July 2019 at 8:37AM

£5K by paypal, it has scam written all over it.

prowla · 19 July 2019 at 8:45AM

So, to clarify you have the $5k, but don't want to return it to Paypal?

Caz3121 · 19 July 2019 at 8:46AM

a quick google on "PayPal bitcoin scam" will find this sort of thing has been around for years, here is one from 5 years ago
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/01/paypal-bitcoin-scam-ebay

soolin · 19 July 2019 at 8:48AM

Firstly I admit I don't know how bitcoin is sent, I'm assuming by email or transfer and not by tracked post. If I am correct then OP gave up any seller protection at that point, the payment received would have clearly stated that to have seller protection item needs to be sent to the buyers address as given by PayPal, within 7 days and with Online tracking.

A case of INR would have needed delivery confirmation but a case for fraud is easier to defend as PayPal cover it themselves, as long as OP has proof of postage online that shows goods were sent to buyers PayPal address. If OP does not have this then they cannot invoke seller protection and owe PayPal the money.

Having said all that it is unlikely to go to court. As it stands at the moment No one on any forum I frequent has shown actual proof of PayPal going to court, that's not to say they won't start with this one of course. HOwever, the debt collectors can be a nuisance so OP you need to head over to the debt boards here and ask exactly what tights these debt collectors have, and remind them if they over step the mark on your door step.

Obviously your own PayPal account, and any associated with it including family or house sharers is now toast. PayPal have a long memory, if you ever get linked to another account in future that will probably get closed and funds held to cover this debt as well, so be warned.

Lastly, for any newbies reading this, the clear warnings from PayPal about seller protection are there for a reason, they are on every email, every transaction in your account and in the sticky on the eBay forum here. If you are going to handle money surely it pays to actually read how to,protect yourself.

I 'owe' Paypal £5,000, any advice?

Comments

Categories

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