can you believe this?

ranger63

I recently checked my PayPal balance and found it was about $950.00 short. I then get a hold of paypal only to find out that an recent 950.00 item i sold was paid for with money scammed from other buyers. So the fraud team tracked the money to me and gave it back to the scammed buyers. Now I am out $950.00 and a $950.00 item. Is this leagal and has anyone ever heard of such a thing?

DaBigHurt

Yes, I can believe it. Unfortunately for you, that's how Paypal operates. They did it to me when a buyer claimed his credit cards were stolen/lost (even though I had proof of delivery). Since then, I rarely accept paypal and when I do, I quickly remove ALL FUNDS from my paypal balance so they can't just arbitrarily seize my hard earned money.

You certainly are not alone in feeling robbed by paypal. Take a look at www.paypalsucks.com.

mexisar

sucks, since the buyers probably paid with credit cards, those people would do charge-backs, so paypal is making you pay the bill,

packCollector

do you have signature confirmation to a confirmed address?

wufdude

If there is no money in the Paypal account, can Paypal withdraw funds from your linked bank account if a problem like this arises?

calleocho

I have never had any problems with paypal and i actually prefer dealing with them instead of checks etc.

BUT...i have heard horror stories galore!

thats why i never let my balance go over 200 bucks and also i gave them a credit card instead of my bank account.

better be safe than sorry

Wabittwax

I also withdrawl all my money as soon as I get it. As for paypal taking money from your bank account, I seriously doubt it. I'm pretty sure that would be illegal to do it without your consent or without a court order. It would be the same as if you did an electronic check over the phone and the company took $200 instead of $100 like agreed upon. Maybe one of our lawyer friends has an answer to that.

jrdolan

I don't quite get how PayPal justifies taking care of the other victims by creating a new one. They can just seize money from someone who was paid by a scammer, without proving they are connected in some way? Do they claim you're in cahoots with the scammer? I'm missing something here.

ydsotter

I was scammed for about $350 a few years ago. Sold cards to someone in Indonesia...

3-4 months later... I was informed that there was a fraud etc....
my paypal account was at zero at that time...

They said that they would go into my bank account and take the money... So, I quickly charged my card and made sure the money was there...
I was told by them at the time that TEXAS was the only state that they couldn't go into your bank account.

Is Texas the only state where your bank account is protected like that?

EagleEyeKid

Dump paypal altogether.

ranger63

They said nothing about me being in on the scam with the guy...only that the money used to buy the item was obtained through fraud. i did ship this with delivery confirmation but the address wasnt confirmed. I am just wondering how my wrong will be righted.

ranger63

I visited the site paypalsucks.com and was reading about the 5.1 million dollars in ceased accounts they had. The class action suits take several years to go through and the whole time they draw intrest from $5.1 million. I have seen a lot of scams but this is by far the biggest. They lose the suit but still come out ahead.

metsfan

Ranger:
I hate to say this-Paypal won't protect you if you ship to an unconfirmed address. I have shipped to unconfirmed addresses many times,but $950 is a lot of money. Hope you can get this fixed.

DaBigHurt

<< <i>I don't quite get how PayPal justifies taking care of the other victims by creating a new one. They can just seize money from someone who was paid by a scammer, without proving they are connected in some way? Do they claim you're in cahoots with the scammer? I'm missing something here. >>



Paypal takes the money from you for one simple reason. They can! You left a balance in their account so when push comes to shove and they have to return the money to the credit card companies. You're easier to push around than Visa or Mastercard.

This whole thing about shipping to a confirmed address, with delivery confirmation, with signature confirmation; it's all a ploy by paypal to think you're protected if you do things 'by the book' with them. When I was ripped off, the buyer had a verified address. At the time, they required delivery confirmation in order to investigate and protect the seller. When the person who scammed me received her merchandise, she simply said she lost her card and the purchase was not made by her. Well, if she didn't buy the cards, why did she accept them 3 days later and not bother to return the goods back to me then? Sounds like a pretty straight forward case of theft if you ask me, right? I contacted paypal, they said they'd investigate. The person with whom I spoke (he must've been new) told me the case looks pretty open and shut and that everything should be resolved in a timely fashion. After a few weeks, I get no communication from Paypal. Then I get a generic canned email they must send to all the schmucks they rob by saying 'we have completed our investigation and this matter is now closed, blah blah blah'.

What am I going to do? Sue paypal over a few bucks? They know you can't do anything against them. They know it's easier to take the $950 out of your balance to cover their behinds than to eat it themselves, so they go after you.

For those who have not been ripped off by Paypal before; you're lucky. Learn from those who have been victimized before and do not, under any circumstances leave a balance in your paypal account. You're just asking for grief.

SDavid

I don't think shipping to an unconfirmed address should really be relevant here since it doesn't sound like his buyer filed a complaint.

That's very weird. I don't know what you can do. I would keep bugging them about it, though. When all else fails, sometimes just being a pain in the ass can get you a little something.

Has the buyer skipped town? He effectively hasn't paid for the item anymore. You could file charges against him through the FBI's internet fraud division, but I don't know how responsive they'd be to a case like this.

I guess I better make sure the guy selling the (allegedly) fake Mantles doesn't make any paypal purchases from me. Yikes.

habs71

<< <i>Learn from those who have been victimized before and do not, under any circumstances leave a balance in your paypal account. You're just asking for grief. >>



And do not respond to those emails asking you to "click here" to update your PayPal/eBay account.



Skip

funlover1974

That is the same thing that happened with my Paypal account, I am still fighting them over 425.00. I was told it would not have mattered if the item was sent to a confirmed address or not they would have charged it back regardless due to the fact the funds originated from a fraudlent source.

Mine involved a seller selling fraudlent items on Ebay then using the money he scammed to buy sportscards on Ebay.

On a side note I was told by my bank if you give anyone access to your account numbers such as Paypal you are basically giving them permission to withdrawl any funds they deem they have too.

ranger63

You could file charges against him through the FBI's internet fraud division

I have done this before and it is a joke. The case gets transfered to the respective police department and they dont want to bother with it so its a waste of time.

funlover1974

One suggestion I was given in my case, but it may or may not be a joke send the information to the Attorney General's office in Nebraska and California. I was told that both states are conducting deep investigations into Paypal's business pratices and are collecting all data they can get.

Golfcollector

Yet again another reason I do not use PAYPAL. THEY ARE HORRIBLE!!!!!!!

Everytime someone sends me a paypal payment and then I have to remind them that I do not take paypal and they will have to send another form of payment. Each time they gripe, but they too will eventually get burned.

Everyone who likes paypal will usually find out the hard way just like I did.......

Dave

funlover1974

Golf I used to feel like Paypal was the only way until they screwed me over.. I think it is not if Paypal will screw you, but when will they screw you.

dtkk49a

Paypal is owned by eBay. Do you actually think eBay is out to cheat people who use Paypal to pay for eBay items ? I don't think so. I use Paypal and can honestly say I have never read any of the teeny weeny fine print that comes across the screen. I'm sure somewhere in that fine print it states something about removing illicit funds. I would continue to use Paypal, but I would also limit the amount of money I keep on account and also tie Paypal to a credit card, not a bank account.

funlover1974

Their policies are set up to protect the buyer even the first line of their sellers protection plans says the sellers protection plan is set up to protect buyers from fraudlent transactions. Paypal has admitted that most of the problems associated are from buyers not sellers.

I still think it is wrong for them to just remove the money from your account simply because you sold a card to a person who got the money from selling fraudlent items under a different account. How are we as the seller suppoused to know this is happening? This is simply caused by Paypal's own negligence and lack of security and screening policies and they should just swallow it themselves. In my situation the buyer had a confirmed address and I did everything to follow the "sellers" protection plan yet they still stole 400.00 from me and left me without a 400.00 card.

ranger63

you know what made the situation even worse was when i called paypal they had me on hold and transfered me so many times that the battery in my phone went dead. i really want to dump them but its hard to give up the conveinence of using paypal.

funlover1974

Do it.. Yes it is very convient, but defintly not worth the headache. I have been going back and forth with them since May about my money. I have spoke to an attorney on the matter he said it would be a very difficult case to move on. His best solution would be small claims court.

Since I dropped Paypal I have not had a major decrease in sales that I expected.