Paypal thinks I'm a scammer? - resolved

digicat

This past weekend, I bought a card on Ebay for $6. I paid via paypal, and discovered the next day that Paypal has flagged the purchase for review. The seller said that Paypal warned him that the purchase may have been fraudulent, and are reviewing the case.

Anyways, Paypal hasn't attempted to contact me about it.

Does this stuff just get worked out on it's own, or should I be trying to call Paypal?

Edit to add:
They haven't frozen my account, just this one purchase. I've made a few purchases since then w/o issue.

al032184

Sometimes paypal will hold the payment for review for 24 hrs. It happens a lot when a credit card is used, or when there's a lot of activity with your account. It has happened to me buying and selling.

PoppaJ

A few reasons for a PayPal Payment Review are:

◦You have been an eBay member for less than 6 months, and you sell an item for more than $100
◦You have an eBay feedback score of less than 100, and you sell an item for more than $100
◦You have a buyer dissatisfaction percentage* greater than 5%
◦You have an average DSR of less than 4.5
◦You have received fewer than 20 Detailed Seller Ratings in the last 12 months
◦You are listing your item in a high-risk category such as gift certificates, video games, cell phones, computers, or consumer electronics.

corvette1340

<< <i>Sometimes paypal will hold the payment for review for 24 hrs. It happens a lot when a credit card is used, or when there's a lot of activity with your account. It has happened to me buying and selling. >>



I can vouch for Alex's post as it happened on $1000 purchase that I bought from him. That was the first time it has ever happened to me and it hasn't happened since. I have no idea why they reviewed that specific purchase as I've purchased stuff well into the several thousand range before with no hassle. I think its just a random security measure.

I just saw PoppaJ's response and knew about those types of reviews but the transaction between Alex and I was an off ebay transaction from the BST board.

digicat

pappaj, none of those appply.

Well, it's been longer than 24 hours. I purchased the card on Saturday. I'll give them a call.

Freeking $6 card.

CardPuppet

This happened to me a few months ago. I won an auction and sent paypal for it the same day. The next day I got a notice that
the seller had refunded my payment. I emailed the seller to ask him what happened and he said that "paypal contacted him and
suggested" that he refund my payment. I had no idea what was going on. After a bit of research, I realized that I had exceeded the
"$500 per month" limit. I usually buy small items and never come close to this limit, but during this month I bought a bunch of wax boxes
all at once. My paypal account was on hold and I had to go to the site and re-verify my SSN to lift the $500 limit. Once I did this, everything
was back to normal. Maybe you exceeded the limit for November and it was reset to zero on December first?? Just a guess.

Mickey71

If PAYPAL said so...

lsutigers1973

I sold two cards from my store over 2 weeks ago for $8 each. Payment was later held for review and still has not been released.

MULLINS5

<< <i>I'll give them a call.

Freeking $6 card. >>



couldn't pay me to call paypal

digicat

<< <i>couldn't pay me to call paypal >>



I really want my card though.

MULLINS5

<< <i>

<< <i>couldn't pay me to call paypal >>



I really want my card though. >>



lol, i understand.

i hate calling paypal. everytime i have called them it has never been worth my time. i get tied up every time for close to an hour with issues never getting resolved.

good luck!

VintageCardLover

I have a customer that pays for his orders from his blackberry. EvERY single time he does this Paypal flags the payment and 24 hours later it clears. This happens once a month for the past 6 months. Dunno why, but its the truth.

RE: calling paypal.
they have always been very nice, and ive never been on hold for more than 5 minutes.

digicat

I called Paypal and they released my payment, so all's well.

The call wasn't too bad. The voice-recognition portion didn't work, so I had to wait for the menu recording to go through it's two "Sorry, I didn't hear you" rounds before it gave me the numbers I could push to get to the next step. Once I got to a person, it was just fine.

Apparently the problem was that when I made the payment, I was at my in-laws' house 200 miles away from my home, so Paypal regarded this as suspicious activity and froze the payment.

Now I can get my silly little $6 card.