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EOCS

Paypal Scam?

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Hey all. today i received a paypal payment for a rig that my friend is selling, his english is not the best so he asked me to do all the details for him.. Anyway the buyer and i reached an agreement and he sent the money via paypal. I tried to withdraw it to transfer to my friend and it turns out my paypal account is now under some kind of limitations and they are asking me to provide invoice for the sale (which i dont have cause im not a company) and tracking number information for the rig. this is what raised a flag for me

Seeing as i just got the payment ive not had time to send the rig. so what worries me is that now i need to ship it to get the restriction off my account and have access to the money but is it possible that the buyer receives the rig and then complaints that he did not get it or it was not the rig and paypal refunds him the money too?

Not sure if this is a thing ,so figured i would check with you all.

Thanks!

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if the account is locked *in* paypal (which the OP seems to suggest) - ie funds extraction not available until steps x, y, z are done...i'd suggest calling the paypal folks. they're generally pretty helpful.

when you log into your account you can generally tell if things are fucked up...and why.

[edit] this isn't to say that someone can't scam the dispute resolution system, of course.

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millertime24

It's a scam. Did you get an email from "PayPal" saying the payment would be released once you ship the rig? If so look at the origin address of that email. I guarantee you it isn't from PayPal. Looks the same, but isn't them.



That's not likely, and easy to check. Just log into your PayPal account in the normal way and check. Then you will know if it's a spoof email.

Most likely either you or the buyer have relatively new accounts and PayPal is checking you out. If you log into your account and PayPal says it is safe to ship, and you only ship to the address they tell you is ok, then you are protected. If the buyer asks you to ship to a different address, and you do so, you won't be covered.

All this is completely aside from the dispute process. Get signature confirmation of delivery.
Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

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gowlerk

***It's a scam. Did you get an email from "PayPal" saying the payment would be released once you ship the rig? If so look at the origin address of that email. I guarantee you it isn't from PayPal. Looks the same, but isn't them.



That's not likely, and easy to check. Just log into your PayPal account in the normal way and check. Then you will know if it's a spoof email.

Most likely either you or the buyer have relatively new accounts and PayPal is checking you out. If you log into your account and PayPal says it is safe to ship, and you only ship to the address they tell you is ok, then you are protected. If the buyer asks you to ship to a different address, and you do so, you won't be covered.

All this is completely aside from the dispute process. Get signature confirmation of delivery.

It happened to me when I was selling gear. I knew they were a scammer right away from how they were responding to emails (interested in your "item", very bad English, "blessed day to you and your family" ect). I didn't have a PP account at the time, but I set one up just to see how long I could fuck with the scammer.

You are correct my actual PP showed no activity, but I kept receiving emails from what looked like PP saying my funds were there and would be released upon providing a tracking #. This, of course, wasn't actually from PP. The origin of the email was some other country, but cleverly disguised to look like it was legit from PP.

I agree that corresponding with PP directly should clear any confusion in the case of the OP. I just don't want to see any fellow jumpers getting fucked.
Muff #5048

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thanks so far. Maybe some more info is needed.

I and the buyer have been talking over gmail for quite a few emails getting things straight before the sale.

*he advised that he had made the payment. I logged into my paypal from the browser, no email links so im sure the money is on my account.

*I called paypal right away and they have asked me to submit proof of ID again (account is already verified) aswell as utility bill, the email records ect. I spent a good 45 min on the phone with them to no resolution other then submit these documents and wait 48 hrs.

From the feel of it its like paypal thinks im the scammer as they are trying to get me to submit everything including a tracking code. I asked them if this was the case and they gave a politically neutral answer.

Buyer and i have still been talking and he has offered to call paypal or write them a letter which ive taken him up on. hope this helps. I would think this would also help with any future disputes if there was any.

Anyway i will make sure i have the money on my bank account before i start shipping. will keep you posted

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You are likely a very infrequent, low volume PayPal user, thus all the checks.

No matter what you tell them, what the buyer tells them, they'll need proof of you being you before they will be willing to assume the risk of the transaction.

You can always just do a wire transfer...

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EOCS

Anyway i will make sure i have the money on my bank account before i start shipping. will keep you posted



Having the money in your bank account does not protect you from anything. Chargebacks can be initiated even after you have withdrawn the funds, and your balance will go negative.

Your questions need to be answered by PayPal. This isn't really a skydiving issue. If they can't answer all your concerns and guarantee that you are protected against chargebacks in this scenario, then I personally would refund the money and go a different route for payment.
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Paypal is notorious for being a bag of dicks and randomly freezing people's account with no recourse or explanation. They can and will freeze and often confiscate (that is, steal) your funds if they consider your account suspect (which, as far as anyone can tell, is equivalent to saying "when they feel like it").

Unfortunately there's not much precedent I've seen in people dealing with Paypal where the user succeeded. The best case scenario often amounts to Paypal graciously "refunding" the payer, after taking their cut of course, and leaving you to deal with the fallout. The worst case scenario is that money gets frozen for 6 months (they can do that according to their ToS), you never hear anything during that time, then finally all the money is lost because Paypal seizes it.
"Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

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Ive never had anything but exceptional service with paypal even when we got our account locked because a douche reported me for taking "donations" four our annual Leukemia and Lymphoma raffle. I didn't think anything about people buying raffle tickets but they have a rule you must be registered for charitable donations and I get why after they explained it.

As for the OP paypal is absolutely worried your the scammer and for damn good reason. So many people have been scammed the exact way your trying to do this. Take the money out of paypal before shipping. Once you have the money and take it out of the bank you can close all the accounts and everyone is screwed but you. Sure you say you would never do that but that's the same thing every scammer before you said. So if your not a scammer then so what answer the questions and ship the rig and get your money.

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

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Hi,

the issue is that they are asking for things that i didnt have such as an invoice or the invoice i paid for the gear. my companies website or URL or anyhting like that. I was not about to ship the rig and still have paypal lock the funds because they throught i was operating as a business without telling them or something. The effect for me is that i would still be out a rig and the money.

Luckily the issue is now solved and what did it was calling the US support line. I have been talking to the support line that they provided for me here in the EU, it was somewhere in Ireland. The customer service there was horrible. Impossible to get past the first line support people and generally getting the you now need to wait 48 hrs for a response. They also flat out refused to issue a refund to the guy saying that they didnt have the ability to do that.

I called the US support line 3 nights ago because the EU one was closed and told them that I had alot of trouble with their support in EU and all i wanted to do anymore was get the guy his money back and that they could leave my account bloicked or whatever but im done with this whole thing. 30 min with the US support and the issue was resolved, the guy got his money back and my paypal account was unblocked.

So now everything is as it should be, I am truely amazed at the service level differences between the EU and US support centers.

In case anyone else has this issue the paypal number i got through on was +1 888 221 1161

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