Getting an invoice

[AndyLiu]

Hey all, I sold my game items in game to someone and got an invoice from the buyer. Since this was the first time I used PayPal for this, I am not sure if I am tricked or not.

On my summery page, I see the invoice date is "APR 28", status is "completed", and the description belwo is "Refunded-Invoice Received", and the amount is "-$1,700.00".

Please help me explain the meaning of this invoice if you can. Thank you!

[sharpiemarker]

Buyers do not send invoices.  It is a tactic to scam you into thinking they paid so do not send any goods out.

[AndyLiu]

Ok, seems like he scamed me. Is there any way I can get money back on PayPal? I have screenshot in game, Skype conversation, and his PayPal email. Will those help getting my money back or reporting him or at least to prevent him from scamming other people? Thank you for responding and I really appreciate it!

[sharpiemarker]

@AndyLiu

Did you actually receive 1700 dollars into your PayPal balance?  Go to activity page, click "Detailed" to see your activity with the balance.  If you did not actually see 1700 reflected in your balance then I'm afraid you can't get the money back because there was no payment transaction.  Just the buyer making up a fake invoice, and marking it as paid, like, "psyche!"  And you can't force the other party to pay you just because they sent a fake invoice.

Selling digital goods is a crrap shoot at best as random individual seller who do not have a system to securely deliver it and track the delivery digitally.  If you did not send the game items, then you are back where you started.  If you did, it is gone as PayPal Seller protection do not cover digital goods.

Let's say that you did get paid--in order for the buyer to get the money back, there would have to be a dispute.  Any disputes opened in your Resolution Center?  

And the "Refunded-Invoice Received" was probably written in the Notes filed in the Record Payment window when they marked invoice as paid.

[AndyLiu]

I see an amount of -$1700 on activity page. It marks as completed instead of pending. Not sure whats that mean. I think PayPal has some responsibility as well because it lets scammers to create fake invoices to scam people without informing the users who use PayPal in proper way. 

[sharpiemarker]

-$1700 means that the money was deducted.  It could be more invoice manipulation by the buyer.  You will need to call PayPal Customer Service for assistance in checking the transaction to determine if there was a payment and how it got refunded.  This is a user forum and no one here can access your account.

https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/contact/call

[AndyLiu]

Thank you so much for your posts and they are really helpful! I appreciate your help!

[sharpiemarker]

No problem.  You're welcome.