Accidental send of PayPal money to an unverified user

[Rookk]

So I just found out today that my dad had accidently sent $47.00 to a random email address when he was originally intending to send it to someone else. The deal that my dad and the seller was called off, but now I'm a little fearful of what happened to my money. 

The account that it was sent to is unverified. As well as the money says it only "sent" while other payments to people I know say "money received." I talked to a PayPal specialist today and she told me that my money is currently just floating around and when no one on the other side claims it the money will come back to me. I just wanted to really confirm that it was true. I'm still very scared that the random person will just go up and claim the money as his or hers. I say this because in the details of sent money, the unverified paypal user has a name so they must have an account made. 

If anyone could just confirm that the above said is true that would be great.

[EULAgy]

The situation for this can go one of several ways:

1.) The person does not have a PayPal account. In this case, it should say Unclaimed next to it, or in this case, money sent. The person would have to create a PayPal account and confirm their email address (and in some cases, verify their account, which is two different things) to claim the money. However, as you stated, they have a name, leading to the other situation.

2.) They have a PayPal account, but for one reason or another (e.g. unverified, email not confirmed, different currency, they use Accept and Deny) the money hasn't been claimed.

 Under a handful of circumstances, the latter scenario means that your father might be able to go into his account under History or Activity (depending on if he's using the classic site or not, or Transactions for business), open up the transaction details and cancel the payment by clicking the "Cancel" button. On the classic site, this is usually displayed next to the details if I remember correctly. If he doesn't have this option, they may have Accept and Deny turned on or something to that effect, and if the money isn't claimed within 30 days, it will be returned to him.

[Rookk]

Should I try to file something in case the random person accepts the money or no. I'm kind of scared what will happen to the money. Also I checked the classic site and there is no cancel button. 

[EULAgy]

With the cancel button not showing, the next thing I would suggest before filing a dispute would be to call in, if you haven't already. I know there can be a bit of a wait, which most people don't like (thus why the forums, email, and other social media outlets exist), but working over the phone can lead to some different results. I"m not saying they will be able to do anything, but they may be able to provide other options to you that I'm overlooking or am unaware of. As it stands, the only thing I can think of from here would be to see if it gets returned either by the recipient (whom, if it was sent as goods/services, you may have a chance for a dispute) or by the unclaimed funds process. Sorry I couldn't be more immediately helpful.

Edit: If someone else has any other ideas, feel free to comment or correct me.

[Rookk]

I have already called in, they just told me to sit tight and wait about a week and if the person on the other end has not claimed the money it will go back to me or something along those lines. I wasn't really sure about the final answer as if the money will never go to the random person. 

[EULAgy]

In that case then, just keep an eye on it for the next several days until it cancels out. If it doesn't, and it was sent as a goods or service payment (which it sounds like it was), then that means that the other person claimed it, and at the point, then there's a good chance you could file a dispute for the transaction.

[Rookk]

How do I know if the person on the other side accepted the money. I checked back when I sent money to someone with a verified account, the details look the exactly the same. 

[EULAgy]

If the payment status states "Completed" instead of "Unclaimed" there's a pretty good chance the funds were accepted. Now that being said, if you have any doubts or concerns, I still urge you to contact customer support via phone.