Invoice's paid but no balance change

[Xelyore]

I have received 3 invoics, due to some negotiations with the purchase, and they total 310 euro. These have all been marked as paid and my paypal balance did not change. It has been over 12 hours now and it's a bit of a rush to get this all finished up for my mothers birthday.

It's also an issue because I have sent the product to the buyer after they were marked as paid and I don't want an issue to occur and not recieve this money.

Any assistance would greatly help

[kernowlass]

If it was marked as an invoice then its probably a scam doing the rounds as its been sent by a buyer and altered to look as though he has paid you.

Signs its a scam are >>>

its an invoice BUT sellers send invoices not buyers

marked as paid

marked as gift

says payment won't show in your balance for eg 24 hours

can't be chargedback.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send anything until the funds are showing in your paypal account balance.

Paypal payments are more or less instant.

Paypal will never tell you that a payment can't be subject to a chargeback.

[Xelyore]

WTF so I actually just lost 310 euro. Can Paypal help me get the money or anything? This is literally so stupi I literally have no money now for my mothers birthday

[kernowlass]

Paypal can't force someone to send you money and they tell you to NEVER send anything until the funds are showing in your paypal account balance because if they are not then you have not been paid yet.

[Xelyore]

I looked up other questions and stuff. They said when it says paid I can send it. How can someone even do this type of stuff. Why dont paypal stop it.

[kernowlass]

Yes when it says paid and is showing in your paypal account balance AND you have received an email from paypal to let you know the buyer has paid.

Its a scam that seems to have appeared in the last few months at least that is when folks started posting about it on here.

Not sure what paypal can do as sellers can send invoices and mark them paid for buyers that have paid them so the scammers are using that option but what you have to remember is a buyer NEVER sends an invoice, thats what sellers do.

It also seems to be happening to sellers that are selling "virtual / digital" items as that way you don't get the scammers address.

This field does seem to attract more than the fair share of scams.

Sorry but there are some nasty people out there, but believe me as a mum myself the size of the present does not matter, its the thought that counts. 

Hope she has a nice birthday anyway.

[Xelyore]

I understand what your saying. However, as someone who has not actually used PayPal in the way of invoices and stuff like that you can very easily mix things up with real and fake. 

I have some info on the user like his phone number and address and stuff. It may not be real but I have it. I also have some skype messages of him telling me the payment is all sent and done. Here are some images of that and the persons Skype:

http://imgur.com/MWdr4wW

And some images of this invoice that I fell for. I think I see some odd things now. I literally hate myself

http://imgur.com/VPTRVR5

[kernowlass]

Trouble is these scammers often hijack innocent parties email addresses / paypal accounts so the guy who's email you have may not be the scammer.

BUT that does not mean you can't try and get your money back, get some more advice and if you have a small claims court in your country or something similar let the scammer know you are going to take things further, it may or may not make them think twice about paying you properly.

BUT he may not be in the same country as you are so that would not work.

Don't blame yourself, its a clever scam, when it was first posted on the board i thought it was genuine until i saw the "gift" / 24 hours / paypal got you covered bit.

So sorry you did not come here first for advice.    

[Xelyore]

I have given him some small fakish warning about the law and stuff and I will see what his opinion is. He also has provided fake information on his paypal account apparently. Which I think is highly illegal

[JoshMcelvaney]

Hello, I've been subject to this scam quite a lot lately whilst trying to sell digital/game items to others, and being quite new to paypal I wasn't so sure how the whole process was supposed to work.

Being naive I didn't quite realise this was a scam at first and so I assumed I just needed to wait for the payment to process and I would receive the money, however this obviously isn't the case - and quite luckily, I never gave away the item I was selling.

My question is will I be charged the amount specified in the invoices if it appears as "marked as paid" even if I haven't actually clicked a 'pay' button or method?