Scammed as friends and family apymebt

[Fzefi]

Hi everyone! I did a transaction outside of eBay with an eBay seller (I have all our eBay messages saved) and to save money on the shipping they sent me a bill for a bag I purchased, they must have sent this as "friends and family" Long story short, I got the bag, got it authenticated and it is fake, I sent the bag back and PayPal was to refund me tonight after closing my case! Then I get an email saying they won't refund me as this payment was sent as friends and family. I have been in contact with PayPal 7 times since the incident and I have yet to have had someone before tonight mention anything about friends and family, all I've been told is case will be closed in my favour once the bag is sent. I obviously was unaware I sent the money to the seller as friends and family and this scammer won't refund me! PayPal isn't being helpful but they did decide to appeal the decision and I also contacted my bank and filed a dispute against the charge. I feel like I have done all I can. Has anyone else dealt with this?! The transaction was done through my bank account, not credit card unfortunately!

[Fzefi]

I paid with bank funds.

[charlescgg]

Hey I know this was several months ago, but ran into the same situation. Any updates on what happened? Did you get your money back?

[sharpiemarker]

Perhaps make a post on the PayPal Canada Community Boards, maybe someone there had luck getting their money back.  This is the PayPal US board.

[Fzefi]

Oh crap! Haha! Didn't even notice. Thanks, agains!

[sharpiemarker]

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@Fzefi wrote:
Oh crap! Haha! Didn't even notice. Thanks, agains!

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My pleasure.  We get people from all over posting here. 

[SilenceDogood]

There is also an "author" who puts together box sets of books of self published authors on Amazon who often asks the people subscribing to her "classes" and "marketing" to send money via FRIENDS AND FAMILY(above and beyond the money she has already bilked them for in buy-ins and "classes") as a way to get around having to return the money when people realize it's a con. This money she is asking them to send that way is used to purchase more of the books to "gift" to folks who then accept that "gift" and run the numbers up, thus propelling them to bestseller lists.  Many people currently being burned this way.

Never use FRIENDS AND FAMILY except for friends and family. Anyone who asks should be reported to PayPal, as they can revoke their access.