Trying to avoid fraud

[JazzBlack1]

Hello,

I have an item for sale and have received interest and supposed payment from two prospective buyers in the last 5-6 days. Buyer number one shows as activity in my paypal and shows as pending but the funds never came through. It has been a week. Buyer number two contacted me yesterday morning telling me that they wanted an invoice and then sent me some email that supposedly showed that their payment came through. In both cases buyers' payments didn't come through. Buyer no. 2 also told me that the supposed confirmation might go to my junk mail. I informed both buyers that unless payment showed "completed" in my paypal account i would cancel the order.  

The first buyer still shows as pending. Is there any way for me to confirm the validity of these supposed purchases.

[iubjaved]

Hi,

If a buyer pays you and the payment is on hold or unavailable right away, PayPal will notify you via email and  an alert on your Summary page.

In your case, buyer 1 did sent you payments that is on hold, and buyer 2 didn't. PayPal email will never end up on your junk page. I suggest you go to the pending transaction, click on it and see if it shows any further information such as you to submit a tracking  number to confirm shipment. If so, then you need to ship the product to the buyer with a tracking number and provide tracking information (UPS, USPS, or FedEx) with delivery confirmation. Your payment should be available 3 days after we can confirm delivery.

1. If you don’t upload tracking information, but mark the item as shipped on the Transaction Details page, your payment should be available 7 days for domestic or 14 days for international shipments, after the item is marked as shipped.
2. Buyers can also mark the item as received in the Transaction Details page, which will release the payment three days afterwards.
3. Mark the payment as processed if it was for a service, and your payment should be available in 7 days for domestic or 14 days for international payments.
4. If you fulfill the order, but don’t provide any shipping information, your payment should be available after 21 days, as long as your buyer doesn’t report any issues with the transaction.

[JazzBlack1]

thank you for your quick response. i am selling a brand new cell phone. i tried to contact the buyer through the cell phone # that was associated with the transaction however it was a business and no one there knew the names associated with the transactions. the person seemed to be from another country so the whole thing seemed very fishy to me. i emailed the buyer to tell them that the transaction was making me uncomfortable and that i needed some confirmation they were legit otherwise i would cancel the order. i didn't hear back and i cancelled however the funds still show as pending.