"Unauthorized Payment" dispute

[SentientObserve]

I have been selling on eBay and using PayPal for approximately 20 years and have never had a problem before.

I received an odd email from PayPal this morning. It is regarding an eBay sale I made in 2015. I still have the emails from that transaction in my email inbox. It appears to have been a routine sale where I received funds, mailed the item, and did not receive any more communication from the buyer.

In the PayPal dispute center, it states that, "The buyer has filed a claim stating this transaction was made without the account holder’s knowledge or consent."

Confused, I called PayPal's customer service line and was referred to eBay. The woman who answered at eBay said their records do not go back that far into the past and she could not assist me.

The dispute is still open at PayPal.

I did a little searching online and it seems this problem has come up for others before, however it seems to resolve itself somehow. I can find very few details.

What worries me is that I have had a hold placed on funds in my PayPal account until this is resolved. The implication I am seeing is that I somehow hacked into the buyer's eBay and/or PayPal account and sent myself the funds. I did neither, I do not know the buyer personally, nor has that person won another auction from me ever in the past.

I have 23 years of experience in law enforcement, including being a supervisor at both a city police department and a federal law enforcement agency, and over ten years of experience as a lawyer specializing in criminal law. If someone brought the concerns of this buyer to me as a proposal for a case, I would say that the initial dispute is between the customer and his or her financial instutition, possibly their internet service provider as well if unauthorized access was made based on stolen information transmitted electronically. Attempting to place responsibility on the seller would come far down the road after a complete investigation and forensic examination of both parties' electronic activity. I have not been notified or asked to provide information in such an investigation. Thus, I am puzzled and wondering why PayPal is attempting to hold the actions of an apparent rogue hacker against me as a seller in a simple and legitimate transaction.

Thank you for any insight that can be provided.

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@SentientObserve

2 parts to this answer.

1. An unauthorised transaction means an account holders paypal account has been hijacked and used without their consent by your ''so called'' buyer. If that is the case then paypal of course refund the account holder the funds they paid you. HOWEVER paypal would also reimburse you as long as you met all the requirements of seller protection.

2. Having said all that...........2015???????.................. paypal disputes are supposed to only have a life of 180 days so how on earth can they open a dispute 2 years later.

I would get back to paypal and state that this is WELL over the 6 month limit and to please close the dispute.

[SentientObserve]

kernowlass, thank you for your reply. You are absolutely correct (kudos!)

I called PayPal back and was bounced around to a few different people. Eventually I reached a gentleman who said that it would be an "automatic denial" of the claim since it was so old.

[Whac-A-Mole]

IF SO,then Paypal should have software in place to deny buyer from filing a dispute.