Facebook and PayPal Scam

[Natwit]

Hi all,

I ordered an Animatronic Baby Yoda for $50 from a Facebook advert a few months ago. I had to raise a dispute as they’d said it had been delivered when it hadn’t, PayPal ruled in their favour. As if by magic the item has now turned up and is not what we ordered, instead of the moving talking battery operated toy, we got a cheap plastic ugly hand puppet. I contacted the seller and the admitted deliberately sending me the wrong item and offered a 10% refund! I can no longer raise a dispute as PayPal won’t let me, if I Try to raise a billing issue it automatically rules in favour of the Seller.  I’ve tried calling PayPal multiple times and it just says “we can’t connect you to Customer Service right now” and hangs up.

I have no idea what to do but looking at the Multiple Facebook adverts for the baby yoda I suspect I am one of several thousand who have been conned in this way.

Please help, any advice welcome (other than “don’t buy from Facebook adverts, I’ve learned that lesson already)

[Prinzara]

I had the same problem too and they keep saying for me to return the item would cost me too much, but for me to receive a 10% coupon off my next purchase. The whole thing is a major scam and PayPal isn’t guaranteeing their sales either.

[Chantal630]

Paypal has become a business on favor of ghost FRAUD companies that ripped their customer' money off, the only reason I purchased that SCAM item was because paypal was sponsor them as method of payment. You can open a dispute with your credit card company. Paypal rejected my dispute alleging that they received a tracking number and verified I received it. the only email I received from that fake scam company was an email that went to my Junk mail, I recover the email, click on the link to track my item and took to a 403 Forbidden page, same as the link to shop at Store. FAKE! SCAM!

[kernowlass]

@Chantal630 

Paypal would not be able to check every individual seller / merchant / company in over 200 countries worldwide that adds paypal to their website to accept payments.
So they give you 'some' buyer protection but the onus is on you to risk assess your transactions.

They do stop bad companies from using Paypal when enough claims start rolling in.
However as they are in China (mostly) then its easy for them to just start over with a new name, so stopping them does not really do anything.

The BEST thing is to not buy from them in the first place, to recognise them -

1. No return address on the returns policy. The site will look as if its in your country (where they despatch goods from) but they will ask for returns to go back to China (returns depot) at a shipping cost often more than the item is worth.
2. No contact telephone number. if you click on contact the most you will get is webmail or an email address.
3. Rarely company address information.
4. Great pictures of items at bargain prices that turn out to be tat.
5. Fake reviews.
6. Google and you can often see previous company names as they change them once enough claims roll in and Paypal stop them using their services and start over.

If you want advice on appealing your fake tracking number failed dispute then feel free to post back and ask.