PayPal policy encourages fraud

[ILoveKona]

I purchased an antenna product advertised on facebook and used PayPal to pay for it. The seller listed a California address. I received the product that was shipped from California. It was a useless fake item. I went to the resolution center for help. Eventually PayPal responded indicating I could return the item but had to send it using a service that would track the package and require proof of delivery to the address listed in their data field. The address WAS IN CHINA! There is no way to send the product back to China that doesn't cost less than what I paid for the item itself. There is also no way to inform PayPal of this problem because of how their system is set up. So in effect PayPal is complicit in allowing this scam to continue. They profit from working with these false companies and do not have a way for PayPal customers to report this problem. I hope they read this and contact me because it is due to their system and policies that I cannot get my scam purchase reversed. Has this happened to you? If so please respond.

[kernowlass]

@Giovanni527 

Paypal do exactly what they say they will do.............

In the event of a dispute you need to bear in mind possible return trackable costs before you buy from that seller / item / country.

Paypal state this >>
PayPal is not obliged to reimburse you for any costs that you incur to comply with any of PayPal’s requests for cooperation for the purpose of resolving the problem (including, without limitation, costs that you incur to return a SNAD item to the Payment Recipient or another party as PayPal requests), although sometimes it may reimburse these costs.

Although they will compensate you for some of the cost if you have activated this at some point before you made that transaction.
https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/what-is-return-shipping-on-us-and-how-do-i-activate-it-fa...

You also have the option to do a chargeback via your card issuer instead of a Paypal dispute if you funded your Paypal payment via a credit card.

[t2dcarla]

Here's another way PayPal policies enable fraud.  I purchased a game from an online seller and paid with PayPal.  The game never arrived.  I filed a claim with PayPal who contacted the seller.  The seller gave PayPal a tracking number for an item that was delivered to my city and state (but weighed about 5 times the weight of what I purchased).  PayPal accepted this tracking number as proof of delivery even though it specified no address, only my state and city.  What??  The seller should be able to provide specific documentation that it was sent to my address, which was shown on the purchase receipt that I provided to PayPal.  After filing a "Lost Package" claim with UPS they sent me an email saying that they had no record of any package being delivered in my name to a specific address in my city (UPS divulged the shipping location).  I had to provide all this documentation to PayPal to get my $46 returned to me but it tooks hours of my time trying to contact PayPal customer service and then deal with UPS customer service.  If PayPal would simply require the seller to provide the specific shipping location then none of this would be an issue.

[DLSigler]

This is very helpful advice.

I am going follow the steps to see how it plays out.

It doesn't resolve the problem with PayPal contributing to their scam seller fraudulent process, but may address the return cost part of the resolution.

i will report back here on how it went.

[Tobleron]

Who wants to join a class action lawsuit regarding this topic?

[Al_syracuse]

It's amazing PayPal still exists.  They clearly are not interested in protecting their customers, and in fact, they appear to be supporting fraud by sellers.

I ordered a product from USACLIPER, which seemed  to be a US company (based on the name).   NOT.  - Turns out to be a China company.   Furthermore, I discovered after some serious research that they are selling FAKE / Knock-off products.  As of now, no product received (13 days after ordering) and PayPal has denied my dispute twice.     Oh, and by the way, after my dispute was filed and PayPal forwarded it to the seller, the website for the seller disappeared from the Internet.  I have contacted the seller five times, and have received NO response, and the item still has not shipped.  

I have filed complaints with the FBI and the FTC.  I have also contacted my financial institution which is working on getting my money back.  Unfortunately, they can't finalize the dispute until 30 days has expired, and no item has been received.  -  If the item comes in, it would not be worth trying to send it back , as it would cost more than the price of the item.

The item was supposed to be a set of Wahl men's haircut clippers.   As I said, they are selling fakes, based on what I've seen on multiple sites, including the official Wahl site.  The owner of the fake site is listed only by his email address, which is :boketsuke5406.   Avoid him at all costs.

I plan to close my PayPal account once I get this fiasco cleared up.

[b_lyon83]

PayPal just decided a case of mine against a fraudulent seller.

I purchased a product online, and they used an old tracking number from USPS records. The date on the tracking number for shipment was TWO WEEKS prior to the order date - USPS shows tracking 4 days prior to order!

I gave all this information to PayPal and after 30 days, they just closed my dispute, handed the money over to the fraud seller, and said thanks for your 10 year account history - your security is important to us...

Moral of the story is... all you need to complete fraud through PayPal is a tracking number. Then sell fake stuff all day long!

PayPal can go suck an egg.

Case ID: PP-D-67694864

[kernowlass]

@b_lyon83 

APPEAL

To submit an appeal on the dispute that was closed, PayPal asks that you obtain a detailed report from the shipper/courier (on their letterhead or some other form of official stationary) that includes the address the seller gave them for the shipment or that includes a statement mentioning your address and saying the item was delivered to a different address.
When you have that, contact PayPal via phone (log on to your account and click Contact at the bottom of the page, however that may not be an option at the moment due to covid), or via Facebook (send a Private Message to PayPal) or via Twitter (send a Direct Message to @AskPayPal) and say you want to appeal the denial of the dispute based on the shipper saying the item was delivered to a different address. Once it's submitted (you will be provided with directions on how to do that), the dispute will be reviewed further and a determination will be made.

You also have the option to contact your card issuer if you funded your paypal payment that way and see if they will do a chargeback for you.

[DLSigler]

All I see here is that as a victim, the responsibility to rectify is completely on me, and PayPal will be of no help what so ever.

[hyparker13]

So true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PayPal is an accomplice to all scam artists. Because the sellers pay PayPal the sellers are thrown under the bus. As long as PayPal gets paid by the sellers for each transaction they don't care. PayPal is only concerned with how much money they can make. No honesty in so many big businesses!

[Patshealinghand]

Same thing happened to me as well in 2020. If they start making these companies pay for the returns themselves all that fraud would stop instantly.