Possible scam?

[Beadyeyez]

My wife paid for a purse on Etsy. First,It took many tries to get it to go through. Paypal kept saying her credit card was not accepted. The merchant ended up sending an invoice and the payment went through. We have the receipt from PayPal and the money was taken off our credit card. The merchant said "thanks it worked" and she would ship the purse. An hour later she sent a message saying for some reason the payment was pending... and that for it to go through we would have to open a dispute then close it for the payment to not be "on hold". We rarely use PayPal and thought we would try this. THANK GOODNESS we did some reading and realized that you CANNOT re-open a case and that you should *NEVER* close a case unless you get your item OR your money refunded. The merchant told us FOUR TIMES in an email that is VERY IMPORTANT to open and then close a case to make the payment go through. We realized this is most likely a scam, but she has our money already. What are our next steps? We're obviously going to have to open a case... but are we going to have to wait and see if she sends us something or can we start trying to get our money back right away? Like I said, we RARELY use PayPal and don't know what direction to go first. Thanks in advance for any input and info that can help us get our $500 back.

[PayPal_Jenny]

Hi @Beadyeyez,

Welcome to the Community and thank you for your post!

Sorry to hear you are experiencing issues with a seller. If you would like to report the matter with this payment, you can do so in the Resolution Centre (within 180 days of the transaction). The case dispute will allow you to contact the seller through your PayPal account and try to resolve it amicably. If that fails or you don't feel comfortable with this option, you have 20 days to apply for Buyer Protection (escalating the issue to PayPal). PayPal Buyer Protection considers if you are eligible for a full refund, if you buy something that never arrives, or if it arrives significantly different than described. It is possible to open these types of claims 7 days after the transaction has been completed. When you escalate the dispute to a claim, the seller will have 10 days to prove that the item has been shipped, and if no response is provided, the case will automatically close in your favour after 10 days. If you think the seller isn't going to send you the item, you can request the opening of a not received case and then change it to a significantly not as described if you receive something else. Here's how to file a case. 
 

If you need help with the filing, please feel free to contact our customer service. 

Hope this helps,

Jenny