Transfer on hold until picture of scratched gift card is sent to confirmation email

sthawng
Contributor
Contributor

I recently sold some shoes on Ebay and a seller was interested in buying it. He later asked me if I could buy him a $200 Google Play gift card and also send it to the same address. At first I was hesitant and really suspicious of it, but he said that I should look at my email, because PayPal should've sent an email from saying that I was sent $342, which was the total for my shoes profit and the gift card. After seeing that, I wanted to help him, because he had said this was for his siblings. The email looked like it came from PayPal. There were some red flags at the time now that I thought about it, but I didn't really know what to look for. I had never done this type of transaction on Ebay or Paypal. The only thing I ever did on PayPal was receive money once and that was about it, so I really didn't know scams like these existed or how they worked. I was really dumb.  I bought the gift card and sent it to the same address and he thanked me and everything. I checked my email and it said that I would be credited with the money in a few hours, so I waited. Later during the day, around 8, he sent me a message saying he would sent additional money, which was $250, to buy another Google Play gift card and send it the same location. I saw the email saying that I was sent $250, and told him that I would do it the next day. After many hours after I sent it, he texted me again saying that he "accidentally" sent me to much money, exactly $100, on Paypal and that I needed to buy another gift card worth $100 and send it to him. At that point, I was really hesitant and suspicious even with the emails, so I did some research online and it turns out it was a scam. Looking through the emails and thinking back at his behavior, he was definitely a scammer. I lost more than $400 online. I really never have encountered anything like this, so I didn't know what to look for or anything. I wanted to know if there is anything that I could do to get my money back?

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PayPal_Joy
Moderator
Moderator

Hi @sthawng,

 

I'm sorry to hear that this happened to you. I can certainly understand your concern. If payments were not sent through PayPal, we would be unable to help and try to recover those funds. You may be able to report this fraudulent activity to your local authorities. You can also learn how to spot a fake or fraudulent email from PayPal by visiting the link here


Joy
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