Recently, an individual by the name of “Irene Watt” purchased my MacBook Air laptop and paid via PayPal, but the payment came from another user, which at the time I assumed was a friend or relative.
After receiving payment, I posted the item via Royal Mail and supplied a tracking number.
On Saturday, I received an email from PayPal stating that this was an unauthorised transaction and they had processed a chargeback for the full amount of £520.
This would lead me to believe 1 of 2 things has happened.
1. Irene Watt logged into somebody else’s PayPal account and made the transaction without permission.
2. Irene Watt owns the account and has committed chargeback fraud.
After googling the PayPal email address, it appears they’re connected to quite a few scams, so option 1 seems unlikely.
Either way, PayPal has a responsibility to protect its sellers and provide a safe place for people like me to do business, yet they’re now holding me responsible to restore the balance, despite being the victim in this scenario.
All dispute responses are simply scripted emails and it seems that nobody at PayPal really cares that I’ve been scammed out of my laptop and £520.
If anybody has been in this situation before then your advice is appreciated.
Fingers crossed that either action fraud or the police can do something about this.
