funds paid in by unknown,account on hold,cant issue refund

[johnnog]

hi,somebody claims they have had their bank details hacked into and four seperate amounts were then paid into my account.

i want to return/refund this persons money but when i try it says the transaction ID's are not valid when i go through dispute claim.

when i go to resolution centre your given 3 options to choose to click on

i chose the ' i have not posted the item and i will refund the payment '.

as i havent sold this person anything i tried the 'not posted the item and will refund the payment, option.

Then i click on 'issue refund',then i get the error message "You cannot refund this payment right now because you do not have enough funds in your Paypal account. Please add a bank account and set up bank funding to initiate this refund."

i have no money in my bank,i am unemployed,paypal have frozen my account as well so i just cannot return these funds.i get £65 a week while i am unemployed so theres no chance of me putting £85 into my bank then adding my bank details which is what i am being asked to do.

anyone had a similar experience?

it feels like a scam to me.

any advice or help with this would be most appreciated.

thanks

[johnnog]

message to paypal-can you at least answer my questions,here or from the emails i have sent you please?

i am finding this matter stressfull enough ,being ignored by the people holding this other persons money in my account,please reply personally,not just auto response emails.

how long is my account going to be frozen?why should i pay my own money into my account to refund this person when you are holding the amounts?

i have found the service really dissapointing,i have been using paypal for years and never had problems like this,if i wanted to keep the money paid in wouldnt i have transferred it to my bank straightaway?

please reply asap please.

[o0SnowDrop0o]

Do you have the full ammount of the transaction in your PayPal funds still? Because what you did should release the hold on the funds and allow you to refund the buyer. I would take a look at this similar Thread which suggests you can also contact PayPal directly (I would phone before e-mail) and request this be done: https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Protection-programs-disputes-and/How-do-i-return-a-held-payment/...

[johnnog]

thanks for the reply and advice,

i recieved several emails from paypal last night/this morning saying the case has been resolved.

i have been left with negative balance though for them to convert from US  dollars to uk pounds,not a large amount,but why should i have to pay for the attempted scam on my account.?

[o0SnowDrop0o]

Did you spend any of the money originally, even by mistake?

Otherwise, the only thing that I can think of, is that it's basing the refund on the current exchange rate, but that wouldn't make much sense in my opinion. I'm interested to hear if this is how it would work. But really, you should try phoning PayPal. Most e-mails are automated.

[johnnog]

no,didnt spend any of the money paid in,knew there was something not quite right,joanne at paypal emailed me saying,

" have created a request for a courtesy credit of £xx.xx to cover the negative
balance on your PayPal account. The request is now in a queue waiting to
be reviewed. You will be updated by email as soon as this is completed "

they also apologised for the inconvienience it has caused me.so it looks like it has been sorted out,the person who got their details hacked and money paid into my account has had all the money refunded,just waiting now for my negative balance to be wiped clean.i was beggining to think they wouldnt reply,at least no big amounts of money have been stolen by some scammer.thanks for the reply btw.

[johnnog]

also,just tried to remove my old cc card as its about to expire,have just got my new one but it paypal wont let me remove my old one because of the negative balance.hope they are quick getting rid of the negative balance so i can start to use paypal on ebay etc.this has been a right pain in the nether region!