Why Can't PayPal help me with a dispute?

[lilobear]

I am so confused. Someone has conned me into sending them 125 USD to their PayPal. They insisted i use personal payment, like an idiot who has never had any issues with buyers or sellers on PayPal, suddenly I find myself after almost 10 years of being a PayPal customer lost without any help.

They told me to file a police report, problem is, the person is in the Philippines, and out of jurisdiction. I have contacted the person using yahoo messenger, hotmail, and they have actualyl been bold to say on yahoo that they had received a payment from me for 125USD and asked if it was me, and I said yes, and thats it, they never communicated again, been trying to get them refund me the money. Appears their account was hacked into or they themselves are the scammer. The account is listed on PayPal non-us verified, so of course I was not too afraid to use it, but apparently, ishoudl have.

Is there anything I can do? I have communicated over and over with this person begging them to do the right thing to no avail, and PayPal has not offerred to help me with this.

[skellymo]

I am in the same boat. I sold an item on ebay item # 280784264428. I used the shipping info button on ebay to contact the buyer. He told me where and how to send the item, and he immediately paid with paypal. So I followed his directions, trying to be a good seller, as I have been for apx 12 years. The address was not the one on ebays auction and it was in Japan, but I have done this before with no problem, but when the buyer does a chargeback, and not only gets the item free, paypal does not help and expects me to repay a check I receiveed for the item and cashed weeks before.And ebay wants their money for me selling the item. I done nothing illegal or wrong here. How can I get someone to intervene here, and who? Can paypal refund money that is not in a paypal account? If anyone can help here I would greatly appreciate it.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hello lilobear and skellymo, and welcome to the forums!

@lilobear -

PayPal Purchase Protection is designed to cover buyers in transactions for goods and services. Personal payments fall outside of this coverage.

Misclassifying a transaction makes it impossible for PayPal to offer you protection. When making a purchase, in order to be covered by Purchase Protection, the transaction has to be correctly labeled as a purchase. That way the terms of the transaction are recorded correctly, and the seller can be held responsible for the delivery of goods. In a personal payment, there is no record of an agreement to deliver goods.

Buyers can help ensure protection from fraud by scrutinizing abnormal requests. When someone asks you to do something out of the norm, it's important to think about whether or not they can explain the legitimacy of the request. What legitimate purpose does a seller have for asking a buyer to misclassify their payment?

There are plenty of possibilities for a lack of legitimacy. Is he doing this to circumvent fees that a seller pays to receive payment? Is he doing this because it would be reportable income and he doesn't want it recorded? Is he doing this to deprive you of your purchase protection in the event that the item doesn't arrive or arrives broken?

Asking yourself questions like this can help you make informed choices to avoid risky transactions.

@skellymo -

I am sorry to hear that you experienced a chargeback.

It sounds like the chargeback you experienced may have been due to an unauthorized transaction. The person with whom you communicated wanted you to send the item to a completely different address than the one registered, which is a common request when a transaction is made fraudulently.

It is vitally important to always ship to the address in the PayPal transaction, so that PayPal's Seller Protection can cover you. Shipping to an address other that the one in the transaction details makes it impossible for PayPal to ensure that the transaction is safer, and can open you up to risk that is outside the scope of PayPal's protection.

@lilobear and skellymo -

PayPal's protections are designed to ensure safer transactions. The requirements are in place because they prevent the types of exploitation that you both experienced.

Again, I am sorry to hear that you both experienced these situations. Here are some additional resources that may you may find helpful:

• PayPal Security Center - http://www.paypal.com/securitycenter
• Internet Crime Complaint Center - http://www.ic3.gov
• National Fraud Information Center - http://www.fraud.org
• Department of Justice - http://www.onguardonline.gov

Olivia