How to tell if a buyer's account is verified?

[cwbeas1]

I did search and could not find an answer to exactly my question, so my apologies if this has been discussed a lot.

I had a person send me money ($950) through an instant transfer but the details say "Seller Protection not available. We have no shipping address on file."

So I read up on what to do and I had already planned on shipping insured with a signature required. Is there anyway to check to see if his account is at least verified?

Thanks,Charles

[skier]

If a website displays a PayPal Verified Seal, you can click on that link, then you login into your PayPal and the vendor's or seller's information will be displayed. The information displayed is the vendor's email address, their status (verified) and the date the vendor's account was created. Problem is, not all website's display the PayPal Verified Seal as this is optional, it's not a requirement to display this seal.

There is a trick you can use to look up a US PayPal member to see if they have verified their account. Simply replace the email address in the example code below with the email address of the member you want to check out. Then copy the code to a blank web page and click on "Lookup".

<a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/verified/pal=emailaddress @ email.com">Lookup></a>

And some additional stuff you should be aware of:

How to find "your" Verified Seal Code, one method.
Assuming your PayPal Account is Verified.
Login to your PayPal Account.
In the Search Box, type in: Official PayPal Seal - PayPal and click on Search.
You should see a link to where you can get the necessary code.


Note, PayPal also has a disclaimer concerning the verification process, see the text below:

To become Verified, a PayPal member in the United States must provide us with proof that he or she has opened an account at a bank or other financial institution. Because these institutions are required by law to screen account holders, PayPal's verification process increases security when you pay parties you do not know. Please note that PayPal's verification system does not constitute an endorsement of a member, nor a guarantee of a member's business practices. You should always consider other indicators when evaluating members, including length of PayPal membership and reputation scores (on eBay or other auction sites, if applicable).

As you can see, there are no 100% guarantees. If you have doubts about a seller, do your homework. Note, it's very simple and does not take much time.

* First, check out the website by looking at the Contact information.

Does the seller provide a physical address and contact phone number? If the only way you can contact the seller is via an email form, find another seller as there's a reason they don't want you to know who they are.

* Next, look for the seller's website Policies and/or FAQs.
Does the seller have a customer satisfaction policy?
Does the seller accept returns?
What shipping methods/services does the seller use?

* Last, simply Google the vendor or seller and see what comes up.

Regards,

skier

[cwbeas1]

Hi Skier thanks for the quick reply. The "trick" is exactly what I was looking for. I replaced the email address in the code, and tried pasting that into the address bar of a blank webpage and that didn't work so I guess you mean to copy it into the content of a blank page, and I guess I am having a "senior moment" and can't find how to do that. And it has been a long time since I did any html at all.

FWIW, possibly paypal could make this info available without having to know the "trick?" 😉

[skier]

Tip:

Copy the line of code using Notepad.  Edit  it, then save it as text file with an extension of ".txt", i.e.:   test.txt

Then rename it and save to something like:   test.html

Next, open the file with your web browser.

Regard,

skier

[cwbeas1]

Thanks again skier-that's just what I was looking for.

again, though it would be nice if there was a way to do this without knowing the "trick!"

[skier]

No worries, we all wish for things to be easier, but then if they were, there would be no need for a Community Forum.

Regards,

skier

[cwbeas1 · Accepted solution]

good point!!!!!