Dispute on a digital key sold - robbed by PayPal and buyer

[MisieQQ]

Good afternoon guys! I recently sold a digital key on eBay. As a good seller I have sent it within minutes after the payment was received, as the buyer instructed me to. The problem starts here. After about half an hour I'm receiving an email from eBay and PayPal that the purchase was "unauthorized" and my money has been put on hold. Of course, I have escalated it to PayPal, but as you all can probably suppose, PayPal went in Buyer's favour and refunded the money. It is of course a scam as the code has already been used, which is why I didn't want to refund the buyer. Is there any chance I can do something else or I've simply just lost my money? Will appreciate any help. Thanks, Adam

[MisieQQ]

I forgot to add that as PayPal has "adjusted" the payments, they even kept their fee... So not only I lost my valued item, I also had to pay money to PayPal for nothing... Disgusting service from PayPal... 😡

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @MisieQQ,

I'm very sorry to hear that the digital item sold has been used. It's possible that the person whose funds were used was not the originator of the payment, and the funds were stolen. In a situation where the goods are physical and can be delivered via a shipping company with tracking, it would be possible for PayPal to offer Seller Protection, and the loss would have been recoverable. I regret that digital items are not covered by Seller Protection and they have a greater risk of being targeted by fraudsters because of the ability to get the goods immediately.

Olivia