€16,00 chargeback fraud

[Honeyside]

Hello everyone,

On December 27 I received a "suprise present" from someone that I helped online. I never requested him money, but he sent me €45,00 to thank me anyway. There is no real record of this (I helped him on a Skype call), so I basically just received €45,00 euros out of nothing (from a PayPal point of view).

Now, after 2 months and after completely disappearing, this person told to his bank that this was an unauthorized payment. PayPal gave him back €45,00, which I can understand... but then robbed me of €16,00!

I don't understand! I never requested this €45,00, they were sent as a present, "as a friend". So if 1000 people send me "random money" and then ask those money back, will PayPal just rob me of €16k?

[kernowlass]

@Honeyside 

I would check with him to see if it was a mistake, if he lost his card and so requested chargebacks on unrecognised transactions he may have selected.

In the event of a chargeback unfortunately if you lose and that person is refunded then you pay the card companies 'fee'. 

[Honeyside]

Hello @kernowlass and thank you for your answer.

It seems he deleted his accounts or blocked me on social media (without previous notice and without requesting a refund). His email (a custom email address @his-site) now returns my emails back, as if it is no longer active.

I am not even really complaining about giving him his money back. Had he asked, I would have given a refund. What I complain about is a PayPal fee of €16,00 for a PayPal procedure that I was not notified of previously and I did not give consent to.

[PayPal_Rich]

Hello @Honeyside,

Thanks for posting in the PayPal Community forums for help with this issue. I'm sorry to hear that the owner of the payment method may have filed a chargeback. That is understandably frustrating. It sounds like they sent you a personal payment. However, all payments made with a debit card or credit card can be the subject of a chargeback. PayPal does not have any control over the decision and also receives a fee. A small portion of the fee is transferred to the recipient, sharing in the risk and loss caused by the chargeback. 

I'm sorry that happened, but I hope this information helps explain why that fee was charged. If you want to provide the country your PayPal account is registered in, I can link you to more information regarding the chargeback process.