Got an invoice, but money is not in my balance and I haven't received any payment receipts. Scam?

[Slins]

I'm selling some virtual goods.

The value is US$320.00.

The buyer agreed to go first (he would send me the money, then I would send him the goods).

He sent me an invoice, I received it in my e-mail.

When I go to the invoice, it says "PAID", but I didn't receive anything in my Paypal balance, there weren't any changes in my activities, I didn't receive any payment receipts in my e-mail.

I found this very suspicious, so I went to Paypal's subreddit looking for help, and someone helped me.

He said this was a scam, and that the invoice I got didn't confirm any payments.

He's from Argentina, I'm from Brazil, he's paying me in US Dollars.

The page is in Portuguese, but what matters is that my balance is "R$0,00" and there haven't any recent activities with the value of US$325,00:

Here's my e-mail, as well as the e-mail I got from Paypal notifying me of the invoice, this is the only e-mail from Paypal that I've received:

When I click the button, it takes me to the invoice page:

The person says that they've sent me the money, and sent me these two screenshots:

**** Can't upload the other one because Paypal says I've reached the 24-hour limit of 10 uploaded images, but basically the other image is his activity page saying a payment was sent to me with the same value.

Basically, that's it. I told him I didn't receive anything, my balance is the same, my activities haven't changed, I didn't receive any payment receipts, nothing. Only the invoice e-mail.

He says he has already sent me the money, and sent me these screenshots. However, he could've used inspect element and change stuff up, just like I could right, but that wouldn't make much sense, since why would I waste this much time in the Paypal forums looking for help when I'm the one "scamming" people, right?

So, I found this very suspicious. Mind you, this is my first time ever receiving an invoice on Paypal, I've sold virtual goods through Paypal before, and there were no problems whatsoever, they just sent me the money and it immediately showed up in my balance, they never charged back either.

This time it's an invoice. Which the buyer supposedly sent me and according to him, was already paid, even though there is nothing in my account other than the warning that I've received an invoice.

When I went to Paypal's sub reddit looking for help, the person who helped me told me that he was scamming me and that this was just an invoice, there were no payment confirmations. He also said that if it had been paid I would have the money in my account.

After hearing his advice, which by the way, I agree and he makes sense, I told the buyer that I didn't receive anything. As I said, he then mentioned he had already paid. After a long chat, he said I might have to accept the invoice, but we came to the conclusion that there were no options for me to do so.

Then he suggested I might have to wait up to 24 hrs to receive the money in my account, because that's what it says under "Termos e Condições" (Terms and Conditions, in Portuguese).

However, after some researching, I think that the terms and conditions and set by the person responsible for the invoice, right? Not something imposed by Paypal, but rather something agreed between the buyer and the seller, for specifics on the deal.

Since I wasn't sure, I told the guy on Reddit who helped me out, and he didn't necessarily say I'm right, but said that the guy is definitely a scammer.

So, can anyone help me with this, please?

[sharpiemarker · Accepted solution]

@Slins 

Scam. Buyers do not send invoices, sellers do. Buyer sent you a PayPal invoice to try to make out that they paid you. To generate authentic "paid" emails. If you do not see a record of payment in your PayPal account, you have not been paid, period! High value digital goods are magnets for these kinds of scams.

Congrats for having your scam radar on alert!

[Slins]

Thanks for the clarification! Appreciate it very much! Blocking him from everywhere, right now.

[sharpiemarker]

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@Slins wrote:

Thanks for the clarification! Appreciate it very much! Blocking him from everywhere, right now.

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You're welcome. I was just reading all the "maybe it's this", "maybe its that" excuses...the person did not pay. Yes, block em'.

[Slins]

Yeah, lol, he's now saying he's calling PayPal to get his money back... Wild... I think you can't ask for refunds from PayPal on invoices either, even if he had actually paid me, which is another reason not to send invoices in these cases, since you can't chargeback...