Third party scams buyer who directed the payment to me in order to get goods. Whose fault?

[jourdy]

Recently, Paypal decided to be in favor of a buyer who disputed not getting the item.

Is this normal for Paypal to just go in favor of the buyer without even an explanation?

Background:
He was scammed by a third party through a fake instragram page.

Third party sent me screenshot of payment (probably from buyer) for items he wanted to purchase from me. Thirs party asked me to confirm, and when I did, I sent the goods to him. The items have been delivered to the third party, then after 2 weeks I was informed by Paypal that there was a dispute.

This is in the Philippines - and I provided tracking number of the delivery via screenshots.

PS - Seller (me) has no idea that there is another party involved. 

Whose fault is this?

[jourdy]

More information:

1. September 19: A potential customer inquired about some items that he saw on our Facebook page

2. He asked if we have a Paypal account, claims that he has leftover balance which he wants to use and for "BUYER PROTECTION"

3. This will be our first time to use Paypal to receive payment - I only use Paypal to pay for services online.

4. September 23, he gets my paypal address and sends me payment. He sends a screenshot and asks me to go to my Paypal account to confirm

5. I check my paypal, see the payment.

6. Customer asks me to deliver the items to him using a motorcycle courier service native in our country.

Turns out, he posed as an Instagram store selling lego. He baited someone to transfer to MY account without my knowledge. How is this my fault??

So how do I handle all future purchases? Should I just decline all payments via paypal since there is always a possibility this happens again. There is nothing that tells us right away that this 'payment' was from a legit buyer.

Anyone, can you shed light - please help me out here, I am so confused how we are penalized for someone else's misfortune. Anyone can just do this scam without the seller's knowledge.

[PayPal_AshleyM]

Hi @jourdy,

Oh no! 😞 It sounds like you may have lost a dispute due to not providing proof of delivery. If you used a local courier service to deliver the item, then you wouldn't have a valid tracking number to give you Seller Protection on this transaction. You also have to ensure the item is delivered to the address provided from the transaction details, otherwise you would also be voiding your protection. Please check this link for more information regarding coverage in the future. I hope this helps!

- Ashley M

[jourdy]

Actually, 

what happened was it was a totally different guy.

Someone scammed the buyer into paying him, which he showed me a screenshot of (the payment).

In the note it indicated PAYMENT FOR "(items he got from me) c/o the name of the person who purchased items from me.

I'm starting to think it's a modus where the buyer knows the scammer to target us sellers.