This Hold Policy is driving me Ballistic.

[guntherlangham]

I understand that PayPal Holds money to prevent fraud and scammers from doing their part, but this is getting ridiculous. I sell Vinyl records on a Platform called Discogs. Every single payment Ive received in the past week has been held by PayPal, claiming "theres something different about your seller pattern" I have provided a tracking number for One of my orders, but I am not able to do so for the other orders because I DONT HAVE ACCESS TO THE FUNDS NEEDED TO SHIP THEM BECAUSE PAYPAL IS HOLDING THEM. Is there Any way I can fix this? Or speak to an ACTUAL HUMAN BEING about this?

[mustangman64]

Just trying to check if this was genuine.....as had message from pay pal saying they will not send funds for purchase of a car from me, until I send back £1700 to a western union address......thought this sounded too much like a scam to get money, so can anyone confirm how this is genuine....and where exactly I am supposed to get this sort of money from BEFORE I receive funds from the sale??? Doesn't make any sense!

[kernowlass]

@mustangman64 

SCAM.

They encourage you to accept a direct Paypal payment.
No funds or activity of the transaction shows in your Paypal account and any emails may go into your junk/spam folders.

They don't quibble on cost and may also say they can't view the item as they are disabled or working abroad or sending as a gift to a family member but they will arrange a shipping agent or courier to collect it.

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.

The fake paypal email will tell you that the buyer has paid for the item + shipping costs but you must send those shipping costs to the courier/ shipping agent via another payment processor than Paypal or by providing some vouchers or tokens before the funds are released to you.
They are not interested in the car, they just want that couriers/shipping funds and you will never see money in your paypal balance.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service eg Moneygram, Western Union, Bank Transfer or any sort of gift token or voucher.
There is no seller protection on paypal for any type of motor vehicle.

Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.

[kernowlass]

@guntherlangham 

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/my-payment-is-on-hold.-why-is-this-happening-faq3297

[mustangman64]

I did think straight away that this was probably a scam, although unlike most fake paypal emails it was actually addressed to me by name (as genuine paypal mails are!)...ie not dear customer etc, which I always report to spoof mails.
I noticed that there was an 0800 phone number to call, but did not call it....instead checked on the genuine paypal site and found a different customer service number: 0203 901 7000, the advisor there was able to check all details and conformed suspicions of it being fake.

So just a warning to others, these emails MAY be addressed to you by name, but that doesn't mean it's genuine...people have obviously found a way around that!