Any way to report a possible scammer?

[Jayso21]

I have unfortunately been scammed by a user on PayPal and while I doubt there's any chance of me getting my money back, I would like to know if there is any way I could report them to hopefully prevent this from happening to someone else?

When buying the item, the user asked me to send the payment as a gift with no note. They told me that it is cheaper that way because then they don't need to send the purchase as a tracked item. I was quite impulsive at the time and didn't think that this was a scam. Since the money was sent as a gift I don't have an option to report the payment for scam, only for unauthorised activity, which I don't believe this falls under.

The user has since ignored me whenever I tried to contact them, except when I used a different email that they didn't know. Is there anything that I am able to do about said user to prevent them from scamming others?

I apologise if I posted in the wrong Board as I wasn't entirely sure which one is best suited.

Thanks for any advice.

[kernowlass]

@Jayso21

You can't report him as you 'voluntarily' sent him a gift of money.....

A friends / family (or gift payment) is intended as a transfer of funds from family or friends to one another. For this reason, there is no processing fee when payment is made with bank or PayPal balance.
However as it is a “gift” payment, there is also no Buyer protection as no goods or services should have been exchanged.

If he was not a close mate or family member you should never use that option as it enables the seller to evade his paypal fees and negates your buyer protection at the same time. That is also why you would be unable to open a dispute apart from an unauthorised transaction (if your account was hacked and used without your consent).

You also risk having your account limited for using this option when you are purchasing goods as its against Paypal rules.

Your only hope is if you funded your paypal payment via a credit card then contact your card issuer and see if they will help you but unfortunately again as it was a 'gift' of money they may decline as well.