I believe I was just scammed

[Carla617]

I posted an iPhone 8 for sale on facebook and some lady messaged me about wanting to buy it and said she could send the money through paypal and made everything seem legit I shipped the item that same day it had been delivered and I still don’t have my money. She even sent me her phone number and told me to text her and took me through the whole process as I was new to paypal. I believed everything she said but I still didn’t have my money so I kept texting asking her about the money after I tracked the package and it was delivered to the address I was given didn’t get an answer I texted back after 2 days since the paypal email said it would take 2-3 days for my payment to show up on my account so I waited the 3 days and still nothing I texted again and I get a message saying you have just been scammed and saying it was a fake address. I still have messages on my facebook messenger and text messages. So now how do I go about this I’ve been trying to call paypal to speak to someone but no luck. Will I be able to report this or get paid for the iPhone I sold to a scammer? Someone please help me!

[kernowlass]

@Carla617 

Sadly nothing paypal can do as none of the transaction was done using paypals site, you were scammed by fake paypal emails.

SCAM.

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

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't actually have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.
They will tell you that the payment is released when you provide paypal with a tracking/shipping number......this won't happen.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal do not tell you to send trackable, they advise it for selling protection but it is not compulsory.