I need advice ASAP so I can fix this problem

[Drusso6gen1978]

Ok so bit about me I'm a single mum in Australia trying to help my son sell his PC tech. So this is what's happening comma my son listed his items to be sold and was contacted by someone who lives in Australia but works on oil rig in New Zealand at the moment. This person failed to let us know that he was sending payment from his PayPal business account and unfortunately the limit that he can send at any given time is $3,000 he failed to mention that he was sending it from his business account and that is what he was sending so PayPal ended up the deducting another $2,000 from this person's account to make the $3,000. Now what's happened is the money has been taken from his account and the buyer told us he will not get his money back you can't get PayPal to get the money back to me because it's programmed into the PayPal escrow system. I've I can't talk to anyone I have a pile of papers of all the emails and everything which I've scanned in and sent to PayPal only to be bombarded in the PayPal message centre by not one but several of the PayPal operators. Like a fool to help my son I sent $400 to the Commonwealth Bank account that is for the courier that is to pick it up as it would need to be delivered by helicopter to the oil rig as this person is not back in the country for quite a while. So both the buyer and my son get emails from PayPal service desk and also the PayPal funds alert email telling us that I have to make another $1000 payment to this Commonwealth bank account and then send verification to the above emails to show that I have done that so that my son's PayPal account can get credit with the $1,000 that was sent to him for the goods so that this person can get the goods and then PayPal group will refund the difference back to the buyer's account. We received 3 emails from the pp funds alert desk email but the funny thing one of the emails says "Dear ..................." that is not my son's email so I need someone who knows how to get this man his money back and my $400 back. the $400 I have gone to my bank and put in a investigation to retrieve my money back from this Commonwealth bank account which I sent it to. The other problem I have is when my son is gone too login to Paypal to see if this mysterious thousand dollars plus the extra 2000 that Paypal the ducted from the buyer's business account has hit my son's PayPal account he can't login his account has disappeared completely yet we set up another PayPal account for him and the transaction from the last month are there of which we can account for every cent which was our money and money he earned. I need serious help I can't afford a lawyer I don't want to get a knock on the door from the police or anything so at this stage I have forbidden my son to sell any of his stuff as I can't trust anyone. On top of that somebody else saw his items before we took down the ads and another idiot sent $790 saying to send it to his daughter thinking that this person was in Australia when we got an email from the other person he is in the US which is really stupid because now his money is being held and we have got another message from this help desk email. Me myself I would never pay someone before even contacting them especially from overseas. We have never had problems selling online or buying online or dealing with really stupid people full stop someone we know who has it legal background has advised us that the buyer with the business account is also at fault because he did not disclose that his daily limit that he could send was $3,000 he could not send less than that. I need someone who start with this before as I'm a pensioner and I cannot help my son was more money I have been burnt by scammers in the past and I don't know who to go to if I go to the police they will take my laptop and anything else I have. PayPal absolutely useless and a disgrace I have used PayPal for many years and never had issues until now, I have a teenager who has found his passion for buying and selling computer parts to earn pocket money for himself and his future and now he is really upset and scared over the legal ramifications. Who do I need to speak to how can I get in touch with PayPal in Australia or their legal team I need to know what's going on I need this sorted

[PayPal_paula]

Hi Drusso6gen1978 and welcome, 

I am sorry to hear what has been happening. This does not sounds like a genuine transaction. When you sell and item and someone pays you, you will see these funds on your PayPal account. Even if the funds are placed on hold for any reason you will see them on your PayPal account with the status "pending" or "on hold". We would never ask or you should never send any additional funds to a buyer as it may be that you will not get these funds back. Also, when you are sending a payment, we will only take the amount of the payment that you request us to send. Your buyer tell you that additional funds have been taken does not seem correct.I would wonder if some of the emails you have received are not from us as this type of thing seems to be a trend of getting the seller to send money and no payment has ever been sent by your buyer. 

Please do not send any more funds or the item as a lot of things you have mentioned do not seem genuine. Never send any item unless you can see that funds on your PayPal account. 

I hope this helps, 

Paula 

[Drusso6gen1978]

Hi Paula, thank you for your response. Do you actually work for Paypal or are you just a moderator for the community forum . What you suggest I do or how do I proceed because when I gave the PayPal operator the transaction ID on the email they did say to us that is definitely not our PayPal transaction ID. They couldn't and wouldn't help me further and the strange thing is that my son was at my house went we created a new PayPal account for him using the same email and all the transaction where he sent me money show up and that's just for last month and so. So even if his account was deleted and he's opened up a new account I believe how it works that she shouldn't have any transactions on the new account. Now I'm concerned because I'm getting strange phone calls at my home no one has my contact phone number except PayPal and the parties involved. You wouldn't happen to know if there's some legal team at PayPal that I can speak to or anyone that deals with incidents like this or do you think I need to seek legal advice. Also Paula are you in Australia, or do you know if PayPal has any offices in Australia that I could actually visit or phone. My son is coming tomorrow to stay overnight so I will tell him that he is not to do anything with his account accept payments or sell anything for the time being.

[PayPal_paula]

@Drusso6gen1978, Yes I do work for PayPal as a moderator here. It sounds like your son may have paid using what we call a guest account. This where you use PayPal to send a payment but do not log in to your account. Do you mean we were unable to locate the transaction ID of the payment that your buyer sent you? If so then it would mean that the transaction ID is not a correct one. I am not based in Australia however we can offer advice for all countries. It may be best to contact us directly so we can help you with this.You can contact us via chat by clicking on the "Help & Contact" and choose the chat option. 

I hope this helps, 

Paula 

[Drusso6gen1978]

Paula I have contacted the online chat with the PayPal operators. My son's account mysteriously disappeared after the the payment was sent by the buyer. On the online chat you have the option of uploading all the documentation which I did in one file. I don't know if the operators didn't look at it or weren't sure what they were looking at full stop if someone in the PayPal payments department all the PayPal fraud department could have a look at it will be great. My only issue is how do I know I'm actually talking to someone from PayPal when I resend all this information to them I don't know who 2 trust