I was contacted about selling a pair of Balenciaga's on ebay and given someones whatsapp number. He was interested in the trainers and asked if we could use paypal as a safe form of payment method and if i could send them to Dubai. I said yes and then i got a notification from paypal on my emails saying my account has a pending transaction of the amount for the trainers. Although, it didn't show on my activity on my actual paypal account. The email said it is pending until proof of sending the trainers over - a reference number and that my activity will take 24 hours to update. So i went along and posted the trainers and sent the reference shipping number over to the email on paypal. I then had a confirmation email from paypal saying they will credit my account in 24 hours. This all looked genuine. Then the man asked if i had any more trainers for sale which I did. He asked if i could get them shipped out today i said yes and posted the trainers, and sent paypal another reference shipping number. I then had another confirmation email saying my account will be credited in 24 hours. This was yesterday, I woke up this morning to an email saying the parcels are held at customs as i didn't say the custom fee and that i needed to send an additional £200 to a site called MoneyGram.com in order for the recipient to pay the custom fees and then the extra £200 will be funded in my account as well as the money for the shoes. I contacted the buyer via whatsapp and asked what had gone on, and convincingly he said that they're stuck at customs and therefore i need to pay the £200 and it will be funded into my account once i'd done so. This is the stage I am at now. There is no activity in my paypal account and the emails i have been receiving from Paypal have a different email address to the ones on the website and i don't think it is legitimate. I have already sent the trainers and my Paypal account is showing 0 activity so I feel like I have been scammed of two pairs of really expensive trainers that I can't get back. Please can anyone help?!
Sadly this has nothing to do with paypal as none of the transaction was done using paypals site.
You were scammed by fake paypal emails.
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. Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service eg Moneygram or Western Union etc.
Advice is voluntary. Kudos / Solution appreciated.
