Am I being scammed?

[Ivymantled]

I paid a vendor for a key for a file-sharing service using Paypal.

They requested I make the payment for 'Friends and family' which I did.

After the payment was sent, they refunded it (minus a fee reversal from Paypal) saying:

We are having problems with current Paypal account and have refunded your money for safety.

You have received and used a key. To keep it, please pay another $___ asap!

New request sent. Please pay as a friend again.

They did provide the key, which is working.

And the refund is visible in the transaction list in my Paypal account.

Is there any way they could somehow re-accept the original payment and be paid twice for the one service?

THANKS in advance for any advice.

[PayPal_JonK]

Hello @Ivymantled, 

Welcome to the PayPal Community Forum! I'm sorry to hear a recent transaction hasn't gone quite as you had expected. Unfortunately, there's not an option for a merchant to re-accept or re-authorize a payment once it's been refunded. With that in mind, if you were to make another transaction, please make sure you're sending it as a Goods and Services payment as you are buying a Good / Service. This is so you have Buyer Protection on your transaction, but also because it is against our user agreement to send / receive a Friends and Family transaction when exchanging goods / services through PayPal.  

Please feel free to reach out to our Customer Support teams if needed. 

Good luck with this and future transactions!

 - Jon K