Fraud bait and switch

[p1249]

Is there any action that can be taken when a fraud has occurred and the bad actors are identifiable? Can their accounts be closed or some action taken so as not to allow them to continue to utilize the service to perpetuate their fraudulent activities!

[kernowlass]

@p1249 

Depends on the fraud type, did you open a paypal dispute?

[p1249]

Yes, but the response came back that since I filed with financial institution ( credit card) the dispute can not be investigated or adjudicated. My point was that PayPal should not allow continued use by known fraudulent operators. There should be a way to limit the exposure of the users to continued fraudulent operations. That would start with an investigation of the dispute. It seems to me that the fraudsters know the rules and park squarely behind blind spots so they can continue operations. Occasional users are not as familiar with all the ins and outs and end up on the short end.

[kernowlass]

@p1249 

Well paypal can't investigate a Paypal dispute if you don't open a Paypal dispute. If you did a chargeback then the card company makes all the decisions and all paypal do is pass on any information on your behalf.

Also paypal would not be able to check every individual seller / merchant / company in over 200 countries worldwide that adds paypal to their website to accept payments.

So they give some buyer and some seller protection. However that protection can never be a 100% coverall so you need to read it so you can risk assess your transactions.

They do stop bad companies from using Paypal when enough claims start rolling in.
However as they are in China (mostly) then its easy for them to just start over with a new name, so stopping them does not really do anything.

The best thing is to not buy from them in the first place, to recognise them -

1. No return address on the returns policy. The site will look as if its in your country (where they despatch goods from) but they will ask for returns to go back to China (returns depot) at a shipping cost often more than the item is worth.
2. No contact telephone number. if you click on contact the most you will get is webmail or an email address.
3. Rarely company address information.
4. Great pictures of items at bargain prices that turn out to be tat.
5. Fake reviews.
6. Google and you can often see previous company names as they change them once enough claims roll in and Paypal stop them using their services and start over.
7. Send fake tracking numbers to win item non receipt of item claims.