Fraudelent seller - pay as friend

[habotcv]

Hello,

I suspect that I had a deal with a fraudulent seller on "kleinanzeigen.de".. We agreed to buy one item from him and of course he convinced me that he was honest and that I should pay via "paypal friend". He promised to ship the item today and give me the tracking number. When I sent him a few messages, he doesn't respond. Is it possible to check his email address if everything is correct??

[kernowlass]

@habotcv 

A friends / family (or gift payment) is intended as a transfer of funds from family or friends to one another. For this reason, there is no processing fee when payment is made with bank or PayPal balance.
However as it is a gift payment, there is also no buyer protection as no goods or services should have been exchanged.

If he was not a close mate or family member you should never use that option as it enables the seller to evade paying his Paypal fees and negates your buyer protection at the same time.

You would also not be able to open a dispute (apart from one citing an unauthorised transaction), which would be automatically closed as you did authorise the initial payment.

Be careful as using that option for purchasing goods is against Paypal rules and can lead to account limitation.

If you funded your Paypal payment via a credit card then contact your card issuer and see if they will help you but unfortunately they may decline as well as it was a gift payment.

[habotcv]

I understand everything..
 However, is there a way to check the paypal email address if the user has already used such a method of cheating several times. 
Or open account only for one scam ? He is also registered on kleinanzeigen as a user since 2019 ?
 I can't take any action against such a thing?

[PayPal_JonK]

Hello everyone, thank you for visiting the PayPal Community Forum. Thank you @kernowlass for your help on this thread. We really appreciate all your time and expertise you lend our customers.

@habotcv, this is a great question. During the dispute or claim process, PayPal will normally review both the buyer and seller's history to see if any action needs to be taken for any kind of fraudulent activity. I can't say what happened in this particular instance as that would be between the seller and PayPal. The best course of action you may have in this instance is to reach out to your debit/credit card or bank to see if there are any options available.

Good luck and best wishes with your future transactions through PayPal, 

 - Jon K