Fraudulent Sales being recorded for Unknown Good, and full cost discount except for Paypal Fees

[gsevior]

I am receiving Bugus Payment into my Paypal Account for Clochting which I do not sell (I am a software developer). The charge in Phillapino Pesos, for clothing allegedly bought by shoppers in Canada. The cost of the goods is always discounted by an amount that leaves only the Paypal Fee value for the transaction. The resulting Balance in the account is ZERO.

This is obviously some sort of attempted Refund fraud and is ongoing. I have had 5 such transactions recently, latest today. I have contacted Paypal both in chat and by phone to bring the matter to their attention for resolution and investigation but their only response was the following email:

"An update on your case.
We've reviewed your unauthorised activity case, and determined that there was no unauthorised use of your PayPal account.
This case has been closed. If you're not satisfied with your purchase for other reasons, we encourage you to work with the seller to find a solution. If you can't resolve the issue with the seller, you can lodge a dispute in the Resolution Centre.

For more information about your cases, please go to the Resolution Centre."

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It is pretty obvious that they have not read the information provided, don't care, or are not interested in investigating and preventing these fraudulent transactions. I don't know if Paypal is actually collecting the fee shown in the payment information. But what I am fairly certain about is that i cannot be the ONLY person that is seeing these BOGUS transactions appearing in their account.

I would be interested to hear who else might be receiving similar payment advice, and if anyone has clicked the Refund Transaction button.  If so what was the result? (Note: I have not tried to refund one of these transactions)
If someone from Paypal wants to follow up the last Case No was : Case ID PP-R-GQW-479776043.   There have been a further 2 transactions since then.

[sharpiemarker]

@gsevior 

You issue is a very special case that the dispute system probably won’t be able to handle correctly since Sellers cannot report unauthorized transactions on received payments, that I know of. They issue refunds normally. You’ll need to speak with customer service and explain to them that you suddenly received suspicious, unsolicited payments and want these payments reversed so that you are not charged PayPal fees. Give them the transaction ID numbers for all relevant transactions.

https://www.paypal.com/au/smarthelp/contact-us      

Scroll down to click “Call Us” option on the bottom.

Keep asking for agent until they connect you with one.

Or reach out to PayPal at Facebook or Twitter:    

PayPal on Facebook

PayPal on Twitter

If you need to, file a complaint.

[gsevior]

You are correct, Paypal is not as yet set up to respond to this new scam against them, nor do they provide the ability to flag a Received Payment as suspicious or fraudulent. 

I have spoken with Customer Service in great depth and on multiple occasions.  Let's just say the word "service" is questionable.  I was initially fobbed off the first two times, but think I have now gotten their attention.  Time will tell if they realize this is a fraud being perpetuated on PayPal. There are  1000s of Paypal user accounts receiving these bogus payments, with the goal of the scammers being some will click the 'Repfund Transaction' button in order to try and clear the Zero value (once discounted) payment from their account.    Of course, what will likely be refunded is the non-discounted amount (I am not sure because I will not click the refund button)    

This post serves 2 fold, identify the number of Paypal Users being affected and to warn users not to refund such transactions.   

[gsevior · Accepted solution]

Hi To those interested

I was contacted by Paypal Investigation section today, they confirmed that the situation outlined above is an emerging Fraud SCAM targeting PayPal sellers.  I am advised that they are actively investigating and making an attempt to track and identify the scammers and put in place methodologies to deal with these bogus sales receipts going forward.

We also discussed the need for Paypal to update its User interface to provide Users the ability to report suspect online transactions.  (Note - Many jurisdictions require financial institutions to report SUSTERS and other suspect transactions under their relevant  Money Laundering legislations, and the lack of the ability to report these transactions to Paypal may in fact be in breach of the regulations in some jurisdictions.

Until that happens you will need to Press Customer Service until the follow-up.  I recommend that you do not attempt to refund any of the suspect transactions, and wait for further advice from PayPal