Fraudulent buyer through Facebook marketplace and PayPal emails

[Divya06]

I decided to sell a product worth 800$ to a person through Facebook marketplace. He/She preferred PayPal as a method of payment and asked me to send a payment request for 800$ through PayPal. So, I sent a payment request for the amount through the PayPal app. Following that I get this email from a so called "PayPal" account saying that I need to share proof of shipment and ship the product to the provided address. I was using my phone email app to see these emails and the email content didn't look fishy and so i didn't check the sender email address. Later I checked, the sender email address was not PayPal. I also get follow up emails from the same account asking me to purchase ebay cards worth 400$ to upgrade my PayPal account to a business account and share images of the gift card barcode with them. The buyer was pressurizing me meantime saying that he/she has gone through this process before with another buyer as it is standard PayPal process, and that she will pay me the 400$ I pay to PayPal to upgrade to business account. She confirms that 400$ was deducted from her account by PayPal and pressurizes me to pay 400$ to PayPal. That's when I realized that something is wrong and talked to PayPal customer care directly to check if these emails were from PayPal. PayPal confirmed that these emails are not from PayPal. Also the seller is still in touch saying that his/her PayPal account was hacked and that she will pay back the money through PayPal once PayPal refunds the money to him/her. I'm not sure how to get back the money this person owes me. Please guide, thanks!

Also, the buyer Dennis Hamric is saying that her PayPal account has been hacked and she has already contacted PayPal to recover her account or change her account. Now I'm not sure what to do, and I need your help

[kernowlass]

@Divya06 

Sadly nothing you can do, doubt the buyer even has a paypal account, most of these scams do not involve having one as they rely on fake paypal emails.

SCAM.

They encourage you to accept a direct Paypal payment and may ask you to send the item internationally.
No funds or activity of the transaction shows in your Paypal account and any emails may go into your junk/spam folders.

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.
They will tell you that the payment is released when you provide paypal with a tracking/shipping number......this won't happen.

OR

Once you have become a victim they may try again with more fake Paypal emails with other reasons that you must send them a payment for custom fees / to verify, expand or upgrade an account.

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, Western Union, Bank Transfer or any sort of gift token or voucher.
There is no seller protection on paypal for any type of item that is collected by the buyer.