So, I was scammed out of about $320 today and it was through friends and family, i was paying for a service and sent it through that via the request of the entertainer and they never showed leaving me with like $10 overall in my account. How would I go about getting the money back since I have been blocked by the user and the accounts they used for the requests, and PayPal has closed the case what are the chances my bank will refund my money? The payments were through debit card for context.
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.
Advice is voluntary. Kudos / Solution appreciated.
I fell for exactly the same issue. I was buying something from FB Marketplace and wanted it in a hurry and they requested this sort of payment as opposed to goods. What a fool. I am happy to bite the bullet as I was just Stupid! What I don't understand is that this account is obviously being used for Fraud. I have the email address associated with the account and I would like PayPal to investigate this account so that someone does not get defrauded again. I do not seem to be able to be able to do this.
PAYPAL are effectively allowing fraud and have no interest in stopping it!
Sorry but how can it be fraud if you sent a ''gift'' of money to someone?
You would not have been buying anything or you would have used the goods/services option (in paypals eyes) so therefore no fraud was committed.
You may have more luck if they had a website and only accepted f/f payments but if its a private person that just says use the f/f option then very hard to prove its fraud unfortunately.
Advice is voluntary. Kudos / Solution appreciated.
It is a planned fraud because someone build a fake FB profile with the express purpose of stealing money from people like me. They took advantage of my naivety and character trait that means that I think the best of people.
I sent money to someone who had advertised on Facebook. It appeared to be a solid profile with a pic of someone with their girlfriend and the NHS logo. There was even a pic and notice for them getting engaged. He had sold 2 other things before.
I reached out via FB chat and agreed payment. I sent payment via the Goods and Services scheme.
I was excited by the purchase and wanted my goods ASAP. The fraudster explained that the Goods and Services payment scheme meant that he may not receive payment for a couple of days and that if I wanted the goods straight away I should use the Friends and Family scheme. He would receive the money and therefore be able to shop the goods straight away. In retrospect this should have been a red flag.
He returned the first payment and then I sent the second payment via Family and friends. And then he disappeared.
This is a planned fraud.
The reason I am angry with PayPal is that I now have the email address associated with the person who has committed this fraud.
I understand that there is no way for a person to be tracked down by a fake gmail account however it would be useful for PayPal to cancel that account so that it can not be used by the criminal again on some other fool like me.
I then looked at the FB profile again. It was only created in 2011. If I used Google Image lookup I can see a couple of the pictures are just stock photos. Doh. !!
Then why would you use that option and help them break paypal rules by evading paying their paypal fee + negating your buyer protection at the same time?
Yes they defrauded you, not paypal, so any action has to be taken on your part against the perpetrator.
Advice is voluntary. Kudos / Solution appreciated.
If you read my post you will see that I take full responsibility.
What I am talking about is the fact that I know the details of someone who is defrauding people via PayPal.
If PayPal took their responsibilities seriously they would have a mechanism for reporting accounts being used for fraudulent activity and either put them on hold or cancel them.
I am sure that Paypal would like to prevent their customers from being scammed, or perhaps they don't care.
And of course it is a fraud as I foolishly was persuaded to do something that I shouldn't have done. That is what fraud is.
The definition of fraud: wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
Did you ever get any of your money back? I think I'm going through the same things. I have the messages showing though he was insistent on using friends and family. I used a credit card though so I'm hoping maybe they can help.
