PayPal purports to be a trusted and secure platform, but their claimed "purchase protections" provide a false sense of security. Nowhere on the Purchase Protection page is there any mention of the onus on sellers to look out for red flags (like those you listed) that will potentially and essentially invalidate their protection. Sure, buyers can go deep into the User Agreement and see that they are responsible for return shipping, but nobody is doing that before a purchase. If this was a big enough problem, and PayPal was footing the bill for these scams, they would surely find a way to minimize that risk for themselves and their customers. Here's one such idea: all merchants (or at least those based in China and countries where these types of scams originate) have to register the return shipping address for goods. When a user in the US proceeds to checkout, they are shown this and asked to confirm that they still want to proceed. I realize it's not simple, and there are downsides for PayPal as well, but on the whole it may be better for their brand and reputation. Until I see them making an effort to address the scammers on their site, I will hesitate before using any PayPal service, always looking for an alternative, and suggest others do the same.
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