I started a PayPal claim against a fraudulent website who was trading under the name of 'osunventus.com' when the item I'd purchased hadn't arrived within the lead-time, and my emails to the seller had bounced back. Sure enough, after a quick Google check on their pseudo domains: '@cukter.com', '@163.com', '@venus.com', and 'osunvent.com', it revealed hundreds of similar cases dating back 3 years or so, more if the gripes in the forums are anything to go by. OK, so I'd been had. I contacted PayPal, assuming the Buyer Protection would swiftly resolve it... Almost straight away I got a message from PayPal, and it was accompanied with a FedEx tracking number. 'The seller has responded and resolved this dispute because the item has been delivered' ....'Do you want to escalate this to a claim?' I checked the tracking number on the genuine FedEx site and it showed a record of a delivery to a 'residence', but not to an actual address or even postcode. Furthermore it was apparently 'signed-for' by 'M Nurse', which was obviously faked because FedEx aren't taking signatures due to their Covid policy. Of course I want to escalate this!.....how patronising!.......who's side are they on......is there any human intervention at all? After this stage any communication with PayPal is very much one-way. Other than an option to 'close the case', or 'contact the supplier and resolve the issue' there is no means of exchanging further dialogue. In order to know the 'status' of your claim you need to keep checking your PayPal account. It shows a historical timeline and an 'estimated case resolution' date, which initially for me was April 28th, so I waited and checked again, the date had changed to May 3rd, yesterday it changed to May 8th, and (no surprises) today it changed to May 9th! Out of curiosity I queried the status of my order with the supplier using a sign-in they originally provided. They were cheeky enough to tell me the 'transaction had failed', but I also spotted they were no longer taking PayPal payments - which proves I'd ruffled some feathers. Good ammunition to throw back at PayPal if they kick off, I can show it was a void transaction, but surely how much investigation does it need? The sophisticated security that PayPal uses to protect itself is more than capable of flagging known deceitful sites, and they act very quickly indeed at someone faking a PayPal site! They have been aware of the suspect domain names for years, if the PP forums are anything to go by, so why are they still authorising payments? Is there something else on their agenda? Do they even bother to inform the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) or even blacklist the offending traders? Probably not because sellers fees contribute to PayPals $20 BILLION wealth. Who has preference now? Has anyone else experienced this humility?
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