Put deposit down on Facebook marketplace, seller did not deliver and refusing to refund

[sija2005]

Hoping someone out there can help as Paypal closed the dispute I raised. Scammed out of money by a seller on Facebook marketplace, they asked for deposit and failed to deliver the item. Now they are refusing to refund! Learned a lesson definitely, but just hoping there is something out there that can be done to retrieve the money. Paypal seems to make it too easy for scammers to get away with it.

[kernowlass]

@sija2005 

Sadly hard to advise if you don't say which dispute you opened / if you escalated to a claim and what happened ???

[sija2005]

Hi @kernowlass when I went to report the transaction the only option there was to choose was 'Unauthorised access', which in this case was not relevant. I proceeded any way and of course that got closed pretty quickly stating that there was no evidence of unauthorised access. If there is a way to raise a more relevant dispute then I'd be more than grateful, however I cannot see any further options in relation to the specific transaction.

Despite raising the potential scam to both my bank and PayPal about an hour after I sent the payment they both seem to state that it's too late, the money's gone and cannot be recovered. It's most definitely a lesson learned for me, I'm just surprised that such a simple loophole exists for scammers.

[kernowlass]

@sija2005 

If the only option was unauthorised then it sounds as if you negated your buyer protection by sending a friends/family ie gift payment?

[sija2005]

@kernowlass In my ignorance (and not using PayPal very often for such purchases) I assumed as the Facebook seller wasn't a legitimate business or company that friends/family was the option. Now I realise that was part of the scam to convince me to use the friends and family option, knowing full well PayPal's terms and conditions offer the scammers the perfect loophole to get away with such scams with no ramifications.

What I have learnt from all of this is how easy it is to use PayPal to scam people. So simple.

[kernowlass]

@sija2005 

Sorry to disagree but the clue is in the name, were they a close mate you wanted to send a gift of money to...NO?

Were they a family member you wanted to send a gift of money to...NO?

Then why would you click on family / friends?

[sija2005]

@kernowlass Let's say they are a friend, but that 'friend' has decided to take my money for something and I've asked for it back and they refuse. I'm interested to know your viewpoint on how that would be dealt with legally. Please remember to be with in the spirit of helpfulness and community when commenting. I understand you've seen and responded to hundreds of posts similar but I did not post my original question to be belittled.

[kernowlass]

@sija2005 

Nothing belittling about my post, I just posted the facts in the easiest way possible to get you to understand that friends / family means exactly that !!

If you give a gift of money to a friend using the friends/family option and want it back, then that would be between you and your friend to sort out wouldn't it as you gave them a gift payment !!! 

[sija2005]

@kernowlass I've just seen you comment the following on a similar post to another user: 'If you sent it using friends/family then reach out to that person and request that they refund you. If they don't then you can contact customer services to reach out to them, they can't force them to refund but often the receiver may think twice before keeping it'.

Disappointing you couldn't have offered the same level of helpfulness. Had you have suggested something similar in the question then I would have marked this as solved/kudos. There's a big difference between being helpful and understanding of any situation a user posts, and using seemingly angry terminology and '!!!' which in all honesty will not benefit any of our users. 

[kernowlass]

@sija2005 

Disappointing you couldn't have asked the same question as that person.

Then you may have got the same answer.

Firstly all you did was state you had been scammed and didn't even mention that you paid via friends/family so I couldn't advise you what to do at that point. You were just ranting about how easy it was to scam using Paypal.

Secondly I then had to ask if you had selected the unauthorised option for a dispute and ? whether you sent using as friends/family.

So I still could not advise what to do as you hadn't stated it was an f/f payment at that point.

Thirdly you again did not ask what to do about it but again proceeded to go on about the seller scamming you and Paypal enabling it.

We still had not got to the bit where you actually request help on what to do.

So I replied to your post stating I disagreed with your scamming comment and explained in very easy language that sending using the friends/family option meant sending to a friend or family member !!

Next you then asked a question about if you sent to an 'actual' friend but wanted your money back, so guess you still had not got the gist of what a 'gift' payment via friends/family was. I replied to the question asked.

Lastly you then have a go at my 'advice' when at no point did you ask, I have been scammed using friends/family so what are my options.

You instead have a go at me for replying to the questions asked and explaining how f/f works.

You chose to blame the seller / paypal / and me for your wrong choice and then the lack of help you received when I tried to explain and answer the questions YOU ASKED.

The thread you refer to as per below was a poster that made a mistake in sending the money via f/f due to a typo / spelling error which paypal may well have helped them with.

You chose to use that option for a purchase instead of correctly selecting goods/services so Paypal is unlikely to assist as its against paypal rules to use the friends/family option to pay a seller.

https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Payments/Payment-sent-to-wrong-person/m-p/2807823

Bye then.   👋 👋