how to refund money sent as a friend or family from scammer?

[abudlla]

I want my money back. I wasn't aware of the Friends and Family Law because I don't use PayPal much. the scammer did not deliver the order to me, and i am sure i am not the only one who opened a dispute to him, please tell me what should i do to refund my money. thanks

[Stuart_64]

Hi, I have exactly the same problem, scammer took me for over 300Eur and I wasn't aware of the friend and family limitations. Paypal won't even confirm that the person's account will be blocked

[PayPal_JonK]

Hello @abudlla and @Stuart_64, 

Welcome to the PayPal Community! I can understand how concerning it can be when a recent transaction doesn't go quite as you expect. Unfortunately, you are both correct - Friends and Family transactions are just for payments to a trusted friend or family member and are not covered by our Purchase Protection. 

When you make a purchase for an item or some sort of service, you want to make sure your payment is sent as a Goods and Services transaction in case something goes wrong. If you paid with an debit / credit card or bank, you're welcome to reach out to your financial institution to see if any options are available. 

Best wishes to you all!

 - Jon K

[LindaRM]

How are we supposed to know this information? If we knew we would not have selected the it. I was scammed as well and was told i could not get my money back because i used the friend or family feature.  Where on the Pay Pal website does it state this.  The organization that scammed me advised m to select this option and i had no idea they were scamming me.

[Stuart_64]

Hi LindaRM

PayPal were less than helpful, they have all the details of the account that I paid, Name and Address of the scammer, e-mail address, linked bank accounts etc. but showed no interest in pursuing them, except sending them a polite e-mail asking them to give me my money back!

I stopped my direct debit with the bank account linked to my PayPal account to try and avoid the money leaving my account. Once PayPal have it they won't be interested.

It's now been taken from the credit card I had linked as a back up, even though I removed that as well. Hopefully I'll be able to raised a dispute with my CC company, but I have to wait 30 days.

The limitations of Friend and Family are buried so deep in the PayPal terms and conditions that it's very difficult to find it.

[kernowlass]

@LindaRM 

@Stuart_64 

The clue is in the title...

Were they a friend or close mate...No?

Were they a family member.....No?

So why would you use that option.

Secondly when you click to send funds it clearly gives you 2 options and on only 1 of them does it state you would have buyer protection if you selected it.

Most folks work it out successfully, its not rocket science. 

Same with cards, if you pay with a card then you have more protection than if you used bank transfer.

Learn from your mistake but don't blame paypal for your error.

And, no, paypal won't do anything about it as you basically sent a 'gift' of money to someone.

You could try your card issuer if you funded your paypal payment that way and see if they will chargeback for you but again they nearly always refuse for the same reason, you didn't send it using the goods/services option.  

[Stuart_64]

I accept that I made a mistake, but firstly I didn't "gift" any money.

I've used friends and family to pay friends and family, not as a "gift"

This was payment for an item I didn't receive.

Secondly, PayPal have all the information on the scammer, but they won't do anything to prevent, or discourage, PayPal users using the service to steal money.....

[kernowlass]

@Stuart_64 

If you used friends/family then you were sending a gift of money as you would be getting nothing in return ie neither goods or services.

If you are paying 'friends' to purchase goods you are buying, or a service you are requiring of them then you should use the goods/services option.

Paypal provided you with buyer protection but you chose to negate that protection by using the friends/family option.

Unfortunately Paypal can't bail you out if you don't use the option that provides you with buyer protection.

No scammer can use that option to scam someone if no one uses that option incorrectly.

[ScaryPantsGuy]

Oddly enough, scammers have figured out how to directly link you so far in to the bowels of Paypal, that all you simply need to do is log in and you're paying the scammer...through friends and family. You actually have to go backwards to select "goods and services"...which I'm sure is no accident.

A note: I think I do recall there being some kind of a warning about there not being any protection against fraud if you send money via friends and family, so at this point, I think you're doomed. 

I was scammed, and I actually selected "goods and services", and even with as much evidence as I could provide (note that it's nearly impossible to file a complaint about a scammer refusing to send your goods or services, it sends you in every circle imaginable around being able to call out a scammer), the so-called "investigation" moves at a snail's pace...and yes, the seller still has a very active Paypal account, with the seller adding new bogus merchandise to his website daily...never mind none of his contact information actually works, and he doesn't respond to anyone.

Ebay is hideously broken, and even their malfunctioning buyer protection plan moves twice as fast as Paypal's.

In the end, it simply isn't profitable for Paypal to protect you against scammers, it's easier to pretend that you don't exist, so if you move forward with the possibility that every money transfer you engage in is an opportunity for you to be scammed out of your money...even if you select "goods and services", then you'll sleep a lot easier knowing that you're potentially throwing money down a hole, there won't be any surprises, and you'll finally realize that nobody is there to save you.

[Stuart_64]

Like I said, PayPal won’t help……