HELP: how to get money back from eBay/paypal scam

ReelWorksMedia

ReelWorksMedia

Well-known member
Hey there....so it looks like I have officially been scammed...for the first time. I need help please since I have never dealt with this. I purchased a 1DC from a seller with 150+ feedback at 95% rating. Looks good. He stalls for a week and will not ship it. Comes us with a million excused why. All of the excused are huge red flag. For example:

He took is to the shipping company but it wasn't packaged correctly...so he needed to order more supplies..and that took time.

It says he is in Miami....but not it looks like his company is in CA...but in reality...the item is coming from the UK. He also has a non-isa paypal address. He has also never used his name and uses his company as a front.

I gave him a deadline to ship it. Then...he ships it through a german based company and the item has an origin through the UK. This s baaaad news. This guy is taking me for a ride.


How can I recover my money from this? Can you please help me with the best steps to get the finds back? Should I file a claim through eBay....or is it best to go directly through payal. The transaction is 1 week old today...I need to back out though.


Help pleeeeease.
 
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Go directly through PayPal. They are more protective of buyers than sellers in disputes. As long as you have all of his emails and any supposed tracking info that you can provide them, they might just refund you.
 
Thanks Alex....what a terrible feeling. I am a very street smart and careful person....I think this is a pro.


Do you know where to start a dispute on the paypal site?
 
Did you buy and pay via eBay? You should always pay via the payment system of eBay (even if it's PayPal). For example if the seller writes you and tells you to pay directly to his PayPal and gives you an email... Don't use that...

You can start a complaint on the eBay page. Can't remember exactly where... You start it, then you have to wait a few days then you can take further steps...
 
I would suggest pursuing it through eBay, I feel paypal has become more ignorant since their split from eBay.

2 years ado I bought a macbook pro and the seller never sent it, he then stopped replying to my polite requests, it took a few weeks but eBay ensured I had a full refund to my Paypal account, it also helps as long as all your communication with the seller goes through eBay hence they can see whats happening.

Recently I sold an item on eBay and I did not claim the payment in time, I contacted Paypal directly and they did not want to help in any shape or form I kept getting sent to different departments, I contacted the buyer who was delighted at his purchase and he kindly resent the payment.
 
Definitely work through EBay - they have a standardized procedure for this sitaton. Begin by clicking the "I didn't receive it" link in the dropdown menu on the right of the item in your "Order" list. As Dimtri says above, there is time interval you have to wait before EBay steps in. Conversely, there is also a time window after which it's too late to start the process, so don't wait weeks before doing this.


Also, if you aren't doing so already, send messages to the seller via EBay's contact seller links, not by separate email. That generates an electronic paper-trail that let's EBay see you've been trying to get resolution.
 
GrahamH said:
Definitely work through EBay - they have a standardized procedure for this sitaton. Begin by clicking the "I didn't receive it" link in the dropdown menu on the right of the item in your "Order" list. As Dimtri says above, there is time interval you have to wait before EBay steps in. Conversely, there is also a time window after which it's too late to start the process, so don't wait weeks before doing this.


Also, if you aren't doing so already, send messages to the seller via EBay's contact seller links, not by separate email. That generates an electronic paper-trail that let's EBay see you've been trying to get resolution.
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Thanks for all the advice here. Fortunately, I have done the transaction by the book....so I think things will work out. It feels nice that DVX is a community of honest artists that lend good advice in sticky situations.

The latest update is...its coming from an unknown shipping carrier from another country and scheduled to arrive Wed. So...even though its nothing like the transaction I thought I was getting into...I'll let it play through until Wed to see if things pan out. At that point, I'll start going through the email channels.

Thanks again DVX community.
 
I hope the camera is in proper working order when it arrives. Thursday is going to be full of tests!

Ebay is very serious about keeping their site clean of fraud. Always check the Ebay message system before responding to an auction as the oldest trick in the book is to send a fake e-mail which will not show up in the Ebay message center.
 
Same thing happened to me. $600 item from Russia being sent via unknown shipper.
Never received it - lots of excuses by seller.
After a month, told eBay. Had my money back in 3 days.
 
ReelWorksMedia said:
Thanks for all the advice here. Fortunately, I have done the transaction by the book....so I think things will work out. It feels nice that DVX is a community of honest artists that lend good advice in sticky situations.

The latest update is...its coming from an unknown shipping carrier from another country and scheduled to arrive Wed. So...even though its nothing like the transaction I thought I was getting into...I'll let it play through until Wed to see if things pan out. At that point, I'll start going through the email channels.

Thanks again DVX community.
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You bet. Full on tests. Gonna run this thing through all the paces.
 
I would file through eBay, PayPal, AND your credit card if you used one. You should be okay if you followed the eBay and PayPal rules.

+++

I have had both eBay and PayPal fail to back me up for arbitrary and nonsensical reasons. PayPal closed the case before I could even send them my documents. They have the worst customer service of any company I have ever seen.

My credit card company- Chase- stood behind me 100%. They refunded my money and made PayPal deal with the con artist, or eat the loss.

This is why I NEVER pay from my bank account, although PayPal almost forces you to pay that way.

Good luck.
 
Definitely go through eBay. It's almost foolproof to buy through them, now. I've heard of people thinking about pulling out of selling on eBay, because they will now side with a customer on pretty much everything, even when the customer is lying/wrong and the (legit)seller in-turn gets screwed.

As as far as the 95% rating goes, that's a possible red flag. Ken Rockwell put together an interesting little piece on eBay sellers and researching them. Of course, with almost everything from Ken, take it with a grain of salt.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/ebay/seller.htm
 
unadog said:
This is why I NEVER pay from my bank account, although PayPal almost forces you to pay that way.

Good luck.
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Right on! PayPal keeps saying to me, "Hey, you aren't fully vested in all that we can do for you. You keep paying with your VISA card through us. It would be so much better if you gave us access to your bank account so we can simply transfer your money into your account!" Yeah, (insert swear words here). No one but me gets into my bank account...if you are able to put money in, you are also able to take money out!
 
Thanks guys for the info. I was scammed with an apparantly counterfeit boxed and unopened Premiere CS4. Fair market price. Not a cheap deal. Looked just like the real thing. I ended up needing to sell it because I needed money so I never opened it and sold it only to find out it couldn't be installed so I had to refund the new buyer and pay shipping. So it cost me about $600 and now I have a useless CS4 on top of it. I contacted the seller and he tried to sell me another "license key" for $70 more and then quit responding. I tried to get paypal and ebay to help and submitted the emails and history but no luck. Too much time had passed. I noticed the seller no longer is under that name on ebay.
I hope it works out for you
 
firehawk said:
Too much time had passed.
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Those time limits don't apply if you paid by credit card - both Discover and VISA have anywhere from 60 days to 120 days to file a fraud charge. You did things in the right order, though:
First, you went through eBay and PayPal (which the credit card company requires). But if you don't get satisfaction that way...
Open a case with the credit card company.
I was in the same situation once and the credit card company refunded my money, telling PayPal to stuff it.
 
Might be one of those situations where someone is selling stuff they don't actually own. Then after you buy it from them, they quickly need to buy it themselves (for a supposedly better price that they had negotiated in advance) so that they can forward it to you. All the while trying to cover for the time it takes to get it from A to B to C.

It's still a scam, but you might end up with a product that's totally fine.
 
I have done many transactions thru dvxuser. I just make sure to check out the demeanor in posts, look for previous feedback, check out their business, only from the country I am in and if I get a good feeling will buy or sell.
 
Does paypal protect in private transactions like that (assuming you don't do the gift thing)? Or is there some other escrow type service that protects both parties that you can use?
 
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