Dangers of YPN Invites - Sang Lee and other scammers

Several weeks ago, I was surprised when I found out that I was accepted into the Yahoo Publisher Network. I was so happy, but then I realized you can't enroll if you live outside of the US (I'm from Amsterdam).

I was pretty dissapointed, but after a while of browsing SitePoint and this forum, I found out YPN invites are actually worth a lot and people are buying them all the time. So I just posted in a thread saying I was selling mine.

After an hour or so I got a PM here from austin07, known as Sang Lee in real life. He told me this: "i'm interested in buying YPN invite.. please email me at sjleee@hotmail.com". So I did.

After talking to him on MSN he said he was offering $1000 USD, which is a common price, and I accepted it. He sent the money through PayPal (he didn't want to use Escrow even after I asked him), and I just gave him the URL, and forwarded the email. He told me it all worked and he seemed very happy. He even wanted me to create a logo for his site. He really seemed like a nice guy.

But then, exactly a month later, he tells me his account got banned, and he can't access it anymore. I had no idea what happened, but I felt sad for the guy so I helped him out. He wanted a refund, but I already spent the money on some debts. It wasn't my fault, so I wasn't going to anyway.

I offered to design him a logo and a layout for his new arcade website, which he accepted. But he also wanted me to email Yahoo for a new key. He wanted me to lie in the email, that I lost it. I know it's against Yahoo's policy to sell invites, but it seemed fishy he wanted me to lie about that anyway.

I emailed Yahoo, but never got a reply. He told me he called them, but he was a bit vague about their response. This is when I stopped trusting the guy. I just let it rest, and if he asked me to make a logo or something I'd do it.

Then, a week after his incident, I get an email from PayPal. He filed a claim with them, saying there was an unauthorized transaction on his behalf, and I had to pay it back. It said I never delivered the goods too. I was scared as hell. I mean, I couldn't possibly pay back all that money, I didn't have anything left.

My response was pretty much like this story, and I wrote that I had email and MSN proof that it worked for him. I was fairly confident they wouldn't side with him... I mean... how could they do that?

Well, they did. Somehow he got his money back, and I'm 800 bucks in debt. This guy probably has a free YPN account now, using it for http://www.sjl.cc/

I emailed and called PayPal several times, but they kept telling me that unless it's a physical object with a tracking number, they can't proof anything, and that it's always the seller's risk for virtual objects. What the ****? How can this be my risk? I'm not the one sending money. There wasn't even a contract. How can they just take my money and give it to that guy without any proof? Somehow it happened and they kept giving me the same response.

I can't pay this money. I can't sue PayPal. I can't find this guy called Sang Lee. What the hell do I do?

 

sorry about that man

 

Very sad story. At least you exposed "Sang Lee" for what he is.
I'll make sure to stay away from this garbage-individual.

 

sorry to hear that. can't get money back for sure. I guess only option left is Create another YPN & sell that to someone...[make sure don't use money till 1 year]. stay away from scammers & hope he pays some after he make some from ypn may be?

 

Unfortunately, there isn't much that you can do. I'm really sorry to hear about your experience, but thank you for informing the DP community about that scammer.

 

Isn't selling invites against TOS?

 

Why are people stupid enough to trust random people from forums? Thats what you get man, sorry....

 

this is very sad.but its common with paypal.
i had a guy who donated me $250 to my site and asked if i can send him 2 full year rapidshare premium account.i thought he was generous so i mailed him 2 premium accounts by paying from rapidshare.after 3 months he files a claim and i lost full $250 + about 160 euro + paypal also deducted chargebnack settlement from my account.
that day i really hated paypal but i could not do anything .paypal is a devil.

 

Paypal cant cover Intangible items
Tell paypal
"As stated in your TOS you will not honor claims for intangible items"

 

HAve fun with this

Registrant:
Sang Lee
P.O. Box 361191
Los Angeles, CA 90036
US

Domain name: SJL.CC

Administrative Contact:
Lee, Sang
P.O. Box 361191
Los Angeles, CA 90036
US
+1.7143091974 Fax: +1.7143091974

Technical Contact:
Lee, Sang
P.O. Box 361191
Los Angeles, CA 90036
US
+1.7143091974 Fax: +1.7143091974

 

i am confused , how can he get back money?

if paypal is so risk, who can use paypal?

 

He simply disputes the charges with PayPal.

 

Paypal has had too much bad press.
This morning, I searched for "paypal sucks", and got 53,000 results.
Due to this kind of feedback, I would never touch Paypal.

Some eBay sellers specify "Paypal ONLY". On a few items, I have emailed the seller that I would DEFINITELY be the top bidder, IF ONLY I could pay ANY OTHER way. When sellers insist on Paypal only, they are IGNORING some serious, highly qualified buyers. Like me.

Have a look at this -
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="paypal+sucks

 

Paypal sucks. Chargeback at paypal is too easy for some but too difficult for others. My friends who got scammed by a guy who owned protraderforex.com couldn't get his money back, although the item is intangible. Paypal, WTF?

 

Some Facts:

Paypal sucks, proven many time.
Sometime they help seller, sometime buyer but never do
they determine who is the scammer and punish them. Never!

Selling /buying/sharing YPN invites is not legit so
in this case maybe they rule OK.

 

you shouldnt be selling the ypn invites in the first place and paypal just blows lol

 

I tried to get my money back through Paypal when I bought a virtual item that the seller never did send and the claim was closed. But when the buyer is a scammer they can get it back? Yay for Paypal. >_>

 

Same here paypal told me that they couldnt refund me even thought seller didnt respond for more then 2 weeks..

 

Yeah, the seller didn't respond to mine either.

 

No chioce but to forget it, learn from it and go on. You should have used bank wire instead.