PayPal has stolen my money. $500 is on hold and no reply

Moral of the story, do not use Paypal to store funds.

 

Yeah, I learned that the hard way.
The worst part is not the $500, I've most certainly lost, but the confidence I lost in PayPal and there is no other wide used payment system... heh may be I'll even start using Stormpay, despite the extremely high commissions.
I mean ometimes you need to need to close a deal quickly and you can't risk having your funds put on hold or just confiscated...

And again did anyone hear anything about google's intention to launch a new payment system?

 

Have you found out anything from the user you exchanged funds with? You can lose confidence if you wish, however if you got wrapped up into a scam do you actually expect Pay Pal to lose money for your doings? I do hope you get your $$$ back, but if you got wrapped up in a scam I'm sorry to say but that's your fault and not Pay Pals.

Still crossing my fingers for you.

 

Thanks for crossing the fingers
I talked to the persom I exchanged with, she seems to be an honest person, she replied quickly and also told me her account was frozen, so we have to wait till the investigation ends up... If anyone is interested, I've traded in TalkGold forum

 

If you have ever opened up a merchant account, there are similar conditions contained in it. 180 days is how long a business is liable for a transaction after the date that the transaction is completed, by Visa and MasterCard regulations. A transaction is completed when the goods have been delivered, and nothing more is owed by either party of the transaction. Paypal has taken this and adopted it to their entire system. Just to clear it up, this isn't a paypal only thing.

On a second note: I agree that it is completely crap that a business can be liable for this long. I try to educate my customers as best as possible about avoiding fraud and Chargebacks in the first place. It is 1000x easier to prevent fraud and chargebacks than it is to fight them. The majority of all chargebacks, whether legitimate or not, are won by the consumers making them.

Personally I just had paypal hold $40K on me about 2 weeks ago. Luckily I got it cleared up, but it took several phone calls, emails, and made for an extremely stressful week.

Michael,
I hope you get your paypal mess cleared up.

 

Thaks for your post jestep, and BTW cute babby
Honestly, I would never even think of using PayPal for such amount as you mention here, the risk is just too big and ther customer care, if there is any, really sucks. I don't have too much hope for the lost oney, but on contrast, I'm looking alternative ways to handle payents now. I'll probably use stormpay more...
Also, are there any other payment systems anyone here uses?

 

You know.... thats called FRAUD!!

 

You mean ecurrency exchange is fraud?

 

Nah, I think the moral of the story is really just don't fall into scams. I don't see why anyone would agree to switching Paypal money for egold money, it's just asking to get stung.

 

Cool,
it's a new day for you!

 

The fact is there is a reason why the money was frozen. If the senders account was frozen also, they may have some issue with the money they sent. Maybe the did a charge back, maybe they are just frauding you.


Just because someone is nice doesn't mean they aren't a con artist. Just because they are a very nice prince of nigeria, doesn't mean they aren't looking for your money.

PayPal has frozen the account to protect all parties involved. This is a service to you and all customers.

 

I hope you get your money back. You can go into your bank and claim you never authorized the transfer, and get it back, or if you used a cc for the payment to paypal, call them. Paypal screwed me awhile back, I sold a McIntosh 6 channel amp on ebay for $1500. The guy paid me with paypal. He left good feedback, but 3 months later, went to his cc company and took back the money from paypal, who then took it from me. Now he has my Amp and my money. I called paypal, and they say that anyone can take back their money for up to 180 days. I proved to them that the guy bought it, received it, and was happy with it, but that didn't seem to matter. Don't ever let paypal have access to your bank account, just to your cc only. Then you have some recourse if something goes awry.

 

It doesn't sound like fraud to me, as far as either party is concerned. Against polices perhaps, but if you can still contact the other party, its not a very solid sign of fraud. Usually in fraudulent situations, the person that is committing breaks contact right about the time that something goes amiss.

I think that the transaction type itself may have set off some sort of paypal flag, so the whole thing got suspended.

 

In alot of cases the person committing the fraud will act all nice for awhile trying to buy time, or possibly even get more. I've been in those situations before

Just one fraud case I was swept up into

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,40673,00.html

 

Firstly, I've been trading with PayPal for the past 5 years, and I haven't had any problems.

The best advice I can offer is make sure you transfer the money straight from receipt to your bank account - that way no money can be withdrawn.

They have to have a reason to withold this money - usually theres a reason for this type of problem. Keep contacting them, and the best form of contact is telephoning them.

 

Today I finally received an email from PayPal. They've decided to return the payment and I lost the $500. I guess it was fraud after all. Will be smarter next time..

 

That's shitty to here, but hopefully you learned your lesson and hopefully you can at least deduct the $500 on your taxes

 

Yeah, that was a hard lesson, I don't care too much for the money, but I feel like an idiot..

 

Being ripped off happens to us all, at least it was only $500..Did you check my link above, now that's something to feel like an idiot over!

 

i know what happened.

you have been victim of the Paypal/Egold scam.

scammers use stolen accounts to purchase egold from honest sellers via Paypal.
there is always chargeback in less than 2 days, your PP money is gone, and egold gone as well, no chargeback possible with egold.

am sorry to hear that you lost that much on a single transaction.