Basically, I sold 2 bikes for nearly £9k via friends and family PayPal, after around 36 hours the guy claimed his PayPal was hacked.. possibly true. PayPal are now saying they’re investigating the matter and it will take up to 30 days to determine this. I did not hack the account.. My PayPal is showing a -£9k negative balance. What I would like to know, is if the guy was in fact hacked and not who I had actually been dealing with, can PayPal legally claim the money back from me. As I will then be down 2 bikes & £9k. Thanks in advance
Yes, they can. I'm sure the UK has a rule about proceeds of crime - you shouldn't benefit from that crime. You need to go to the Police and lodge a claim for the theft by deception of the bikes. Give them all the info on the person you dealt with - IP addresses, the works. This is a common scam, the Police will have a process for dealing with it. Talk to your insurance company - in NZ we have "contents insurance" which will cover this. Your insurance might have something too.
Did you already ship the 2 bikes? If so, you are down bikes and money. If not, you just didn't sell them. This scam is quite old. The buyer paid with money from a hacked account. Important rule: after a sale, transfer the money to another Paypal account or withdraw to bank/card. Then ship the goods. In case the buyer claims nothing arrived, or unauthorized activity on his account, you will just lose the account. Because Paypal will put it in negative balance and you will discard it. Better to lose the account (and make another one) than the funds in it.
You need to be very sure that that is the only action Paypal will take. You don't want your financial future impacted because you defrauded Paypal.
It depends on the country. Paypal has not the same legal status worldwide. Usually Paypal refunds the buyer and then does nothing. The accounts ends up in red and you discard it. End of the drama. Create another under a different name and start selling again.
The OP is in Britain. the "different name" is called fraud. We get endless people here who have done that and something triggers a Paypal review and bang! there goes their account.
Fraud is something else. Like many other things in life, one can do them approximately and clumsly, as an amateur, or perfect, as a professional. A professional prepares everything for a Paypal review, pass it, and gain trust in Paypal "eyes" (bots). An account that has passed reviews, docs requests, proof of this and that becones much stronger, even if everything is faked. An amateur, who knows little of how Paypal bots operates and what triggers them, will always be screwed by Paypal. Losing money and reputation. There are entire forums devoted to this area, but mostly they just scratch the surface, as they are composed by amateurs selling their "guides". In depth knowledge comes from insiders (people who work for Paypal or ethical hackers).
Thanks for the replies, luckily for me PayPal closed the case in my favour I’ve not deleted my PayPal account and won’t use them again
While this seemed to turn out okay for this OP (though he may still be out two bikes), I do not understand why any Seller would accept payment by Paypal these days. Like eBay, they have become so "Buyer slanted" that it is crazy to regularly use either as a seller, imo.