Jacked by Ebay

MegaMan001

So I bought a Resident Evil 4 poster (#330236155895) by a user "megnicole1979" on May 18th. Of course, I paid promptly with Paypal, then it never showed up, then they wouldn't respond to my e-mails and now are no longer a registered user. So, I figure I got scammed.

I contacted eBay and opened a dispute via Paypal, which I am now escalating to a claim.

Do I need to contact my credit card company and dispute the charge too? I mean this seller was an account for over a year, with positive feedback from multiple sources. . . how else are you suppose to spot a scam?

tsmvengy

I think you're supposed to wait until the paypal claim/dispute goes through - if they can't figure out how to get your money back, THEN you file a chargeback.

bigbh

Do wait until your claim is dealt with before heading to your credit card company.

revolutionary bean

I escalated my claim for nondelivery of goods like last week or two weeks ago and I just got my money back yesterday because the seller never responded. I think it was automated as I didn't have any contact with a Paypal agent for the duration of the claim.

So don't worry about it, the claim will probably go through and you will get your money back.

MegaMan001

revolutionary bean wrote: »

I escalated my claim for nondelivery of goods like last week or two weeks ago and I just got my money back yesterday because the seller never responded. I think it was automated as I didn't have any contact with a Paypal agent for the duration of the claim.

So don't worry about it, the claim will probably go through and you will get your money back.

When this happens, does the scammer still get their money? I mean, is it any deterrent to not do this again?

revolutionary bean

No idea.


As long as I got my money, I'm happy.

onceling

MegaMan001 wrote: »

revolutionary bean wrote: »

I escalated my claim for nondelivery of goods like last week or two weeks ago and I just got my money back yesterday because the seller never responded. I think it was automated as I didn't have any contact with a Paypal agent for the duration of the claim.

So don't worry about it, the claim will probably go through and you will get your money back.

When this happens, does the scammer still get their money? I mean, is it any deterrent to not do this again?

If this were not a scammer, but just a generally bad seller, they would lose the money and it would act as a deterrent, yes. This is how scammer-BUYERS actually scam sellers out of real items and their cash. This is why you will find ridiculous conditions on some eBay items now, such as priority mail ($$$) so they can prove it was delivered. This just punishes you as the buyer too, because you end up having to pay more for all this insurance.

However, most professional scammers that are acting as sellers either:

1. Took over the PayPal account, and have now emptied it and disappeared, leaving the information on file of someone stupid enough to respond to one of those "PayPal needs you to update your credit card information here" spoof emails. When the chargeback happens on this account, the account owner will have to contact PayPal to clear the amount owing. I don't know PayPal's rules about having your account taken over, but I assume they end up wearing the cost.

2. Opened a PayPal account with fake info, and have emptied it and disappeared. PayPal wear the cost again.

Professional scammers would not be keeping that PayPal account around, so there's no real way to punish them or give them any deterrent. If they already emptied the money out, they're gone.

PayPal does have some sophisticated ways of trying to prevent these kinds of empty-out-and-run but the scammers aren't really out anything - do you know what I mean? All they have wasted is their time, trying to scam you. If PayPal won't release the funds, it just means PayPal doesn't wear the cost, not that the scammer is actually out anything but their time, and they do such huge volume in scammed listings that one is nothing to them compared to how many things they have on the go.

This is why I find it so surprising with the anti-PayPal movement. They already wear all these costs for scammers.... its not like they are making money out of it/supporting it.