Paypal users beware. 100% buyer protection is BS. I am going through one of the most ridiculous situation of my life, and I hope by writing this, I might save someone from dealing with the same thing.
I usually don't keep any money in my Paypal account, but about a week ago, I sold an item on Ebay for $1400 and they paid by Paypal. Later that night, I receive a confirmation email from Paypal about two payments I made. One was for $12 and the other was for $1200. I immediately assumed it was one of those scam emails where they try to get you all riled up so you will log into your account from the email and then they will have your account info, so I close the email and went to Paypal.com. After logging in, I confirmed that two payments had been taken out of my account for $12 and $1200. I immediately disputed the transactions. The next day, I called Paypal (during business hours) to confirm the disputes. They told me that it would take about 3 days to reach their decision.
The next day, I received an email saying that they decided in my favor on the $12 charge and refunded the money back to my account. Great. It wasn't until a day later that I get the next email from Paypal. This one says that after investigating the situation, Paypal has decided that I did approve the $1200 payment, I would not be getting the funds back, and the case was closed. You can imagine how I felt about that one.
The next day, I called Paypal to try and figure out what was going on. They told me that they confirmed that I did, in fact, send John Smith (obviously not his name) a payment for $1200. I told them that I have never heard of John Smith, and I have never communicated with anyone at his email. They told me that someone from my computer authorized the payment. I told them that there was no way that a payment was authorized by me for $1200 to John Smith. They told me that a room mate or someone else in the house must have done it. I told them that the only people in my house are me and my wife, and that she did not use it. He finally broke it down for me by telling me that they decided against me because when you login to your Paypal account, their system records info about the computer you are using. If it is from the same computer you have always used, it is proof that you are the one sending the money.
At this point, I am a bit baffled. I know that I did not send this money to someone I do not know. I know that my wife is the only other person with access to my laptop, and she did not do it. I start to get paranoid. Did someone get close to my house and hack into our wireless networks? I ask Paypal what I purchased from John Smith. They said that it was a "personal payment". You mean I just gave someone $1200 for nothing in return? Yep. I said that I did not know John Smith, I do not know that email, I did not send him $1200, and I have no idea why it shows that the payment came from my computer. They said that they would would reopen the investigation and get back to me. Later that day, I receive an email stating that they have re-reviewed the case and decided against me, again. I call again and they now treating me like a criminal with short snippy answers.
I ask them for John's contact info. They told me that they cannot give out that information. Let me get this straight. Someone can accept $1200 as a personal payment from me, but I can't ask for their phone number? I can understand not giving out contact info to just anyone, but you have now decided that I intentionally sent this person $1200 with nothing in return, but I shouldn't have access to their phone number or address?! That is absurd. I asked them what do I need to do next, and they basically told me that there was no "next". This is their decision and that's that. I asked them for the IP address they have for my computer so I can investigate on my end to try and come up with something. Anything. They told me that they cannot release the details of the investigation unless I write a letter to some office. My blood was absolutely boiling! Paypal, the safe payment company, the 100% buyer protection company, had just left me out to dry in the worst possible way. I was baffled.
Just for the hell of it, I decided to email John Smith. I told him that I did not authorize the payment, and I would be going to the local authorities the next day if I did not hear from him. I told him that I just wanted my money returned to me. It was a shot in the dark, and I really did not expect a response. Finally, the heavens parted and tiny sliver of light shone down on this dismal situation. John Smith actually emailed me back! This is what he sent…
"I don't know if the transaction is Unauthorized or not, but i already send $1200 to
maximazorrxxxx@xxxx.com alertpay account. As this guy send me $1200 for exchange transaction. I already send $1200 to his account.
Contact him and recover the money from him, because he send this money to my account and i send $1200 to his alertpay account.
I am providing PayPal to Moneybooker, AlertPay and Liberty Reserve Exchange Service. My Blog is xxxx.blogspot.com"
(I x'ed out the email and web address)
After reading that email, I am guessing that I have gotten caught up in some sort of scheme involving a chain of payments from one Paypal account to another making it difficult to find the person responsible. I call Paypal back and tell them about the email. After some coaxing, they allow me to forward both emails (to and from John) to them and they reopen the case. As I am writing this, I still have not heard their decision about this. The last fraud specialist I spoke with told me to do a spyware scan on my computer. I told her that I am running security software, but I would do a fresh scan. She told me that there is a certain virus that can get onto your computer that will find out your login info, and send information from your computer. She made it sound like this is probably what has happened here. She also made it sound like they are not responsible for security issues on my end, and they might try to use that angle to get out of making this right for me.
No matter how this winds up, I have been made to feel like a criminal by Paypal. They have done very little to help me out here, and if I wouldn't have contacted the crook, or if he would have been dumb enough to respond, I would have been dead in the water. They had decided the case was closed. Forget the fact that I didn't purchase anything from the guy. Forget the fact that the $12 charge that was made at the same time was reversed. Oh yeah, and what about John's email? If what it said is true, he has $1200 payments coming and going in and out of his account. Wouldn't that look a little suspicious? And if I am that adamant about this, what would be the harm in asking John Smith to forward some email correspondence proving that I agreed to send him the payment. I mean, surely we would have had some kind of communication about the transaction before I sent him a personal payment for $1200, right?
The entire situation is absurd! If they do wind up reversing the charge, I am going to transfer the funds to my bank account and cancel my Paypal account immediately. I hope this story keeps someone from going through what I have experienced.
Oh, and by the way, I came home and did a complete virus scan (took about 1 1/2 hours) and it found three items. One was a "worm", and the other two were "trojan horses". Make sure to do the complete scan, and not the quick scan that it normally does. The quick scan was obviously overlooking these.
