Scammed on adverts.ie, what are the chances of getting my money back?

conti

Bought a game, or so I thought, off a guy on adverts, he replied straight away to my bid, he seemed legit and said he'd post my game the following day and email me a tracking receipt. Seems he was acting overly nice to really put me off the scent. Anyways his account has since been deleted and adverts mods informed me that he had been banned.

I have his name (assuming his paypal name is not fake) and email address, I've made the claim with paypal and they're now dealing with it, or so an automated email has informed me.

What are the chances of getting my money back? Is there a good success rate with catching out paypal scammers?

jor el

All depends on whether there is any money to be recovered. No one can tell you how likely your case is to be successful, you'll just have to wait.

partyatmygaff

Run his email address, name, phone number, address, username e.t.c. through Google and see if you can find a trail. If you can find a FB page e.t.c. then you'll have a good chance of shaming them in to giving you your money back.

conti

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Run his email address, name, phone number, address, username e.t.c. through Google and see if you can find a trail. If you can find a FB page e.t.c. then you'll have a good chance of shaming them in to giving you your money back.

This is my plan! I think what I really meant to ask is how tracable people on paypal are? Don't you need personal and credit card details for that site? I mean he has to deposit the money he scammed to some bank account doesn't he?

Lordy I hope I can track down a facebook full of photos, I will utilise my photoshop skills to make an example of him and make it as viral as possible!

Erper

Can u share his name so we know in future...
Basicly only thing u can do is not to buy from other town but localy...
I had same thing, paid over 150e to some pakistan guy in dublin for phone... Guess what, never got a phone... Ive reported him few times but eddie from ads said all he could do is to ban him and told me to gards. Gard told me that he cant do anything if i never received a phone...

conti

Erper wrote: »

Can u share his name so we know in future...

Would love to but I'm sure it's against the rules, unless I'm wrong I'll happily share all I can.I'm gonna keep searching for him as futile as it is, I'm sure he faked everything, my only hope is that he slipped up by not realising his name is shown on paypal, unless it's a fake name.

That's a bizarre rule the guards have, if someone takes money off you but gives you nothing in return it's totally legal??

Erper

conti wrote: »

Erper wrote: »

Can u share his name so we know in future...

Would love to but I'm sure it's against the rules, unless I'm wrong I'll happily share all I can.I'm gonna keep searching for him as futile as it is, I'm sure he faked everything, my only hope is that he slipped up by not realising his name is shown on paypal, unless it's a fake name.

That's a bizarre rule the guards have, if someone takes money off you but gives you nothing in return it's totally legal??

Yep

scuba8

Report this to the Gardai. It is a crime to take your money and not to give you the goods you purchased.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE (THEFT AND FRAUD OFFENCES) ACT, 2001

Section 6 of this act is relevent to your case.

jj92

I'm surprised nobody has said this, but why are you people paying for things in advance through ads in adverts.ie?

I understand doing this with Ebay AND Paypal, because as a buyer you have a safety net. But with what the OP has described it seems to be leaving people open to fraud. Even though it may work out sometimes the fraud rate is going to be really high as there are no repercussions for the fraudulent seller.

It's like posting your money to a 419r in Nigeria.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

But Paypal will nearly always refund you your money as long as the seller can't provide a tracking receipt.

Erper

scuba8 wrote: »

Report this to the Gardai. It is a crime to take your money and not to give you the goods you purchased.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE (THEFT AND FRAUD OFFENCES) ACT, 2001

Section 6 of this act is relevent to your case.

They dont want to be bothered...

jj92

georgiecasey wrote: »

But Paypal will nearly always refund you your money as long as the seller can't provide a tracking receipt.

Is that when you arrange a sale through a random poxy website or through Ebay? If both then it really is good for the buyer and for the OP.

Erper

Just the point is:
Dont buy of adverts unless u r 100000% sure about seller or buying localy where they cant scamm u

bellieella

I am sure that PayPal will refund the money
To you

partyatmygaff

bellieella wrote: »

I am sure that PayPal will refund the money
To you

Only if the seller hasn't withdrawn the money first, seeing as he's a scammer he probably withdrew it the moment it arrived.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

jj92 wrote: »

Is that when you arrange a sale through a random poxy website or through Ebay? If both then it really is good for the buyer and for the OP.

Don't know about Ebay but I do loads of transactions on sites I own and whenever a buyer files a refund request you need a shipping tracking number that can be verified or the buyer will *always* get their money back. Paypal nearly always side on the buyers side.

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Only if the seller hasn't withdrawn the money first, seeing as he's a scammer he probably withdrew it the moment it arrived.

Paypal will have his credit card and/or bank on file. Withdrawals take ages if you don't have these on file, or can you have even accept money without a credit card, I'm not sure. To OP, just get the refund request in as quickly as possible so the money is frozen in his account.

jeepers101

Paypal don't have to refund the money to you. Its completely at their discretion. If you read their terms and conditions it states that you only have insurance for ebay purchases or purchases from a site that displays the paypal logo.

If I ever buy anything from a classifieds site using paypal I always get the seller to list it on ebay first, then buy it from there. It costs a small bit more (ebay fees) but its essentially insurance against fraud.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

jeepers101 wrote: »

Paypal don't have to refund the money to you. Its completely at their discretion. If you read their terms and conditions it states that you only have insurance for ebay purchases or purchases from a site that displays the paypal logo.

If I ever buy anything from a classifieds site using paypal I always get the seller to list it on ebay first, then buy it from there. It costs a small bit more (ebay fees) but its essentially insurance against fraud.

of course they don't have to but they nearly always do!

jeepers101

Yeah true enough but I occasionally buy fairly expensive items that I'd rather not take a risk on. I can't see paypal paying out a claim for 2-3k for something you bought from a classifieds site.

RasTa

PayPal cover all loses now, you'll get your money back. Off-ebay protection is for all items now as they want people using it for everything.

The only thing they won't cover is cars, houses, boats etc.

jeepers101

Maybe they have changed their policy but the way I interpret it from their site is you'll only be covered by ebay purchases or paypal registered sellers.

paypal on their website(See link below) wrote:

13.2 Eligibility Requirements.

To be eligible for PayPal Purchase Protection you must meet all of the following requirements:

Pay for the eligible item from your Account.

Pay for the full amount of the item with one payment. Items purchased with multiple payments – like a deposit followed by a final payment – are not eligible.

Send the payment to the Seller through:

the eBay “Pay Now” button or the eBay invoice; or

the “Send Money” button of your Account by selecting “eBay Item” and entering your eBay User ID and the eBay item number for purchases on eBay website; or

the Send Money tab on the PayPal website, by clicking the “Purchase” tab, or by selecting the “Checkout with PayPal” button or otherwise selecting PayPal as part of a Seller’s checkout flow.

Open a Dispute within 45 Days of the date you sent the payment, then follow the online dispute resolution process described below under Dispute Resolution. For Pay After Delivery transactions you must open your Dispute within 45 Days of the date of your transaction.

Have an Account in good standing..

Can't really see buying something from a private seller being classed as "part of a Seller’s checkout flow".

https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/UserAgreement_full#13. Protection for Buyers.