Why Paypal are Holding your Funds

CraigF

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First off i would dearly love to post all the Recorded voice conversations but from a legal point i cant.

Several months ago i sold something on Ebay and had my funds held by Paypal due to Unathorised Payment.
The funds were then returned to the Buyer and i was left out of pocket. (it wasnt a great amount).
This got me thinking though as i actually had MSN conversations with the Buyer as proof so i called up Paypal to annoy them and try and get some answers.

I called them up and spoke with one of their reps.
He told me they had suspicions about the sale and thats why they took the action they did.
I informed him i had proof the sale was totally legit and could email the proof.
We cant use it as proof was the reply. (strange i thought).
Why not?
Hang on sir and i will pass you to my supervisor.
Supervisor informs me that the alledged Buyer had called them to say their account had been hacked and they did not make that purchase.
Fair enough it happens i guess.

This is where it got really strange...
Supervisor - We returned the money and placed your account on hold as you might be money laundering.
Me --Ermm..what?.you calling me a Money Launderer?
Supervisor-- Well it looks as though you are due to the transaction.
Me-- Oh i see..Ok i will send this recording to the Newspapers as i think you have stepped way over the mark.
Supervisor -- What the Censored, you have no censored right to record this call.
**Hangs up on me***

Two minutes later both my Ebay and Paypal accounts were removed from the face of the planet.

Theres something just not right here i figured..
So with the help of a couple of friends and some non existant goods we set off to see what we could uncover..

What did we Uncover...

This..
Paypal users over the world are being approached by Chinese nationals in order to use their Paypal accounts to defraud millions in goods and they are getting away with it..

Heres how it works.

Someone buys something online from a Chinese based company.
Few days later they are approached by someone asking if they want to make a lot of money.
Those that agree are instructed on how it will work..

China based person buys goods on Ebay, (this has extended now to most East European Countries.)
He contacts one of the people who have agreed to take part in the Scam.
That person then gets the payment link from the chinese person and pays for the item.
(They only buy items of a tangible nature mostly but recently they have been trying this with normal items.)
(Also they choose the cheapest post method if its an item to be posted as no siganature, no proof).
Item is then transferred to the buyer. (tangible items are instant with no post).
Paypal account holder then lodges an Unathorised Transation complaint.
Goods are already gone so you have lost them.
Paypal refunds money instantly, no questions asked.


Now you may think this is impossible and it seems full of holes so we put it to the test.

I sold a Non Existant item to a friend out with Ebay.
He buys it.
I call paypal and tell them that i think the transaction is a little suspicious and could they contact the buyer to confirm he authorised it.
"I will put you on hold sir for a few minutes"
"Yes sir we have confirmed the buyer has bought the item"
Cool...He sends me payment then does the Unauthorised Transaction thing..Hahaha i say to him over msn, Paypal called you..Ermm no they didnt..What do you mean..they said they did..
Ok..lets see what happens.
Hmm..money refunded due to Unauthorised transaction.

I call Paypal and query it.
Yes sir the Paypal user said their account was hacked and we refunded the money..
But i called you 5 minutes ago and you said the Buyer had confirmed he bought the item, you said you called him and confirmed it.:thinking:
Sorry sir we have no record of that call.


Ok..Im annoyed now so lets wait a few hours and try again.
We did with the same result.
I called Paypal and asked them if they did not think it suspicious that the same thing can happen within a couple of hours.
Did alarm bells not ring when you got the same "My account was Hacked Bulls^&t from the same user within a couple of hours?

I then went on and explained my Theory to the Paypal Agent. And what me and a few friends had been doing to prove it.

I can honestly say i have never had a phone put down on me so fast.
It also now appears that both my home phone number and Mobile are on Perma Banned by Paypal.
 
Good work detective Craig. It seems Paypal are losing it totally. I spoke to one of their agents earlier (who, by the way, was actually very pleasant and very, very helpful) who actually said that she'd told all her friends to stop using it because they'd get burned sooner or later.

Paypal can kiss the fattest part of my ass. From now on I'll do my selling on free-ads or my local shop's notice board. It's far safer.
 
I think you might be getting a wee bit confused there, Craig...

(They only buy items of a tangible nature mostly but recently they have been trying this with normal items.)
(Also they choose the cheapest post method if its an item to be posted as no siganature, no proof).
Item is then transferred to the buyer. (tangible items are instant with no post).
Paypal account holder then lodges an Unathorised Transation complaint.
Goods are already gone so you have lost them.
Paypal refunds money instantly, no questions asked.

I'm not sure what you mean by "They only buy items of a tangible nature mostly but recently they have been trying this with normal items"

Tangible means the goods physically exist, eg a camera, so could you explain what a "normal" item is in this context?


"Item is then transferred to the buyer. (tangible items are instant with no post)."

Goods are already gone so you have lost them.

This bit really confuses me. If you meant intangible goods, then these tend just to be software or such like, so you really haven't "lost" anything, on the other hand if you do mean tangible then you couldn't have done an instant transfer to the buyer, you'd have to have physically posted the items and if you sent them without using a trackable service then that's your own fault...
 
Oops..INTANGIBLE...Not Tangible..
Should have been Non Tangible goods.
 
To let you understand Flash, the best items to do it with are Online Game Accounts.
These can sell for very large sums of money. Up to £1,000.
Thats what the investigations were based on, as there is millions of teens worldwide have these and are very easily persuaded to make some cash.
 
Hmm.....I couldn't see me parting with a grand for something I couldn't physically touch :lol:
 
Yeh but it does happen and all the time m8.
Google WOW accounts for sale and you will see what i mean.
The potential for making money is astonishing.

Also bear in mind that players buy In Game Gold or currency for around 12 euros per thousand and its not uncommon for some accounts to be holding over 20k in Ingame Currency.
 
Whilst it's astonishing, it's not that difficult to believe. Paypal are far too quick to follow the easy solution (i.e. a refund) rather than investigate the problem fully. And then when the problem is brought to their attention, they don't want to know.

As regards World of Warcraft, when you see how much some items sell for it's only really possible if you buy the gold rather than earn it. And as a result prices go up so more people have to buy etc... A lot of money can be made as a very large number of player would rather pay than spend the hours of their time to earn the gold through normal means.
 
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Another one that works is buy something from America, when goods arrive report the transaction to paypal as Item not received.

The only check that paypal do is to check any supplied tracking number on line.

If the online service says its delivered the auto maticaly find against you, if the online service dosen't show delivery they automaticaly find in your favour.

So why chose America, No mater how expensive the item is there a vertualy no tracked services available from America to the UK, so paypal cannot be given a valid tracking number that can be checked on-line so you stand a 99% chanve of getting both the goods and your money back.

It also works in the UK if the parcel is sent via standard none tracked service.

No I have not done it my self but I do Know of someone who used to do it a lot with a number of his friends and Family, before he was busted on another matter and the investigation uncovered this scam, they had taken American eBay/PayPal customers for abut £75K over a 3 year period.

eBay and PayPal were informed but chose not to introduce system up-dates to stop it happening, they were also reluctant to co-operate with the Police who were investigating.

They would rather hush up the problem from there customers than sort it.
 
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