Help with an eBay/Paypal fraud

[Mark Moore]

I'm certainly no lawyer, but if Paypal authorized that user and his stolen card, then they should pay for it. You as an eBay auction aren't authorizing payment, Paypal is. However, I haven't read the fine print either!

I've used PP for purchasing with no problems and have not gotten into the selling arena - yet!

Good luck. It sounds very frustrating.

[Heath McKnight]

I wonder if I can refuse to pay the Paypal bill (also known as a reversal, which Paypall claims to hate to deal with)...Think I'll get sued or my credit will go downhill? I think I just answered my own question...

heath

[Robbie Smolinsky]

Mark, I really don't think there is any legal recourse cimply because the User Agreement gives Paypal the full rights to do what they did. Its sort of like opening a playground with some broken glass laying around but posting a sign that says "Play at your own risk".

Heath, maybe you can contact the credit card company and just lay out your situation to see what they say. Since Paypal reserves the right to collect the money, it may be useless as it will be considered a valid, authorized charge (by agreeing to the user terms, you may have validated this charge in the event it was even necessary). But it never hurts to call up and ask. I don't really think your credit would be effected, but don't take my word for it. THere was a charge for $1800 on my credit card last month that wasn't from me, and I had to dispute the charge, cancel the card completely and start over, but I don't believe my rating was effected at all. The credit card dispute process is in place for a reason, and I don't think they punish people for taking advantage of it, unless of course they are pulling a scam of their own.

But think of it this way. Not to suggest that your loss is trivial in any way, but you learned a fairly cheap lesson. Losing $144 and learning how easily one can be scammed online is a lot better than learning through a loss of $1000 or more. I was scammed out of $300 when I was not aware of the scams out there, and while it was painful to lose that money, I figured I came out lucky because I didn't lose more.

But however thing progress, good luck with it and I hope things turn out in your favor!!

Robbie

[Heath McKnight]

Thanks, Robbie. Yeah, it could be worse, I guess, but money's always tight when I'm about to start school and books need to be purchased. Nuts...

I'll call Paypal and see if I can get the phone number and info of the credit card company the person stole (or whatever) who bought my ram from.

Cheap lesson, but still...nuts...............Just a bad day as our FCP system's CineWave card is acting up. Can't even do a simple render right now, without it either failing or turning a blue logo green. I'm clueless there. As the Beatles once said, Tommorow is Another Day.

heath

[John Locke]

How not to get burned:

Buying: ZGC, Zotz, Protape, B&H
Selling: Cash only to locals, or PayPal transfers from people you "know" through these forums

[Heath McKnight]

Thanks for all the advice. My grandfather says to not pay, but the local grocery store takes a hit, but prosecutes to the fullest extent of the law, which I will do.

heath