How to Avoid being Scammed: PayPal & Ebay Buyer Protection REFUNDED 1/13/12

The song is - http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/feels-like-africa-feat-bruce/id444205305?i=4...
Feels Like Africa on iTunes

I was scammed out of $249.93 by an Ebay user who was selling a vacuum cleaner. The price was in line with other auctions on ebay at the time but the shipping was FREE. Although it was a new seller, I was once a new seller so I took a chance thinking that if it is a scam, I would be protected via the Ebay and PayPal Buyer protection. Huge Mistake!

The PayPal User Agreement (updated 7/29/11) states that PaylPal does not guarantee the identity of Users. I bet you thought, like I did, that since accounts have to be verified (credit card/bank account) that it meant PayPal would know the identity of the User. Nope. Not at all.

So what happens if a scammer uses PayPal, takes your money & does not deliver your product & they withdraw the funds from the PayPal account? I doubt that these kinds of people are concerned about their credit rating, assuming PayPal even goes after them through a collection agency or some other means.

They could also close their account. There is no real protection.

Teri James aka freeteri80@hotmail.com knew about a scam using USPS Delivery Confirmation. PayPal does not require proof of delivery via a signature if the item is under $250. Of course I did not find this information until after I bought the item & realized I had been scammed.

How it works is you buy an item & pay under $250 for it (including shipping). The seller ships something, not your item, to your city & zip code using USPS Delivery Confirmation. If you live in a large city, like New York, thousands of your neighbors could have the same zip code. In my case, the seller, Teri James, said my vacuum would be sent on 7/22/2011 &it would arrive in 7-10 days. By 7/26/2011 I still had not received the tracking so I requested it via ebay messages. Teri replied to say the info was at home & would be sent later.

I found out about the USPS Delivery Confirmation scam on Ebay. Ebay OWNS PayPal. reviews.ebay(dot com)/USPS-Delivery-Confirmation-Scam_W0QQugidZ10000000018679059

I finally was sent the tracking on 7/28/2011 only to see that USPS had allegedly delivered my vacuum on 7/23/11 - while I was sitting at home.

Nothing ever arrived so I checked with my 24/7 doorman, my post office & my postal delivery driver who has delivered my packages for many years. There was no 20lb vacuum waiting on me anywhere & no record of any such package being on the delivery truck for me on 7/23/11 at all. The most interesting part about this is the package was mailed on 7/21/2011 (instead of 7/22/2011 which is when Teri told me it would be mailed). It was mailed after 10 p.m. & arrived in Brooklyn, NY by 11:32 a.m. on 7/23/11. Only 28 hours for a 20lb vacuum to allegedly travel across the country, via USPS. No slight to USPS but they do not make deliveries in a timely fashion without a hefty fee so FREE shipping would not have been offered.

I guess that whatever item Teri mailed on 7/21/11 arrived much faster in NYC than expected such that the scam was revealed faster than planned. Most people probably wait around for weeks for their package to arrive, but with the tracking showing an impossible delivery date, I knew something was wrong.

I contacted PayPal to file a dispute on 7/28/11 right after I confirmed with the post office that there was no package for me. I then escalated my dispute to a claim on 7/29/11 once I found the USPS Delivery confirmation scam & did not get any response from Teri. I also filed a claim with the US Postal Inspector as recommended by my local post office.

My claim was noted as escalated on 8/1/11 (PayPal admitted it was their processing error) & the seller was given well over the normal 10 days to respond. Teri did not respond to any of my messages, but did finally respond to PayPal on 8/11/11.

My claim was denied on 8/11/11 because Teri resent to PayPal the same tracking that I disputed. I appealed the decision & was again denied based on the SAME delivery confirmation tracking that is in dispute. I will be contacting PayPal's legal department to get more details on this seller so I can sue & I'm alerting the local authorities & the FBI (interstate fraud). I have closed my PayPal account.

By the way, I had contacted Ebay, owners of PayPal, but was told that they could not assist.

An interesting thing that I learned during this process, other than to not buy anything on ebay without signature confirmation, is that ebay messages cannot be read by PayPal even once a dispute in opened with PayPal. So basically, all the communications between a Buyer & Seller via ebay messages are excluded from any PayPal investigation. Does that make ANY SENSE?

How can PayPal conduct a true investigation if they cannot view the correspondence between the Buyer & Seller on ebay?

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• paypal
• ebay
• scam
• buyer protection
• delivery confirmation
• usps
• signature confirmation
• scammed

[blattepop]

is PayPal good for other things than eBay?

like "steam", "origin" or whatever?!

[NaturalManeNYC]

@blattepop I'm not sure what you mean; however, Paypal is used for all types of vendors and services not just for ebay.

[133anne]

without signature confirmation, usps just tosses the package on the floor. we don't have such practices in the country i live. anyone just passing on the street could have taken it, they didn't even ring my bell. i was quite upset by this. i always get signature confirmation for more expensive items.

[NaturalManeNYC]

@133anne Exactly, anyone can collect packages from the street. In this case, my building has a doorman 24/7 (with video). No package was ever delivered at all for someone to steal.

[joshine45]

Did your money get refunded?

[NaturalManeNYC]

@joshine45 No, I have not heard anything yet from my letters. I did however receive a survey from PayPal via email. I completed it, honestly, and have yet to hear anything from PayPal or eBay.

[wxrodrigues]

this is why i moved to amazon payment is easy and fast no problems till now

[yanlapanic]

CHeck rating at first , 0 feedback and high price for item such as iphone and other are scam for sure

[thumper444]

this site is a joke, its more like a money laundering site, how many millions are these people making, scammers ebay, paypal.

[junkyturd]

Glad you warned us of the music so i can mute right away

[Pooniepoo]

after seeing this vid...I believe this is what happened to me. Ordered an expensive wig..never received it. filed claim with pay pal and everything just like you did. wow...I had no idea about this scam