Fraud Victim: Fallen victim to a fraud scheme and helpless on this side.

[mpacaldo]

Hello folks,

Im a VA freelancer from Philippines. Last month, there was a posting in http://easyoutsource.com about a job with the title "Virtual Assistant needed! *From $800/month". Normally, I would be applying to various job openings to try my luck in landing a spot on several job postings. Then I received a response from a person named 'Tim <removed>', an HR of TAXeL Company. From there, he briefed me on what to do what is the job about and so on. My supposed salary for the job would be not less than $50 and not more than $100 from 5% of the total sale. Of course, that would be really attractive to me considering I am only earning around 200-$300 per month on a full time job.

Diligent as I am, I followed all the instructions on what is required for the 'work'. First, he asked me for my Verified Paypal Email. It wasn't mentioned in the first place that my email will be used for an eBay merchant. He only told me that he needed my Paypal email so the 'clients' can send the money to it. Also, I was tasked to send a screenshot report of my Paypal transactions one before 11 AM and one before 10 PM to Tim <removed>. 

As days goes by, he told me that the 1st transaction will be coming soon. And then an eBay transaction went in for $7,200. Following the instructions given to me upon hiring, I was tasked to immediately request a Withdrawal form in Paypal to my Bank account. By Monday, I was instructed to take off $100 from the withdrawn money and send the rest to the client through Western Union.

I was told that the money has to be exact but I told Mr. Barboza that the charge for sending the money through Western Union would amount to more than $200 and he told me that it was ok to take it from the withdrawn cash. 

Then that certain Mr. Barboza have gone to thin air. I've asked him about the Paypal Dispute but no replies since then. From there, I feared that I was a victim too from this. Because of this fraud, my Paypal account was blocked also (and hence I 'owed' Paypal a negative value that leaves me helpless). 

Fortunately, I have all the details of the transaction (including email exchanges). I also have the photos of the transaction receipt of Western Union. The $100 I earned from this wasn't worth it, thinking it was a legit job. I was even given a contract to print and sign. 

Here is the breakdown of what happened:

1. My Paypal account was unknowingly used for Ebay Transactions (this I know is Unauthorized Use)
2. A vintage watch was sold for $7,200. According to the instructions that was given to me upon hiring, I was tasked to Issue a Withdrawal Form in Paypal to my Bank
3. Money was withdrawn from my bank in Philippine Peso (Php 300,000+)!
4. Money was sent through Western Union in $ currency (converted in WU) to someone in Kiev, Ukraine.
5. Employer has been missing afterwards, and I am facing a jokingly huge negative balance.

Now my concern is that, I can't even file a dispute in my defense on this as the transaction ID won't go through. No matter where I look, I can only think but get disheartened that this happened to me, someone who is trying to earn a decent living. What can I do in this situation in a legal sense? I have doubts that this case will be even favorable to me but I am still looking for hope even for a bit. 

Sincerely,

Mavis

[PayPal_Andy]

Hi mpacaldo -

I'm truly sorry to hear that this has happened to you. 😞

If you search online you'll probably find that this is a pretty common work from home scam. It's definitely a difficult situation that ideally we'd like to never see occur. At this point your only real option would be to contact law enforcement to see what options they have available. You can certainly contact our customer service to discuss the balance owed on your account, I just couldn't say that we would be able to do anything about it.

I wish you the best of luck in finding a positive resolution.

- Andy

[chaemirael]

Oh my gosh!!

I thought I was alone in this. A few weeks ago I was also hired by Tim <removed> for the TAXeL Company because of my verified Paypal account. I have already followed what they asked and did what was told. Right now, my paypal is limited and all my money was taken from me and I owe paypal a huge amount. This is so frustrating as Paypal won't even hear my side.

I received 3700USD initially and they told me to withdraw it and send it to them. They were very persistent, calling my phone every now and then from a <removed> (MI, USA). The caller's name is Roberto. Then I again received another 3700USD but then my Paypal account was already limited so I cannot withdraw it. I told them I cannot withdraw because my account is limited and asked for them to lift it as they said they did the limitation.

After a few days, I got an email saying the first buyer disputed as they did not receive any item and was refunded using the second payment that came in. Now the second buyer also disputed and all my personal money in Paypal was used to refund and I even owe Paypal more than 2000USD!! I am just a freelance writer using paypal as means of accepting salaries from my employers and never sold anything on eBay.

[mpacaldo]

Regarding on this case, this is very 1 sided issue. They are taking advantage of unsuspecting freelancers like us. Whatever angle we do, we are always on the losing side. Mine "owing" Paypal for about $7,200 is really a joke and frustrating at the same time. Filing a case will just get too costly. I suspect more victims have fallen under this type of scam and under from this scammer.

[Retiredteacher]

I was contacted by someone from Tradera, a company in Sweden similar to Ebay, who asked if I wanted a job revising text for them since they want to "break into the North America" market and English isn't their native tongue. Since I am a retired English teacher, I thought it would a way to make a little extra money. So after revising several texts and my account balance at $155.00 (my payment, supposedly), I received an email from the same person asking me to apply to be a representative for their company.

It would involve my receiving money from a buyer via my Paypal account; once I received an email from the company that the customer was satisfied, I was supposed to withdraw the money and put it into my bank account  minus wire transfer fees, etc., to them.Then I was supposed to wire the money to them.  Once I received this, I came to this forum and found someone else who "surprisingly" had the same amount owed to him from revising text. I'm so glad that I didn't fall for this!!!

[alexgb]

I also experienced exactly the same thing! From TIM BARBOZA!!!! What did you do? Can I get your email or contact number. I don't know what to do about this.

[Phillipcgatus]

I also fell for this. It was exactly as the first moment and I now owe 2400 to paypal. I don't know what to do. PayPal hasn't gotten back to yet. What did you guys do? 

Help please 

[Phillipcgatus]

I think it's the same guy Philip C Gatus who is scamming people on paypal. I wish I knew all this before. 

[kristi12]

Oh noooo 😞 I still believed, that my so called employer is going to show up and solve 2 disputes on eBay. Seems I am in the same trap :((( Owing 8080 dollars to Paypal 😞

I was contacted as a virtual assistant with salary of 700$ per month for escrow service company. At first I was contacting people and responding to their e-mails and calls. Then they proposed to work with me as a partner in escrow services. We signed an agreement. Then we did three transactions with 12000$ in total. I needed to withdraw money to the bank and then to wire it (through international wire, moneygram or western union), leaving my 2.5% escrow comission.
For each of those transactions I was getting an invoice to eBay buyer, who was actually paying for a merchandize.
Also I have the agreement between buyer and supplier which states that I'm doing only escrow services and all the disputes should be solved between buyer and supplier only.
Plus I was getting tracking number for the goods that were sent and received.
Saying that, I was sure that I'm doing a legit job being their partner in the US.

So what should I do now? Do I need to file a report to police? Do I need to hire a laywer? Because from one side I have holds on my Paypal account and negative balance, from the other - I have all the documentation provided by them that I'm basically not responsible for the merchandize.

What did you do?
Did it help?

If at last I'll have to pay to Paypal back, is there a way I can do that portionally in 100 increments every month? I hardly make money for living now (stay-at-home mom with three kids) and physically don't have that amount of money anywhere. No realty, no own car, nothing...:(

[DPCreations]

@kristi12

See coments in the thread where you posted duplicate.