Scammed through digital goods. Paypal no help

[gdw298]

So basically, I sold some digital goods. FIFA coins to be exact.

I received the money. Followed through with the transaction last night. Everything was fine. Buyer sent me ebay messages comfirming he received the goods and was happy.

Then today I get a message from Paypal saying the transaction was in disrepute from the buyer who claimed it was made unauthorised. I phoned Paypal. The girl was helpful, she said they would investigate it, because after the paypal email I received an ebay message from a different seller informing me that the same buyer has pulled the sam stunt with him today over the same goods. The paypal agent said I should keep checking my emails to keep up to date with the dispute. She firmly said, that it was the worst case scenario that the money would be reversed back to him, especially if he's pulled the same stunt with another seller.

Well, worst case scenario happened.

Not 20mins after concluding the phone call, Paypal found the dispute in favour of him. For whatever reason. He didnt even provide an actual postage/billing address for Paypal or Ebay. I know, I should have saw the red flag. But with it being digital, I didnt look at his postage address. But it also begs the question why ebay and paypal allowed the buyer to provide an address in the form of: 

Mr Random (not actual name)

z\xcxvc

essex Nottinghamshire

OX7 5Ys

United Kingdom

(actual address though)

So now I'm £100 down. and I'm pretty sure the other seller is now £130 down seeing as its the exact same scenario. I find it quite pathetic that Paypal found in his favour purely because it was digital goods and they dont cover it. Ignoring all the facts I provided and the red flags waving all around him.

Anyone have any advice of what my next step should be?

[sdbler]

This has just happened to me too, have you found any help yet? Woman I spoke to at paypal extremely rude too. I do have an address though so was wondering if there was anything you can do before I pay him a visit?

[jono878]

I have just been scammed as well. it's to easy for the buyers to file a case within mins of a sale.  

Sounds like paypal are no help and won't be using them again.

[w1llzy]

Just had this happen to me for 2 lots of 70 quid. The ebay account has an adress so if paypals 'fraud team' don't sort it out, then I feel sorry for the guy living at the adress.

[Felaray]

I also encountered the same problem, I am a new seller and business is very good, I feel very strange. After a few days the buyer to request a refund, I upload a lot of data to show that, but to no avail, paypal buyer return the money. I lost heavy.

I am very sad .ebay & paypal destroyed my trust.

[DennisTan97]

I lost over $400 from selling online/digital goods. Even though the person that scammed me used the same paypal email to scam others. Paypal will always favour the buyer over the seller when it comes to digital goods.

[Felaray]

Me too, about $400, very great loss.Now I don't want to do business in eBay/PayPal

[CMario]

I was reading about this scams before I started my business of selling digital goods on eBay. That's why I called eBay to ask for advice how to start my business. Actually I called them like 7 times. Each time after I finish some step in configuring my seller account, posting items, etc...

I called them by explaining what I have read and is there any way to sell digital goods. They said yes and gave me bunch of advices how to. Like, just enter your product-cdkey-activation key into the shipping number, choose other and enter CD-KEY. That way buyer will get it on his e-mail. They advised me not just to send it by eBay message, but to send it as well by email and eBay message.

I mean, I've done everything what eBay advised me to. 30 days later I had great sale for 150 items in 3 days. Each worth 15 USD. I've earned actually on each about 3 USD. I was happy and I've done everything to please buyers to deliver them my iteam ASAP. 3 days laters dispute started. So far I won 5 disputes, lost 20 disputes. I don't even know why I won 5, while all my documents are the same.

I even shipped my vouchers and coupons to the paypal addresses and in some cases money were reversed even I provided real USPS shipping number. I started my business with about 400 USD I saved and now I will be losing about 2500 USD in total.

I spent over 16 hours on the phone with eBay and PayPal. No help at all. I would be happy if they just close my account at 0 ballance, then living with knowing I got scammed for 2500 USD and that PayPal hold side with Thiefs and Criminals !!!

I even had situation where the same buyer opened dispute twice for the same item, and he got an extra 15 USD in his favor.

Crazy !!! I'm so devastated, can't sleep for days and actually I can't believe that this Criminal activities can go just like that and that honest sellers experience this already for more then 2 years. We are in 21st century, in a digital world with smartphones, smart television, smart cars, virtual reality is becoming live, and that PayPal or eBay can't invest for example 10.000 USD to create online system so that at least 10.000 sellers can do their business. If each of them earns monthly 1000 USD, that's for eBay 1.000.000 USD and for Paypal 500.000 USD monthly. I've done similar solutions and its kind of win win situation for everyone. Its just somebody for a start should care about it. Anyway, if you have less then 10.000 sellers, let us say 1.000 its still profitable in first month and even if it costs more then 10.000 USD to create that system.

[KennyGreatness]

Its a shame none of this has been addressed or fixed after all these years. Im sure if they got national coverage about it they would at the very least respond. I wont be a viticm of this any longer. That's why i closed down my instant digital delivery store and made every purchase have to be a personal one.

Paypal has an all around good service but they **bleep** the very people that use the majority of their service, the seller.  What's the point in having a business account if they dont care if your goods are stolen? Why is there such a concern on the BUYER losing out on money through fraud with little to no concern for the SELLER. And if you don't believe its true they've made it clear in diclaimers and replys.

“There is a higher level of risk when you sell digital goods online and at this time, the Seller absorbs this risk.”

Basically, you're telling us that sell goods, sometimes even for a living, that they are less important. We dont deserve any policies to help them. We dont deserve any reasonable doubt. Instead what we get (and even ESPECIALLY WORSE for intagible goods) is **bleep**. The 'Buyer' aka 'Scammer' gets an automatic refund. We as Sellers dont even get notified or time to respond.

That needs to stop. Its so easy for paypal to emplement a system of proof of delievery for digital goods. as sites usually provide ips and information that proves successful delievery. Or why not just empliment a 'No-refund' policy on digital goods. So many ways around this yet they do nothing.