Payment Reversal, what do I do?

[Nurse_Kyle]

This past month I did some online business with a guy from California, nothing unusual, seemed like my normal customer base, a nice guy in general. I am a photo editor, he wanted some work done (pretty much total restoration) on some old family photographs and other such pictures so we set the price on the pictures and he sends them to me in an email, I fix them up, I show him my work, he's very happy with the finished product, we decide the best way to do payments would be one by one (I send him a restored picture, he pays for it, etc etc) to avoid anybody getting messed over. Well it turns out I am getting messed over (unless there's a way to actually dispute this). There were payment reversals on all payments, and the only options are give him his money back or provide proof of shipping; how am I supposed to prove shipping on a transaction that was done entirely through email? I will be calling customer service when they open up, I don't know if they'll be able to help, I feel like they'll tell me I'm SOL; is there anything anyone on the forum knows that could help me, I would greatly appreciate it as there's around $250 on the line and I have a roof to keep over my family's head and food that I need to keep on the table.

Note: He claimed that the payments were unauthorized, if that helps at all.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi Nurse_Kyle, and welcome to the forums!

It sounds like one of the following three things occurred:

• The guy you were dealing with committed identity theft and used a stolen credit card or a spoofed account to pay you.
• The guy paid you and is trying to get his money back by filing a claim of unauthorized use on his own account. (This is actually one of the least likely possibilities. People don't generally make claims of unauthorized access on their own account if they really made the payment. It's the kind of thing that comes back to haunt you, and most people realize that.)
• This is a misunderstanding, and communicating with the buyer will clear it up. Sometimes people use joint bank or credit card accounts and a spouse sees an unrecognizable charge and panics. Sometimes the system sees a lot of payments all in a row as potential fraud activity and pends a payment until we find out from the buyer if they genuinely made it or not. Try contacting the buyer through the channels you've used previously. Start from the perspective that there must have been a mistake and ask the buyer to resolve it.

The work you were doing for this person was highly personalized, and the photos would probably help the police if find you want to open an investigation with them. If it turns out that the buyer did commit fraud against you (whether with his own account or someone else's), here are some resources where you can learn more about fraud and how to report it:

• Internet Crime Complaint Center - http://www.ic3.gov
• National Fraud Information Center - http://www.fraud.org
• Department of Justice - http://www.onguardonline.gov

I hope this helps!!

Olivia