A fraudulent online store received my money via Paypal. Any ideas to get the money back?

[alsdia]

Hello, 

Today I ordered one pair of shoes using the website itdshop.com and I have being scammed.
I clicked on the "checkout" button and filled up all my information name, address. Looked at the price 99$ and shipping cost still 0$, "strange" I thought,  "I am outside of USA and the website does not give any warning messages or update the shipping costs? Is this legit?" I was uncertain, but went ahead anyway. And used as payment method Paypal using my VISA Debit Card. The paypal page opened and the money was transferred from my paypal account to a certain "MICHAEL B****". Usually after the transaction is done, the customer is brought automatically back to the merchant website to get a confirmation of the payment, but no, in this case after the successful transfer of money there was no mail confirmation of purchase from the merchant, no receipts. I tried to contact the merchant using the mail specified in their "Contact us" page (www.itdshop.com/info) no reply. No answers. So my doubt was growing. By googling "itdshop is this a scam" results like ad-scams.com/itdshop-com do not seem encouraging. I should have googled before...  Do you know if there are any tools to revert that transaction?

[TI-84 · Accepted solution]

Hi! If the purchase is on your PayPal account, you have two options: 1. You can dispute the transaction through Paypal. They’ll ask some questions, will reach out to the merchant, and if they hear nothing back, will rule in your favor. It can take up to a few weeks (or possibly longer). 2. You can ask your bank for a chargeback (which is usually much quicker). Usually, they’ll award you a temporary refund credit until they speak to the merchant and find out what’s going on. I haven’t had any issues with this method, but in the event they side with the merchant, the temporary refund credit will be removed. 3. Try waiting it out? I’ve had instances where an eBay purchase might not get “approved” right away and will say “pending”. In those cases, I’ve received a confirmation email within an hour.

[7jake7]

Hi,

I have a similar case: I believe I just (earlier today) got scammed in a web shop. My problem is that I panicked and had Paypal investigate the case (my payment to the seller) and since they did not find anything at this point they closed the case. They actually investigated whether my account was hacked. Well, it was not - which I already knew - and I had asked for a money return and they ignored that question.

I just found out that I can open a case ONE TIME ONLY so waiting for a few days and opening a case again is not possible... is it? Is there anything I can do if the seller / company never sends me the products I ordered & paid?

Jake

[TI-84]

Hi! I’d suggest contacting your bank and explaining the situation, including what happened with PayPal. They’re usually pretty understanding, and like I stated in my other reply, will most likely give you a temporary refund credit until they’re done investigating.

[7jake7]

Thanks for your reply!
I must clarify that I did not use my credit card when paying via Paypal: I had enough funds on my Paypal account. So you still think that my bank can help?

Jake

[TI-84]

Hm…in that case, I would try reaching out to PayPal again and explaining what happened (including your recent case).

[7jake7]

Yes. Do you think I can reach Paypal via email or via a certain web form? Like I wrote, I cannot open a claim on this issue any more...!

Jake

[TI-84]

Yes, if you go to “Help & Contact” and then “Contact Us”, you’ll be able to send them a message through here or call them.

[kernowlass]

@7jake7 

Sounds as if you opened a dispute for an unauthorised transaction? If so then a dispute for an unauthorised transaction is telling paypal that your account was hacked and used without your consent to make that transaction.
Paypal would check IP addresses and devices and close the dispute if it was you that made the transaction.

You are only allowed 1 dispute per transaction so the only way you can get a second dispute opened is to contact Paypal (when and if you can) and see if they will open a second dispute for you.
They may decline citing policies but if you say what happened then they might open a second dispute for you.

If not then if you funded your paypal payment via a credit card then consider contacting your card issuer and see if they will help you with a chargeback?

[alsdia]

Thank you for all the answers. 

Like " 7jake7" I opened a dispute through Paypal, but I chose the wrong option "unauthorized transaction" so as "kernowlass" pointed out, it was probably the wrong channel to choose because Paypal just closed my case with the following reply "Thank you for reporting this case. After our review, we found that certain transactions weren't unauthorized and hence couldn't be covered by PayPal Purchase Protection."

It is true the transaction was not unauthorized, I pushed that button on the scammer website to allow the Paypal transaction. But when I realized that it was a scam was already too late. I should have chosen the dispute option "Item Not Received", but I chose the wrong option, so now Paypal is sided on the scammer merchant side. Pretty frustrating not to have a Paypal human operator to explain that I chose the wrong option. So now I am implementing the option 2 suggested by TI-84, asking my bank for a chargeback. But it is a long process, 2 or more weeks to wait, documents to fill up, and I have to make a report to the police. I am honestly surprised to see that Paypal can allow a fake merchant to use their services, put their Paypal logo on their fake shopping website. I push that paypal button thinking that if a merchant is using Paypal then it is a legit business. Lesson learned: Paypal does not check if the merchant using their service is a real business or just a scammer. It is on the customer shoulder to do the diligence and check if the website is legitimate. I will be much more cautious in the future, since, if you push the Paypal button on the wrong website using a debit card, the money goes directly into scammer's pocket. In the transaction history you just get a general "2021/12/31 VISA Debit [removed]*** PAYPAL * MICHAEL B******". Not so much information to prosecute the scammer. For now I just reported my experience to https://reportfraud.ftc.gov , hoping that this scammer activity can be tracked and stopped.