I think I've discovered a new type of Paypal scam...

[ScaryPantsGuy]

Hello, all. I think I might have discovered a new type of Paypal scam, in that a website (www.Satemalls.com) currently has me locked up in a checkout screen, the payment has gone through (of course), and will not register as 'completed' because the checkout won't recognize that the transaction has been paid for. Essentially, since the transaction will never complete, the perp gets away with the money because there's nothing to ever report back to Paypal as being amiss, because the transaction never went through.

Given that it never goes through, you can't go through regular vanilla Paypal channels to solve this problem, 

Quite brilliant, actually. 

Some of the fun things I've discovered about the business:

1. The Paypal goes straight to a "Martin [removed]" (I apparently can't post the email address) He or she or it is naturally not responding.

2. The "contact us" phone number goes straight to some rough-sounding guy who's never heard of "Satemalls".

3. The Email address bounces back as "undeliverable"

4. He or she or it has the Paypal link going straight through to "give money to a friend", so you can't get your money back. Thankfully I clicked over to "goods or services". It's a bit disturbing, however, that this website links that far into Paypal where you are already at the phase of "give money to a friend".

5. I thought that Paypal's fraud department actually tries to stop this sort of thing from happening. I can't have been the first person to have been scammed, why does "Martin [removed]" still have a Paypal account? Or is this sort of thing simply one of the new pitfalls of using Paypal?

6. Oh yeah, this swanky online business's address is in a run-down neighborhood of Reading, Pennsylvania.

It's also lovely that the 'Resolution' center has no option for dealing with this sort of thing, what, am I the first guy to run across a scam artist like this? 

[sharpiemarker]

@ScaryPantsGuy 

The merchant could be using the 2 step payment processing; first, the authorization is initiated (this reserves the funds for the purchase at your bank or card account) and second, the authorization is later captured and converted to a Completed payment when the merchant is ready. If checkout is not completed or the order fails, the authorization eventually expires and drops off, releasing the reserved funds. Only the merchant can void the authorization releasing the reserved funds within the first 30 day period or it expires on it’s own after 30 days. If the authorization remains longer than 30 days, then PayPal or your bank/card can void it at your request

[ScaryPantsGuy]

I just ran a website checker like you mentioned in that other post...and it was only created about a month ago.
The problem is that Paypal already sent the guy the money...and there's no way to stop the payment.

Thankfully I clicked "goods and services" because the scammer's default was ""give money to a friend", so I'm hoping that there might be a chance of this being reversed on Paypal's end, although I'm a bit curious as to how Paypal allows these things to happen.

[sharpiemarker]

@ScaryPantsGuy 

> The problem is that Paypal already sent the guy the money...and there's no way to stop the payment.

> the payment has gone through (of course), and will not register as 'completed' because the checkout won't recognize that the transaction has been paid for

What does your PayPal Activity page say about the transaction? Is it listed in the Completed section?

By what you are describing, it seems the transaction is still an authorization and in the Pending section.

If transaction is listed in the Completed section, you may open a dispute 7 days after the payment date for item not received by clicking the transaction and clicking Report a problem link.

If the authorization doesn’t move into the Completed section within the next few days, it will remain in the Pending section to expire and drop off in 30 days if not sooner.

If the authorization remains Pending for longer than 30 days, you may ask PayPal to void the authorization thus releasing the reserved funds.

[ScaryPantsGuy]

It was immediately showing in the "Completed" list on Paypal. I didn't get to complete the transaction on the website itself, as I don't think that the website was ever intended to sell a single item.

[sharpiemarker · Accepted solution]

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@ScaryPantsGuy wrote:

It was immediately showing in the "Completed" list on Paypal. I didn't get to complete the transaction on the website itself, as I don't think that the website was ever intended to sell a single item.

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Okay, if transaction shows as Completed in PayPal, then try to open an item not received dispute in the Resolution Center as soon as it lets you.

[ScaryPantsGuy]

I actually spoke to someone in customer service, and naturally they were having trouble understanding that the 'seller' doesn't actually exist, and that the transaction to buy the products that I paid for never took place. In addition, they seemed a bit puzzled that the seller's contact information doesn't work, the phone number for the business doesn't work, the address is in a run down neighborhood, etc, etc...

[ScaryPantsGuy]

Awesome. Now the "seller" has popped out out of the woodwork in...Fort Lauderdale, Florida...never mind the supposed "business" is located in Reading, Pennsylvania...and there's even a supposedly real USPS tracking number! Wow! It only took two business days to respond! And on top of that, the "seller" is now telling me to contact him if I have any questions!

Uh, I already tried contacting you via two different bogus email addresses, and a phone number to someone who claims not to know who or what the heck "Satemalls" is...and I received no response until two days later?

Really? And Paypal considers this to be progress in this case? I already ordered another replacement item from an ACTUAL BUSINESS because of Paypal dragging its feet and allowing this scammer to take a month of Sundays to respond, let alone show up with a supposedly real tracking number? The only thing I'm waiting on now is the 'empty box' tracking number scam to follow up this one, so Paypal can take another calendar year or so to actually upgrade this from "dispute".  

Wow. Incompetence much...or deliberate?

[sharpiemarker]

@ScaryPantsGuy 

Perhaps seller is drop shipping from somewhere waiting for their supplier to update shipping info before being confident enough to respond. 🤷

[ScaryPantsGuy]

The parts in questions are actually discontinued and would be in private hands. You don't dropship what are considered to be 'old' parts. In addition, one of the pictures of the parts in question was actually taken on someone's rather-old dining room chair, so if they're having to dropship from someone's dining room...

Strike 2 was the response from the "seller": "HI FRIEND,I HAVE SEND THE ITEM TO YOU,IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS,PLEASE CONTACT ME,THANS"
Hmmm. Let's see, Fort [removed], broken English, a bogus business address (once again, in a broken-down Reading, Pennsylvania neighborhood), two bogus email addresses, he tossed up a token USPS tracking number almost three days ago (which hasn't been dropped off yet), the website I bought it from only popped into existence not even a month ago...even Ebay of all people has better fraud protection than Paypal.

Couple that with the scammer's Paypal link going all the way straight through to "give money to a friend or family member", which is mildly terrifying in that whoever wishes to scam people can skip that far in without any sort of a speedbump in the way, all you have to do is log in to give him money.

Look, I get it, Paypal is a business, and it's a lot more profitable as a business if they can simply frustrate and drive away people who were scammed and want their money back. I couldn't devise a more labyrinthian customer service process to trip you up along the way, even if I had a team of people to help me out.

Just simply tell me that hey, we would rather you simply shut up and go away, we're not going to do anything about online scammers, the scammer who nailed you will still be here long after you're gone because that's our business model...and I'll simply accept that and move on.