Scammer uses UpWork and PayPal. How to report?

[darynbek]

Hello, I'm a freelancer on UpWork.

On the 17th of August, I got an job invitation from Fedor [removed] through Upwork portal. He said he has some reference and he can share it through Slack. He asked for my email, then I joined his Slack team [removed]. He sent the reference and said, that his actual budget is $30, while the job offer was for $365. 
When I asked about the difference, he explained that he has a client who will give him $365 and he needs to prove the cost of my work through the UpWork contract. Also, he wanted to build trust in his profile showing bigger amounts spent. So in fact he was willing to resell my service. 

He was going to send the payment through Upwork and asked if I could send the difference through PayPal after deducting all the UpWork fees and payment for my work which was $30.

I said it is possible if he will verify his payment method and he will offer a contract on UpWork.
I received the offer later and accepted.

I did the job in a timely manner and sent the result through UpWork messages center. Then he reviewed the final result and approved milestone. He gave me 5-star rating and wrote the following feedback: "He created the tricky glow effect perfectly. I can ensure that he is an expert in Photoshop editing and designing. Highly recommend him".

When I got paid on 24th of August he contacted me through Slack and asked to proceed for the money transfer. He wrote: " The amount is 365 - 73(20% fee) - 2(withdrawal fee) - 30(your money) = 260." Then he wrote the paypal email: [removed]  (I have screenshot of this part of conversation)

I sent $260 to this paypal account, he closed the contract, I gave him 5 star rating and feedback.

I thought that our cooperation was finished. But on the 27th of August I received a message in UpWork that he is requesting a full refund. I realized that he is a scammer and started to google his email. And found that he tried to scam someone through the same PayPal account but in a bit different way. Here is the link to the story of another freelancer: [removed]

Also, I see that he kicked me out of Slack team so I don't have an access to our chat history. Fortunately, I have 3 screenshots that I made. (I will attach it)

I searched for information about this type of scam and some sources say that scammer possibly used stolen card and one day all the payments in UpWork could be reversed. 

I'm not sure if is it possible to cancel payment on PayPal, I sent the payment for a goods because another option is unavailable in my country, also I didn't confirmed receiving goods yet. 

Can someone give an advice what shall I do? 

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[PayPal_Bindu]

Hello @darynbek,

Welcome to our community forum and thank you for your post!

I completely understand your concern about your funds. You can usually cancel a payment that is in a pending status and has a "Cancel" link next to it. If the payment is Completed this means the money has already reached the other party, so it can't be cancelled. 

To get your money back, you'll need to contact the recipient and request a refund. If there's any issue with the transaction, you can report it in the resolution center of your PayPal account. You can check the details on how to report a transaction here.

You can resolve most disputes by communicating with the buyer in the resolution center. If you and your buyer aren’t able to resolve a dispute, you can escalate the dispute to a PayPal claim, PayPal will investigate the claim and decide the outcome. You can provide any additional information which supports your case through the resolution center.

I hope this information helps, have a great day!

Bindu