Facebook, marketplace, scam, gift cards

[bryn02]

Hello, Apologies if this is a long post I recently listed an item on Facebook marketplace. I was approached by a potential buyer and we agreed to use PayPal as the payment option. I sent her a payment request. Then I received an email saying that the payment would be sent when I Provided tracking details. When I provided these I received another email,saying that payment has been approved and I could expect funds to be in my account within 24 hours. When I didn't receive payment within that time, I emailed PayPal and received an email saying that my account was restricted and PayPal were unable to process the transaction. However, the email said that PayPal would upgrade my account if the purchaser agreed to pay an additional £200. This confused me greatly and there was a great deal of back and forth, between myself and the purchaser. However, eventually, it seemed apparent that I had to accept £850 from her, then refund the purchase £200. She, then, told me that I had to provide the refund on the form of a voucher from iTunes. I was very worried by this point but she seemed, relatively, trustworthy. So I attempted to purchase vouchers from the Apple website. However, this was declined. I then, at her suggestion, attempted to buy the vouchers from Amazon. Again this failed, I'm unsure what the reason was. I,then, bought two itunes vouchers from Tesco. I communicated to her that I would provide her with the vouchers if she provided video evidence of receipt of the item I sent her, a bracelet and safety chain. I had check previously with the post office tracker that the items had been signed for so she must have it in her possession. However, she stated that she hadn't picked up the parcel, despite evidence of a picture. She said that she hadn't been to the post office and it was now closed. I said that I was happy to wait until she was able to give me a video Subsequently, she told me that she had asked PayPal to refund the additional £200 that she had attempted to send me. Further, I then, received an email,again saying that payi would report me to "law enforcement" and suspended my bank account. Does this sound dodgy? Does PayPal give the option for refunds to be paid with vouchers? Does PayPal upgrade people's accounts in the manner described?

[kernowlass]

@bryn02 

You have been taken by 2 scams.

1.

SCAM.

They encourage you to accept a direct Paypal payment and may ask you to send the item internationally.
No funds or activity of the transaction shows in your Paypal account and any emails may go into your junk/spam folders.

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.
They will tell you that the payment is released when you provide paypal with a tracking/shipping number......this won't happen.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal do not tell you to send trackable, they advise it for selling protection but it is not compulsory.

2.

SCAM

You never pay any upfront fee as a seller or to receive payments into a Paypal account.

Ignore scammers that send fake Paypal emails telling you that you need to pay an upfront fee to verify/upgrade to a business account/or any other reason to accept a payment.

You would certainly never have to send funds especially via another payment processor/bitcoins/ or tokens/vouchers of any sort.

Any fee is auto deducted by Paypal at the same instant the remainder of the payment is credited to your Paypal account balance.

No funds in your balance = you have not yet been paid, even pending/held payments will still show in your Paypal account activity.

[bryn02]

Thanks for the quick response. I've tried going through the resolution process but it won't accept the transaction id or the accounts name. Would this be because they've deleted or not had an account in the first place.

[kernowlass]

@bryn02 

It was a SCAM, they don't have a paypal account and you were conned by fake paypal emails.

[Ollers]

PayPal is complicit in fraud. I provided proof that I was scammed and they sided with the seller. It’s now clear they do so as they profit from it. I will add…they agreed that the company was Fraudulent and that I had been scammed. I also paid on my credit card as legally they should reverse CC transactions specifically as on a CC you can reverse fraudulent transactions but PayPal won’t…because they profit from it. It’s disgusting.

[bryn02]

In this case I was scammed as the seller not the buyer