Someone tried to scam me on Facebook Marketplace.

[JPRWales]

Someone tried to scam me on Facebook Marketplace. Sent funds by PayPal then no further communication. So i asked payPal to stop the payment but they wouldnt, so I spoke to my bank and they immediately cancelled and reversed the transaction. Now my PayPal balance is showing a negative figure so im assuming they sent the person the funds. I'm having throuble contacting PayPal about it so what should I do?

[kernowlass]

@JPRWales 

When you pay a seller its never instant, paypal CREDITS the seller upfront and paypal waits for your funds to transfer from your chosen funding source of a  bank or card.

So if you did a chargeback via your bank or card then Paypal are owed the money as they have already paid the seller upfront.

What you should have done was to open a paypal dispute for non receipt of item as long as you used the goods/services option to pay you should have buyer protection.

[JPRWales]

It was my Bank who made the decision. They identified the transaction as fraudulent, i didn't request and chargeback. While I was speaking to my bank the transaction was not showing on my account, this was 2 days after i sent the funds. So my bank cancelled the direct debit which is how PayPal take the funds from your bank account. I informed PayPal via the dispute resolution but they decided the transaction wasn't fraudulent.

[PayPal_Meghan]

Hello @JPRWales and @kernowlass, 

Thank you both for stopping by and posting in the PayPal Community! 

I understand you had a recent transaction on Facebook where you never received the item, so your bank canceled the transaction after PayPal denied your initial dispute. I'm sorry to hear that's happened. As @kernowlass mentioned, your payment was likely sent as an instant transfer, which means PayPal immediately paid the merchant and then waited for your bank to reimburse the payment. If your bank then stops the payment, either through a chargeback or a stop payment, that will cause your balance to fall negative. 

It sounds to me like you had opened an unauthorized dispute, as those are the ones typically closed as quickly as you mentioned. An unauthorized dispute is only approved in a situation where someone else logged into your account to make the purchase on your behalf. If you had sent the payment as a Goods & Services transaction, please reach out to Customer Support through one of these options to request that the case be changed to an Item Not Received dispute. 

If the only option you saw when opening the case was an unauthorized dispute, then the payment was most likely sent as a Friends & Family payment. This would mean the transaction is not eligible for Buyer Protection through PayPal, and you'd need to seek other options for reimbursement outside of PayPal. 

I hope this information helps and you're able to change your case type to receive a refund! 

- Meghan