Fraud - Paypal

After reading the previous guides that have been added I felt that I had towrite something to warn all the innocent victims of fraud!

My partner was stung for 200 by a fraudster a couple of months back and paypal couldnt give 2 hoots!! We done everything right and there was a buyer protection emblem on the listing so we looked into it and all the information made out that we would be fully protected. The seller had good feedback so we thought we were good to go! How wrong were we!

After several emails back and forth from the seller to my partner the seller made out that he had sent it that day (after withdrawing the cash from paypal!) but we never received it. My partner sent numerous emails to the seller but no response, ebay refused to give the sellers contact details so we couldnt even call him. They were probably fakey and ebay knew that!

We immediately contact paypal and logged a dispute. We provided them with various emails etc and they said they would back to us. They did and we were awared 2.50 as this was all they were able to get back from the fraudsters paypal account. They said that we werent protected at all and the emblem was there to advertise what you could get! They said that we were protected by a best effort protection, doesnt advertise anywhere that there is a 'best effort' (translated 'cant be bothered tough luck!)Which means they will try there best to get your money back but because the fraudsters have registered with dodgy details you've got about as much chance of getting your money back as you have seeing a pig fly!!

Each person I spoke to at paypal was do dis-interested and couldnt wait to get me off the phone quick enough!! I think its just absolutely shocking that in this day and age these people are getting away with it and its the innocent people who end up having to pay. I contacted the police who said yes a crime of fraud has been commited but the process is long and usually it doesnt come to anything. Paypal are very reluctant to get involved with the police or even the banks. As the customer has to provide banking details paypal should be approaching the customers bank for the money and then in turn its up to the bank then to retrieve it either with the police or through a debt collection agency.

As they are the middle man they should be taken some responsibilities to protect the users. After there paypals and ebays recent investigation by Watchdog they have changed the layout of the listing so it NOW clearly states if any protection is available on the listed item!! I refuse and have telling everyone who will listen that it is a thiefs paradise!!!!!!