Ebay And Paypal
Auction Canceled After $900 Payment Began, Only $175 Recovered

I bid on an eBay auction ($900) and began to pay with PayPal. During the process the seller's phone number and address popped up, and I called the seller to ask some questions, as it was a large sum of money ($900 plus $155 shipping). I talked to a guy named Zander, (407) 430-3600, who I am guessing is in Orlando, Florida.

He answered and we conversed about the item, and I asked for a tracking number whenever he sent it. He said to wait till Monday (this was a Friday). I felt a small tingle of apprehension at that, but I had never had too bad of luck yet doing this - until now.

A few hours later I got an email from eBay saying the auction had been canceled because the seller's ID had been compromised. I immediately phoned PayPal to put a hold on the funds, and the PayPal rep said to put in a "buyer complaint" and this would hold the funds. I then asked if the funds were still there, and the rep said that they should be.

I asked if there was any way to be sure, and he told me that due to seller privacy he could not disclose this. After I argued that this was most probably a fraud case, he gave me the email address of the PayPal security department and told me that they would handle this and would work with the police if need be. He said to write a description and all the numbers and details that I could in the email. I did so and basically got a canned response from the security department 2 days later stating how to issue a buyer complaint. I called back and was told to wait 10 days for the process to work.

After 10 days, PayPal was only able to retrieve $175 of the money. I called saying, "What's this?" They said it was all they could recover. I then requested that the "Buyer Protection Program" be implemented, as PayPal displays this all over the place saying that buyers are protected up to $1000, and the PayPal rep asked if there was a "Shield" on the auction.

I told her I did not know, because I never thought to look for a shield and thought that all buyers had this protection as it is part of their service. She said no, only if there is a shield.

As I could no longer look at the auction since eBay had canceled it, she told me I was out of luck and the case was closed as far as PayPal was concerned.

I contacted my local Sheriff, and he told me that there are so many scams out there now that this goes on all the time. Basically, someone (actually an organized group) from Romania or Russia or some other foreign country will set up a scam using a PayPal account that dumps directly into a foreign account, and then set up an auction and bilk folks out of several hundred dollars or as much as they can. Then when PayPal does its 10 day thing, they are long gone and set up somewhere else doing it to someone else.

I am out $880. I do not know where to turn, and I hope at least for some geniuses out there who can tell me where to turn.

Company: Ebay And Paypal
Country: USA
Phone: 8882211161
Site: paypal.com

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