A buyer wanted to buy a dresser from me on Craigslist for $200. He paid through PayPal since he was out of state. He told me the trucking charges to pick up the dresser were $100, so he put $350 in my PayPal account. I got a notice from PayPal stating this and saying they needed confirmation that I Western Unioned the $100 to the trucking company in New Jersey, and then they would release the money for me to have. I did, even though I could not touch the money in my PayPal account until they got this confirmation. As soon as I did that, the $350 disappeared from my PayPal account.
Then I got a notice today from a "[email protected]" stating that they verified my transaction okay, but there was an error and I was required to send an additional $130 to cover it, and that the buyer "Steve Jones" had now added $500 to my PayPal account to cover it. I am not that stupid. The $500 has never been in my account.
I have sent several requests to PayPal asking for advice on handling this transaction and have never heard one word back from them. I believe, with the emails that I have been receiving, that they are allowing this kind of scam to happen. I did not even know a person could "pull" a payment back out of PayPal once it has been given to someone. This is dangerous and exposes honest people to easy scams.
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