Lets Play A Game- Am I Being Scammed?!

lissandra

sr. member

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Merit: 250

Quote from: Yoga4 on August 24, 2015, 09:21:09 PM

UPDATE:

The ebay account was reported as compromised from a third party. My bank however initiated the chargeback process because of a fraudulent user attempting to steal money. Paypal has also been notified by both myself and my bank, and within 10 days I will have my money back. My bank also shut down my debit card to issue out a new one. They said in the case of a fraudulent user whether its eBay or anywhere else they will automatically shut down the account. My word of advive to anyone is when you are using Paypal, always link your bank and have the money come out of your bank. You will want to do this because if Paypal does not side with you in a dispute, your bank will charge it for you.

What I Learned:

Do not buy Bitcoin below exchange rate on ebay. Will you be covered? Yes. But will you actually receive the Bitcoin? No you will not. I took a chance because I knew I couldn't lose in the long run. However it was not worth the time! I had to get a new debit card, and wait 10 days for a refund. Just a huge waste of my time.

Oh so pretty much your experience was a horrible one, but youre good now after 10 days.

So Imma assume that you`ll consider this as a lesson.

lissandra

sr. member

Activity: 434

Merit: 250

Quote from: Yoga4 on August 21, 2015, 06:35:55 AM

Recently I purchased 1 Bitcoin through ebay for $215 which is below the going exchange rate right now. Considering its through Paypal, I figured that I would be protected if it ended badly. Anyways, the user has 101 feedbacks and its all good things. I then noticed they have NO completed sales, and that they sold 6 bitcoins that day for the same price. They haven't responded yet although its still within 24 hours. Is this just a scam attempt? If so, how long should I wait before disputing the transaction?

I think you pretty much got screwed since it is a digital goods listing..

And paypal usually respond horribly to these things similar to gift cards as well. Theres not much they can do, besides you pointing out that you were promised in some levels of transparency with this transaction.

You need to speak to a higher manager level with paypal to consider the reversal, or youre credit card with this issue of a charge back.

Yoga4

full member

Activity: 130

Merit: 100

UPDATE:

The ebay account was reported as compromised from a third party. My bank however initiated the chargeback process because of a fraudulent user attempting to steal money. Paypal has also been notified by both myself and my bank, and within 10 days I will have my money back. My bank also shut down my debit card to issue out a new one. They said in the case of a fraudulent user whether its eBay or anywhere else they will automatically shut down the account. My word of advive to anyone is when you are using Paypal, always link your bank and have the money come out of your bank. You will want to do this because if Paypal does not side with you in a dispute, your bank will charge it for you.

What I Learned:

Do not buy Bitcoin below exchange rate on ebay. Will you be covered? Yes. But will you actually receive the Bitcoin? No you will not. I took a chance because I knew I couldn't lose in the long run. However it was not worth the time! I had to get a new debit card, and wait 10 days for a refund. Just a huge waste of my time.

allyouracid

legendary

Activity: 2320

Merit: 1292

Encrypted Money, Baby!

I just read in another thread that chargebacks only work if the money wasn't transferred as a gift. In this case, no dispute can be opened on PayPal.

I don't know, but if it's a scam, I bet it was sent as a gift, probably also with the excuse to avoid fees.

GannickusX

hero member

Activity: 490

Merit: 500

There was a post around here showing how easily you could give yourself good ratings on ebay, like you dont even need to buy them you can just give ratings to yourself and if the buyer is not careful enough and read through all the ratings he could end up getting scammed, easily. If you used paypal you can definitely charge it back with a few different methods, if you were scammed.

allyouracid

legendary

Activity: 2320

Merit: 1292

Encrypted Money, Baby!

Quote from: ?? on ??

Quote from: markj113 on August 21, 2015, 06:41:58 AM

digitial goods are not covered by paypal protection i believe

Easy enough to chargeback as unauthorized though.

That's exactly what I thought.
Isn't that the main problem for honest Bitcoin sellers on eBay? That they sell and send the coins and the buyer reverses the PayPal transaction? If I were you, I'd wait a day or two and reverse the transaction using the button for that purpose.

Though I have no idea about the details of that procedure, because I never got into that situation.

Best of luck.

subSTRATA

legendary

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:^)

Quote from: ?? on ??

Quote from: mudiko on August 21, 2015, 11:16:00 AM

that guy will earn from who doesnt act against something. I think he should get banned or ebay before he scams more

FYI ebay funds cant be withdrawn for 3 weeks, so this scammer earned nothing, just a possible criminal investigation.

it might be possible that if the account was bought with feedback as a seller, the account might be able to withdraw funds immediately as a trusted seller.

mudiko

sr. member

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that guy will earn from who doesnt act against something. I think he should get banned or ebay before he scams more

Yoga4

full member

Activity: 130

Merit: 100

Interesting! Thanks guys. I called my bank and they said if the item does not get received they can certainly reverse the transaction for me. In a perfect world I would receive the bitcoin but thats probably not happening.

subSTRATA

legendary

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:^)

Quote from: minifrij on August 21, 2015, 08:12:02 AM

All that is needed for a Paypal account is a valid email and fake address. Once you have these two you can send and recieve ~$2800 from your account a year (Source: My Paypal account is not verified, the spending limit is listed as ~£1,780, worth ~$2800 at current exchange rates). However, Paypal would likely reverse all transactions with that money included and then suspend your account.

actually ive heard differently on the matter; paypal reversing those transactions could potentially cause all sorts of problems for potential merchants that had that money sent to. I believe the account balance for that account just goes into the negative save for special cases.

minifrij

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In Memory of Zepher

Quote from: Yoga4 on August 21, 2015, 07:27:30 AM

I do have ONE more question though. If people are buying ebay accounts and paypal accounts, can they actually get away with just doing a cash dump? For example, could this user actually fake sell $1,000 worth of bitcoin with no intention of sending it, and then just spend the Paypal money or send it off to another location? I know that the Paypal account will go negative, but I am guessing the account is not even linked to their name? Idk it just seems crazy. Are scammers that good these days.

Most likely.
All that is needed for a Paypal account is a valid email and fake address. Once you have these two you can send and recieve ~$2800 from your account a year (Source: My Paypal account is not verified, the spending limit is listed as ~£1,780, worth ~$2800 at current exchange rates). However, Paypal would likely reverse all transactions with that money included and then suspend your account.

Don't buy Digital currency from Ebay, there is very little buyer protection for Digital currencies such as Bitcoin or Litecoin. Even if they are allowed to be sold, there is very little Ebay or Paypal can do to stop counterfeit sales (E.g user buys digital currency, Paypal money is sent for said currency, Paypal money is then reversed and the seller is left with nothing), therefore they do not offer protection.

Yoga4

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Merit: 100

Thanks for the advice guys I do appreciate it! I looked into the policies for ebay in regards to Digital Currency, and it appears the seller on ebay didn't really go through the process of ensuring that his ad was legit under their terms and conditions. On top of that, the description of the trade is rather vague as well. I am confident that whether its a Paypal Dispute or a bank dispute that I can retrieve my funds. It is dissapointing because obviously if someone could get their hands on coin under the exchange rathe thats unreal.

I do have ONE more question though. If people are buying ebay accounts and paypal accounts, can they actually get away with just doing a cash dump? For example, could this user actually fake sell $1,000 worth of bitcoin with no intention of sending it, and then just spend the Paypal money or send it off to another location? I know that the Paypal account will go negative, but I am guessing the account is not even linked to their name? Idk it just seems crazy. Are scammers that good these days.

subSTRATA

legendary

Activity: 1288

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:^)

Quote from: markj113 on August 21, 2015, 06:41:58 AM

digitial goods are not covered by paypal protection i believe

youre right on that.

op if you can, post logs/screenshots of communication between you and the seller. on a related, note, i have spoken with both paypal and ebay customer support extensively in the past, and while paypal's policies will not protect you, ebay's do to an extent. if you can prove to ebay that you have not received the bitcoin and if the item was listed in the correct subcategory, it may be possible that ebay can help you with the issue. however, I do not have any personal experiences regarding that last part pertaining to ebay actually helping you out.

on a slightly related note, ebay accounts and paypal accounts are traded on this forum, its quite possible that the account you purchased the coin from was a sold ebay account used solely for scamming.
i dont want to promote this kind of act, but if you want the sure method, just tell paypal your account was hacked, 99.9999% of the time they will give the dispute to you.

Yoga4

full member

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Merit: 100

The only reason I was reluctant to open up a dispute right now is because its still within 48 hours. Paypal/eBay could very well tell me that you did not give the seller enough time to ship out the goods. I'll give ebay a call just to see on what time frame I am looking at. I guess at the end of the day if I'm never sent the bitcoin at all, I could call my bank since it was linked to my debit card. I only bought the Bitcoin for the sole fact I could sell it even on Coinbase instantly for a profit lol. Seemed too good to be true but I do know that when it comes to Paypal, the buyer is generally always more protected than the seller.

OmegaStarScream

staff

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I'am not familiar with eBay or how it works and I will speak about my self here , if I were you I would just open a dispute right now because he could transfer the money to another account and he will just have a negative blanace on his PayPal after that in case you win the dispute and you won't get your money back .
It's illogic to sell with that price since he could sell it for more . even current price + 10%

markj113

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digitial goods are not covered by paypal protection i believe

Yoga4

full member

Activity: 130

Merit: 100

Recently I purchased 1 Bitcoin through ebay for $215 which is below the going exchange rate right now. Considering its through Paypal, I figured that I would be protected if it ended badly. Anyways, the user has 101 feedbacks and its all good things. I then noticed they have NO completed sales, and that they sold 6 bitcoins that day for the same price. They haven't responded yet although its still within 24 hours. Is this just a scam attempt? If so, how long should I wait before disputing the transaction?

Topic: Lets Play A Game- Am I Being Scammed?! (Read 1337 times)