Anyone with knowledge of eBay/PayPal PLEASE HELP ME!!

[NathanC]

A few days ago I attempted to pay for an eBay transaction via PayPal, which the seller accepts. When the payment seemed to be taking a long time I made some enquiries and lo and behold the address was unregistered. The seller advised me to cancel that payment and pay via his e-mail address. Now that I have cancelled the two unclaimed transactions (I foolishly attempted to pay via the original address again, in case there was only a glitch with the system - this was before I realized that address was unregistered) is there any hope of claiming my funds again so I can pay via the new address? (The credits have been withdrawn from my account.)



Or have I been conned?



I feel like tearing my hair out right now. I've never had any problems with eBay or PayPal before.

[Chevyman]

Have you tried any of the user areas on Fleabay?

Community Overview



It might be best just to read rather than post, as "flaming" seems to be a pastime on there



You might find someone else who had the same problem and they might have posted how they resolved it.



Hope that helps?

[SirOllyBolly]

Rule #1 on eBay - never spend more than you're prepared to lose

[hauntedhelen]

Hi there.



I would contact paypal and explain the situation. I am pretty sure that you are insured with paypal, but there is a time limit on claiming I think it is 45 days but do it asap.



Good luck



hh

[NathanC]

name='hauntedhelen']Hi there.



I would contact paypal and explain the situation. I am pretty sure that you are insured with paypal, but there is a time limit on claiming I think it is 45 days but do it asap.



Good luck



hh

Thanks. Do you know the e-mail address for PayPal?

[MovieLover12]

I think Play.Com are safer as E Bay seems to be a magnet for fraudsters. I think its something to do with the sites loophole on untraceable orders.

[batman]

name='NathanC']Thanks. Do you know the e-mail address for PayPal?

www.paypal.com



There is a link to paypal on your ebay home page. You will need to provide them all the relevant details (order ref etc). In my experience they are usually pretty good in dealing with problems.



You can't really compare ebay and play.com. Play are online retailers and they have access to your details, ebay is an auction site and do not deal with payments at all, they leave that to the buyers, sellers and paypal.

[Gary D.]

I used to bid for videos on ebay and once started to sign up for Pay-Pal. I am sure I never completed the registration, but for quite a while I started getting e-mails, supposedly from Pay-Pal, which scared me. Someone was changing my profile, new names, etc.--all a complete puzzlement. I contacted a friend who does a very good living buying and selling over ebay, and although Jim says he uses Pay-Pal, there is a racket--which he was aware of, and to ignore the 'warnings' from Pay-Pal. Whenever I purchased anything, I told the seller to hold the item until my check cleared and then send it on. I never had any problem with this method until one time I was the successful high bidder (I think a dollar), and the seller probably regretted selling the tape for that little--and claimed she never received my check.



If you do a Google for Pay-Pal, at least when I attempted it, there were page after page of complaints against it--and it's virtually impossible to contact Pay-Pal.

[earlb]

If you receive an email purporting to come from PayPal which may be a scam (they look very realistic) forward it to PayPal at spoof@paypal.com. If it's a scam PayPal will return your query saying it's a scam or otherwise authenticate it. NEVER click on the link within the email.

[David Brent]

name='earlb']If you receive an email purporting to come from PayPal which may be a scam (they look very realistic) forward it to PayPal at spoof@paypal.com. If it's a scam PayPal will return your query saying it's a scam or otherwise authenticate it. NEVER click on the link within the email.

Authentic PayPal emails will always start by mentioning your full name.

Scam emails tend not to do that.



Dave.

[sippog]

name='Gary D.']. . . for quite a while I started getting e-mails, supposedly from Pay-Pal, which scared me. Someone was changing my profile, new names, etc.--all a complete puzzlement.

Phishing, as it's called, is a fact of life. I get them pretending to be everything - including Paypal. They're usually pretty easy to spot; clumsy forgeries, often sent to the wrong e-mail address for the account. If you worried about it, you'd never buy anything on-line - and that would be kind of a shame

[Gazza]

I have a unique mail address for all my online shopping which only a handful of places know. So I if anything comes into my main mail address, I know it's a scam.



It's simple though - no financial house will ever ask you to confirm or change your details by email.

[Steve Crook]

name='sippog']Phishing, as it's called, is a fact of life. I get them pretending to be everything - including Paypal. They're usually pretty easy to spot; clumsy forgeries, often sent to the wrong e-mail address for the account. If you worried about it, you'd never buy anything on-line - and that would be kind of a shame

The nastiest ones that have appeared recently are the ones that say they've charged you for a flight to somewhere-or-other. Then, after they list all the details of the hundreds of dollars they've charged you, they kindly offer a link for you to correct it in case it does happen to be an error.



Of course it's a scam and if you do go to their site you'll be asked for all sorts of personal and financial details - as a security measure.



But they send out a few billion of these things and even if only a handful of people fall for it then they can still clean up



Steve

[batman]

name='Steve Crook']The nastiest ones that have appeared recently are the ones that say they've charged you for a flight to somewhere-or-other. Then, after they list all the details of the hundreds of dollars they've charged you, they kindly offer a link for you to correct it in case it does happen to be an error.



Of course it's a scam and if you do go to their site you'll be asked for all sorts of personal and financial details - as a security measure.



But they send out a few billion of these things and even if only a handful of people fall for it then they can still clean up



Steve

I have had dozens of those recently .... many from different 'companies'. I have also been promised a 'free Caribbean cruise' if I send £69 (for tax) to some other scam merchants.

[CaptainWaggett]

People do fall for these - I had a reader recently who was really going to send off money to some lottery she'd never entered in order to claim the prize until I found her a Guardian article on that very scam. And some phishing looks very convincing - it's best never to click on an email link to a site that's got your credit card details, even if you do trust it. It's usually recommended that you log in each time by actually typing in the address.

[davidb]

name='SirOllyBolly']Rule #1 on eBay - never spend more than you're prepared to lose

top advice ! also have a look at their feedback ,if someones selling something pricey like a tv yet have only sold 10p paperback books in the past ,just to get good feedback .you know its likely a con

[Dame Starry]

I report all my 'phishing'.



See, read and digest and follow the instructions for reporting anything 'phishy': APWG.



The more people who report this, the easier it is to catch the perpetrators.



DS x.

[autolycus]

name='Dame Starry']

The more people who report this, the easier it is to catch the perpetrators.



DS x.

I wish i shared your optimism. I often wonder what happens to the reports i send in - straight into the recycle bin i shouldn't wonder and an auto reply about phishing. You'd have thought a rapid and sustained police response to the problem would have cut it out by now - are they that interested either?



I was very nearly caught by a reply to a "want it now" i had posted.



Because the badly grammatised response was clearly genuinely from ebay, i clicked on the link and it sent me to a perfect clone of the ebay sign-in page.



I was about to send my sign-in details to god knows where when i was suddenly alerted by the fact that there had been no drop-down options as i had entered my user name. Then i saw the address bar was slightly odd even tho it contained the word ebay, and i realised what was happening.



It seemed to me a very cunning trap for even wary internet users so i emailed ebay and told them what had happened, but i doubt very much that they've done anything about it.

[Dame Starry]

name='autolycus']I wish i shared your optimism. I often wonder what happens to the reports i send in - straight into the recycle bin i shouldn't wonder and an auto reply about phishing. You'd have thought a rapid and sustained police response to the problem would have cut it out by now - are they that interested either?

.....and, sadly, that is the attitude that will ensure it doesn't get any better; these people can only help if the public are willing to report every bit of phishing they receive - it only takes a couple of seconds.



For personal/health reasons, I have been buying on-line for over 8 years. There are companies who have been holding all of my personal details in secure areas for all of that time (and some for longer); so far, I have never had a problem (fingers crossed).

I mainly deal with reputable, well-known companies and I don't give them any more information than I have to. Other than that, I deal with small companies who are grateful for regular business or ones that have been personally recommended.

I wouldn't place a 'want it now' ad on the internet - that's exposing your personal details and asking for trouble, surely?



I still urge people to report phishing - I always do and I don't receive anywhere near the amount that I used to. My internet security package is pretty good too.



The APWG site is certainly worth a look.



DS x.

[NathanC]

Just tought I should let you guys know that the matter has now been happily resolved. The item has been paid for successfully, it's now in my possession and my lost money has been returned to my account.



I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to you all for your kind words and advice.