Fraud

[jujmc.us.29jzih]

My name is Julie. I've been having trouble finding a place to email this.  My daughter's husband was listing an item for a seller thinking that he could make some additional income.  He listed a watch and did receive a payment so he thought this was legitimate.  The person asked him to use friends and family for payment.  My daughter and her husband found out that this person didn't send the watch and they were turned over to collections for $8600.  My daughter is 22 and needless to say does not have money.  Her husband was mortified that he fell for this and wouldn't let her tell anyone so this has just sat in collections since it happened.  I don't know what to do or if there is anything we can do.  If there is someone that we can contact for help on this please let me know.  This is just going to continue to ruin their credit and we certainly don't have the money to pay it.  I understand this is certainly a horrible lesson but this is so wrong.  If anyone knows who I should contact at Ebay, please let me know.

Thanks

[turquoisetulips]

I didn't even know you could send that amount of money over Paypal.  My husband made a huge purchase on ebay once (for tools... far over $8600)... we had to do a wire transfer.  Although I suppose you're taking a risk that way too.  I guess my hubby trusted the guy   Good thing it worked out. dairywife - unquote ------------------------------

I sold a 2008  Nissan Versa  on  E bay a few years ago for 3, 900 . The buyer sent the money by way of Pay Pal  instantly and he  picked up the car within a a few days . No problems . Perhaps there's a cut off  price before a wire transfer is required ? Tulips 

[emerald40]

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@turquoisetulipswrote:

As far ad Mother Teresa, never heard of what you said about her.  In fact it is very contrary to what I always thought.  Will have to do some research on her to respond further. emerald to city - unquote ---------------

I've never heard of those charges either and I consider myself a pretty avid reader . I'm not catholic but I do have a deep respect for someone who gave her whole  life  to serve the sick and the needy . Tulips 

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I am Jewish but my husband is Catholic and he never heard of anything negative about her either.

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[dairywyfe]

I don't even know. But, does Paypal take a cut of what you send?! I know it's ridiculous that I'm even asking that question!!! =0 😉

Okay, wait, it's... There's no fee to use PayPal to purchase goods or services. However, if you receive money for goods or services, the fee for each transaction is 2.9% plus $0.30 USD of the amount you receive.

That's why we wired it I'm sure.   The seller would have had to give a pretty large chunk of $ to Paypal.

Anyway... so off topic   😉

[sam9876]

PayPal "friends and family" payments are free.

[dairywyfe]

But we shouldn't do those for large purchases (or any, really), right? Unless we know the person well? Because the funds are not recoverable?

[turquoisetulips]

Embarrased to say my son did it whil living in college.    Racked up a bunch of parking tickets and did not have money to pay for it.  So they multiplied.  Got really out of hand.  Finally had to admit it.  We had to set him straight.  Helped him pay them off so they would not continue to multiply.  Then had him get a job to slowly pay us back.

Our children were taught to take resposibility, but even then they can sometimes not handle things correctly. emerald - unquote -----------

Nothing to be embarrased about . You and your husband sound like good parents  who handled the situation  just fine . Tulips 

[sam9876]

"Friends and family" payments should only be used to send money to friends and family that you trust not to screw you.

[dairywyfe]

Agreed! My kids aren't quite in college/that age yet. But I know how I could be when I was young... ack... not horrible, but SO not "mature" =0

[turquoisetulips]

 The seller would have had to give a pretty large chunk of $ to Paypal. dairywyfe - unquote ----------

Yep 😞     but they can't hurt me any more ,, I'm numb  .:)  Tulips 

[emerald40]

The story does not make sense. Yes, there are some naive/gullible/stupid people that fall for scams. But, if you are a victim of a crime, you file a police report. If you are a participant in a crime, you don't.

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I disagree with that. I have read about it and heard it on the news, especially with the elderly. But it can apply to every age. Some are so embarrassed that they fell for such a scam, they do not report it. And those are the types of people these scammers target - the elderly and the gullible and the desperate who do not have the ability to fight back.

[emerald40]

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@dairywyfewrote:

I didn't even know you could send that amount of money over Paypal.  My husband made a huge purchase on ebay once (for tools... far over $8600)... we had to do a wire transfer.  Although I suppose you're taking a risk that way too.  I guess my hubby trusted the guy 😉  Good thing it worked out.

In OPs case (SIL), I would definitely contact an attorney.

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Contacting an attorney, and I suggested it as well, is easier said than done.

You have to have the money to do it, which these young kids do not.

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[dairywyfe]

What else can they do? Maybe ebay would negotiate a settlement for them?!

[goodluckselling]

What does not make a lot of sense is that your SIL and daughter must be experienced sellers based on being able to list an item of that value because eBay generally has tighter selling limits than this amount for new or non active sellers.

Because of there knowledge about selling on eBay they should know about updating the listing with tracking number and about the possible issues that might come up after the delivery (SNAD, returns, refunds, INR).

You mentioned your daughter and SIL got turned over for collections, which sounds like this has been going on for some time and probably has been given a lot of communications from both paypal and eBay.  Since eBay is the one trying to recover the funds through collections.  Did they get restricted or suspended from selling on eBay after this event played out?

The money transfer has connections (email address) to the watch owner who got the friends and family transfer, so there is some info the daughter and SIL can use to find the watch owner.

It sounds like the two of them will have to  make the payment arrangements and learn from this and move forward.

Good Luck Selling!

[a_c_green]

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@goodluckselling wrote: 

The money transfer has connections (email address) to the watch owner who got the friends and family transfer, so there is some info the daughter and SIL can use to find the watch owner.

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It seems like PayPal had control of both ends of this transaction: the incoming payment from the buyer (real or fake), and the outgoing payment to the fake seller. I'm finding it a little difficult to believe that they can't contribute at least some information to law enforcement about what happened here.

I said "real or fake" buyer above because if the buyer was as fake as the seller, then this is just one big money-landering scheme, with the original source being a hacked PayPal account, stolen credit card or similar. PayPal may be the best source of knowledge on what happened in this case.

[sandmansales]

So your SIL listed an item he did not have in his possession. Then sold said item and turned around and gave a perfect stranger almost 9 grand?

I'm not seeing the scam. What am I missing.