buyer seemed legit (of course, right?): messaged me on eBay and followed up with a text asking when we could talk on the phone. he had a Brooklyn phone number but was in Vegas, and a Google search of the number seemed to support that. we spoke several times, did a FaceTime "test drive" and exchanged dozens of texts. he paid the $1000 deposit on my eBay listing, for which I was charged the 2.9% PayPal fee, then he "friends and family" PayPal'ed me the balance. a friend who sells cars for a living advised me to move the money out of the PayPal account and into my bank as soon as possible, which I did. delivery took a week or so to coordinate, as he sent me transport company info and it took a while to coordinate, and he called me excitedly when the car arrived, thanking me and saying it was nicer than he'd hoped. the next day I got two emails from PayPal "We're reviewing a payment reversal..." for each of the payments, allowing me to enter the scantest details at Resolution Center. Oddly, the "We're reviewing a payment reversal..." emails began "We recently notified you that a payment you received was made without the account holder's permission, or was the result of a transaction error" but they were my first notification. Within hours of me entering the sale and delivery info I got more emails from PayPal, "We've completed our review....We’ve confirmed the transaction was unauthorized and have refunded $8,750.00...." My PayPal balance is now a negative $9700 or so, as the $1000 deposit is also "on hold". I called PayPal and pleaded my case and they said they'd review the sale, and that it would take 11 days (??!). Around this time I got a voicemail from the buyer (from a different phone number, only seven digits of which show up) stating that his ex-wife has hacked into his accounts. By then the title I had signed over to him had arrived by Priority Mail. I exported about 12 pages of text messages between the buyer and me and uploaded them to the PayPal Resolution Center. I tried to unlink my bank account info but was not allowed, but my bank assures me that PayPal cannot claw back the funds. Oddly enough, a good 36 hours after the "case closed" emails I received a "Case Opened" email from PayPal, this time for the amount $9,004.05, which is what the $8750 would have cost him had he not sent it friends and family.
The Brooklyn phone number is now out of service, of course. Should I be dealing with law enforcement and/or consumer protection agency?
