Hey everyone,

here is a summary of basically what is going on right now...

I was the middleman for some transactions on paypal involving some clothes. Basically a guy I know in Slovakia bought some clothes off ebay/etc and had them shipped to my house in the U.S. since the sellers only wanted to send the clothes to a U.S. address. Then I had the clothes at my house, and the people that wanted to buy them off of my friend in Slovakia lived in the Philippines. They tried to send the money to the guy in Slovakia but it didn't work for some reason, so they sent me the money through paypal. Once I received the money, I kept some of it for shipping fees, then sent the rest to the guy who originally purchased the clothes in Slovakia. After that, I went to the post office and sent all the clothes to the people in the Philippines via Fedex with tracking. After a week or so, they received the items. They emailed the guy in slovakia saying that they received the stuff and were satisfied, etc. So everything was good. Then after a couple more weeks, they all of a sudden file unauthorized chargebacks on all the payments they sent to me, making my paypal balance go negative $11,500. I had my friend in slovakia try to email them and call them but no one ever responded. After that, he sent me all the emails as proof that we didn't scam so I could send the info. to paypal to fight the dispute. Paypal said it would take 80 days until the buyer's credit card company comes up with a decision... So a couple weeks ago (80 days later), I got the emails from paypal saying that the credit card company has decided in the buyer's favor and I now need to send $11.5k to paypal to get my balance to $0. The guy in slovakia doesn't know what to do, he was trying to find me some money to help, but can't seem to get any. It really should be his debt, but it ended up my problem. All I did was send the items to the people in the Philippines.
Now paypal sends me emails and calls me saying I need to pay off the debt, but I don't have that kind of money.
Does anyone have any advice as what I can do to fix this? Is there any way I can possibly get my money back or anything?? Or how to deal with paypal?

Any help is appreciated,

Thanks

In theory if the items were sent by a trackable method and signed for and the buyer does an unauthorised or item not received chargeback you "should" be covered by "seller protection". Sellers can scam buyers too though, I bought some clothing items off ebay and the seller delayed shipment until I put in an item not received claim then they sent me a parcel full of wrapping paper instead of what I bought. Paypal denied the SNAD claim and limited my account....go figure! Depending on what country you are in you could possibly make a complaint to your equivalent of a banking ombudsman as Paypal still need a licence to be able to transfer funds.

You've been screwed by the pooch here and here's why: 'PayPal Seller Protection' only works if the items are paid for by the buyer and shipped to the buyers verified PayPal address on record.

The wisest thing you can do now is report any Credit or Debit Card you ever gave PayPal as LOST. Close any Checking Account you ever gave PayPal immediately. Prevent PayPal from recovering money from you. Resign yourself that you will never again use PayPal. Tell any Collection Agency that you have never owed this money and that if they continue to attempt to collect a debt you are not liable for, you will sue them (this action makes them stop as they must prove you owe, which they can't do as they bought the debt for pennies on the dollar). Google Checkout is a good alternative. Opening a Merchant Account is another.

Is there any way I can sue PayPal or something if they take the money out of my bank account or send debt collectors to my house? Or would my best move be to do what you said and threaten to sue the debt collectors and delete/report lost my card/account.

Hiya, I understand what your going through , im going through a simliar thing now, (Ignorant Paypal, Chargeback dispute.) , and i had debt collectors ring me today to talk to my account , at the itme i told them to ring later because I was busy at the time, but i googled the companys name and a thread appeared (iqor recovery- idiots) , wwhich lead me to (Creditors and DCAs - Letter Templates & Budget Planner) , if debt collectors contact you tell them that you have never owed the debt and that they must prove you own the debt, also maby it would be best to send them a letter, ( use Letter N from the link i just gave ) use that as a template and use one thats relevant to your country etc and see what they'll say.

If paypal take money out of your bank what I would do is make sure you have overdraft protection on your bank, and also check yoru bank every now and then and if paypal take money out is ring up your bank and say that this transaction has not been authorised by you and must be fraudulant transaction and you'd like to file a chargeback on it.

I don't think suing PayPal will get you anywhere as somewhere buried deep in the TOS Agreement they'll have an out. When you/we signed up for PayPal, we all agreed in no uncertain terms to take it up the ass at any time they see fit.

My original advice is your best choice and don't delay one moment. The longer you wait to close accounts and report cards lost, the more time and opportunity you are giving PayPal to take your money.

Their precious terms of service that they always spout says that it is at their "discretion" whether to honour buyer of seller protection. So if a buyer files a chargeback for say an unauthorised charge and even if so called seller protection applies, if the buyer really pushes their credit card company they can take it to arbitration by Visa or Mastercard. The card association usually rules in favour of the card holder and so the losing party is assessed $500 in fees along with the transaction amount. Paypal aren't going to eat a $500 loss on top of the transaction amount so see how good their seller protection is if it gets to the arbitration stage! It's deceptive how Paypal advertise so called buyer and seller protection then hide behind the "terms of service" which you "agreed" to upon sign up.

Ive closed my bank account/ reported my credit card as lost. Paypal continues to call me telling me to send a deposit for the negative 11.5k balance. Does anyone have any advice as what I can say to paypal when they call me next time. There's no way I'm going to pay $11.5k to paypal after being scammed. The guy on the phone told me that since its a big amount of money, if i don't pay soon they will take it to their attorney or something like that.

To make a debt collector go away: Inform them that you do not now or have never owed the debt and that if they continue to attempt to collect a debt you are not responsible for, you will consider it harassment and you will sue THEM. They'll sell your debt to the next dumbass agency. Lather, rinse, repeat. Eventually your debt becomes unsellable.

And as far as I know, none of the big credit reporting agencies will recognize a PayPal debt as being real or genuine.