Strange Paypal transaction. Unauthorised purchase.

[myocupcakes]

About a month ago somebody used my Paypal account to make an eBay purchase (not my eBay account) for an item in US. Fortunately I caught it straight away and cancelled my credit card, and the payment was reversed a few days later.

I also received via email a UPS tracking number from US. At that stage I did not know what address the item was being sent to. It was a Canon camera valued at $USD1500.

Last week I received a letter from Aus Post that they were holding my item (they had the correct address) because the item was listed as value $USD1350 there were fees of approx $58.00 payable, for customs duty I think.

So now I am wondering exactly what the scam was? Will the package contain rocks? What is the procedure for this, should  I tell Aus Post to send it back? Very curious!

[kylies*swap*cards*]

wow, that is a weird one?  the Aust Post rules for importing are here:

http://www.customs.gov.au/site/importingGoodsByPostFaq.asp

So the fees you are talking about seem to be the same as the Aust Post website.  I would ring PayPal and quote the transaction number that was cancelled and see if they have a legitimate seller (or can you see that transaction still in your PayPal account?).  I think if you can work out who the seller is and maybe contact them as it is likely they are out a big amount if it has already been reversed.  

I don't see what the scam could be though, seems like the seller who posted it was the only one scammed?  Maybe there was some crazy mix up during one of PayPal's many glitchy nights (I had a few payments go awry lately, but not of that amount).  If it is a big seller maybe they haven't even noticed it has been cancelled?

[robinsonmarineparts]

It may not be a scam, it could be someone playing games with you or using you.

It could contain something illegal and there using you to get it into the country. (we won't go into the details)

If you are 100% certain you haven't paid for it don't claim it.

[harley_babes_hoard]

I would ask AP who it is from and perhaps get them to open it. It could be a trial run.

[lyndal1838]

I am pretty sure that the parcel has already been opened before you are asked for customs fees etc.

My worry would be that they know there is something suss about the camera and are waiting to pounce on the person who claims it.

I would gather all the proof that you have of the progress of the transaction from cancelling your credit card to the present notification and ring AP before just blindly accepting it.

[phorum_junkie* · Accepted solution]

If you haven't bought it and you have ended up not paying for it I would not claim it. If you want just contact AP and tell them it is othing to do with you and as far as you are concerned they can return to sender. As long as you have kept a copy of all the correspondence with Paypal disputing the payment that should be enough.

If somebody managrd to make an unauthorised payment from your Paypal account I hope you have run an in depth security check and changed all your passwords to sites that contain any financial information.

[myocupcakes]

Thanks for the input everyone. Just to update, I called Customs and told them what happened, and after noting it they told me to call Auspost and ask them to return to sender. When I called AusPost, they sounded dubious, but I told them I had no intention of picking up the parcel and as far as I am concerned that is the end of it.

As to how they managed to purchase using my Paypal I have no idea. I do know that it was the wee hours of the morning and I had purchased quite a bit of stock, it is possible that I had my Paypal page open at the same time as purchasing something else.Thank goodness I immediately got a confirmation email from Paypal when the purchase went through and called the bank within the hour.

Anyway, I have cancelled my credit card and gone through and changed all my other passwords, run AV and antispyware and anything else I can think of!  So hopefully that will be the end of that 🙂   And my story is on here for the record in case someone has a similar incident.

[modestbods]

Have you spoken to eBay & Paypal about your account being used without your authorization, and what they think has occured, or how it happened?

 Had you at anytime in the past received an email from Paypal asking you to check or confirm something (or whatever) that contained a link for you to log into Paypal through, if so, did you use it?