Hi all, I sold an Atari 1040ST for $188 in May to a buyer in VIC (a typical ebayer with good feedback) paid by paypal all smooth as usual and good feedback were exchanged on June 1, 2012.
On 25 Oct I received an email in early morning from the buyer emailed me asking what that paypal payment was for, and 10 min later he raised a paypal dispute & put my money on hold and this is FIVE months after transaction was completed (yes 5, not a typo).
How did he do that? apparently he can claim an Unauthorised Transaction through paypal as far as 5 months down the track.
Ok I thought it was only from a confused ebayer who forgot what he paid on his paypal statement (he didn't use the ebay checkout he seems to pay direct to my email address) so I emailed him and explain what he purchased. He replied ok and said he will tell paypal about this. I also found his number on the consignment record and called him and he said he didn't raise the dispute and said he was contacted by paypal initially, and he had no problem with the purchased product and happy to close the case.
I asked him to close the dispute. He said he would, days later nothing happened so I asked again and he said he closed it already and surely the case is still opened when I see it from my paypal account.
Something is surely wrong there. I began to doubt his intention, I emailed him again asking to close the dispute and he replied with nonsense like "....I closed it, but you emailed paypal and they reopened the case again..." Then I am more certain he is trying to scam me and let the dispute process run its course as he had a chance of winning the dispute as he has nothing to lose.
I was very angry because he seems to have planned everything since the day he paid for the item, he must have known how long he has to make a claim and what type of claim he can make, and he know many sellers would have difficulty to prove they have sold or sent something to a buyer 5 months ago.
Luckily I was able to find the original consignment note and uploaded to paypal for investigation, but for other who didn't have tracking or proof of shipping they may be in big trouble esp for high value items.
I was very slow in realizing the whole thing is a scam from a perfectly normal buyer who called himself Doctor and has an address in a Medical Center, I just don't know how he can sleep well at night when he picked and scammed others.
If you want to know who the buyer is there is enough clue on the first paragraph for you to find out.
I have seen ordinary paypal dispute scenarios but this one is very new to me - I never know a claim can be made 5 months after payment was made.
Just wish to warn others to keep their shipping records - you never know who he will pick on next.
