I am confused as to where the confusion is for eBay/Paypal in this case.  Don't they have your messages on file?  Isn't the story clear enough from that interaction?  I don't understand.  I think your gut instincts were right about this seller all along and buy appearing helpful in the beginning he was trying to distract an investigation from his plan.  But clearly, if you take the messages and the seller's intention at face value, it's clear the transaction was not wanted by either party.  Clase closed, no?  How do the rules interfere with this obvious fact?

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@cdbnt wrote:

I am confused as to where the confusion is for eBay/Paypal in this case.  Don't they have your messages on file? 

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If the dispute is raised with Paypal they are reluctant/unable to access eBay emails, the only way past that is to do a screen-shot of the emails and forward them to paypal.

That's why the seller guided me to open a dispute on PayPal in the first place.

I should have waited and open a dispute on eBay.

I called eBay and PayPal before I opened the dispute. They all suggested me to open a dispute on PayPal, I guess that's their standard procedure.

Here is the email from paypal:

Dear Bob,

We have concluded our investigation into your case and have decided in your
favor.

We were able to recover $xxx,xxx.xx AUD and this amount has been credited to
you.  Please allow five business days for this adjustment to be posted.

If you are due any additional funds, we will make our best effort to
recover the balance from the seller.


If the seller's account has insufficient funds to complete the refund owed
to you, please be assured that we will take appropriate action against the
seller's account, which may include limitation of the seller's account
privileges.

Thank you guys for the informative advice and kind help.

I'm still trying to put the pieces together and figure out what's the play here.

I'll let you know when/if I get the money back.  

That is not a current ebay protection policy.   The refund amount does not rely on how much they can recover from the seller.   You are guaranteed to receive the full amount of the purchase price plus postage.

I have not seen that old policy quoted for many years.....it looks like paypal is digging back into the archives.

Great result. 

Thanks for coming back to let us know. 

Thats exatly what they do & most of the scammers have inside info so are most likely ebay employees or friends of paypal employees...

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@michaelg38173 wrote:

Thats exatly what they do & most of the scammers have inside info so are most likely ebay employees or friends of paypal employees...

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I don't know that that is necessarily true.

You're right that there are a lot of scammers out there but probably there are as many scam buyers as there are sellers.

You don't have to be an ebay employee to read up on the terms & conditions & try to find dodgy ways around things.

Wherever there is money to be made or things to potentially steal, there you will find scammers.

I think ebay has tried to make it a safer selling place but I'd still avoid it for some items such as phones, IT products.