Every day, people get scammed in new, different ways. You might think you’ve successfully limited your chances of being scammed, only to find out that you are exposed to other schemes. And if you are ever in that situation, you will hardly get the chance of a refund. However, you may be lucky when it comes to PayPal. If for anything, a PayPal scam refund is sure only if you do it the right way.
PayPal is an authorized online payment method commonly used by freelancers, online retailers, and every other person that does business online. This payment pathway is designed to make any transaction easier and better for buyers and sellers. Indeed, it is safe and currently has over two million users worldwide.
Generally, scams are common with online services – for instance, PayPal scams come in different ways – it could be from the transaction or the product or service rendered. In that case, a refund is always the best way out of it.
This article will provide you with the various methods of getting a fraud PayPal refund, discuss the different scam types, and the effective ways to protect yourself in the future.
Steps on How to Get Money Back from PayPal if Scammed
Does paypal refund money if scammed? The answer is Yes. The platform has a chargeback policy that ensures money is paid back for purchased items.
In essence, if you request a scam PayPal refund using the chargeback policy, it can be done, but you’d have to inform your credit card company. Your credit card issuer has to dispute the payment and make sure the money gets back into your account using the various means necessary.
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to get a refund on PayPal if scammed.
Step 1: Ask for a chargeback of a transaction made from your credit card from the card issuer either by email or phone call. During the process, you’d be asked to proof of the transaction – you should have the soft or hard copy ready.
Step 2: After verifying the transaction with your PayPal account, your card issuer contacts PayPal support or merchant bank to dispute a transaction and return money to your account.
Step 3: Once PayPal gets a hold of this information, they lock the chargeback funds until they confirm with a buyer and a seller.
Step 4: PayPal contacts both parties via email, and after necessary verifications have taken place, they release the chargeback funds back to the buyer.
PayPal refund or chargeback policy, however, has some important clauses in the buyer protection terms and conditions:
- First, you can only open a dispute channel and request chargebacks within 120 days of making the transaction
- Secondly, sellers are mandated to respond to the chargeback request within 10 to 20 days
- Lastly, refunds can take up to 180 days if the case is serious
If the chargeback method doesn’t work, you can use an alternative dispute resolution service like the Financial Ombudsman Service. This independent entity allows you to file a complaint about the situation, and then it looks into it and makes sure you get the closure you need.
Types of PayPal Scams
If you get scammed on paypal, how to get money back may be tedious or straightforward. However, sellers are the ones at a disadvantage because they risk falling for different PayPal scams.
Check out the following types of PayPal scams and see how to avoid them.
Shipping Scam
One of the commonest scams on PayPal is that with shipping. If you are not careful, you will become a victim without realizing it.
First, the scammer purchases an item and then inputs a wrong shipping address. Unknowing to you, as a seller, you send the item to the specified address, but it keeps failing. Eventually, the shipping company flags the item down for wrong delivery.
After flagship, the scammer contacts the delivery company and provides them with a new address. Once they get the item, they report to PayPal about a failed transaction – that the product was not delivered to the registered address.
The authorized payment entity, on the other hand, takes measures to protect buyers. Since you have no evidence for delivery to the location or shipping costs, PayPal refunds the scammer (buyer), leaving you without the product and payments.
Hacked PayPal Account
The PayPal scam can also be caused by a hacked account. Your PayPal account is personal to you, which is why your important details must be made known to you alone.
If a hacker gets ahold of your PayPal account using different means, such a person can place orders for items across various online stores and use your account to pay for them.
As a seller, you may not realize this because it is the usual business day for you. However, you are likely to get notified via email about the fraudulent purchase as reported by the account’s original owner.
In that case, you are left with no choice but to reimburse the buyer’s account.
Overpayment Scam
Another Payment fraud that happens is one with overpayment. It starts with a scammer paying a sum of money into a seller’s account – maybe twice the original product price.
After payment has been made, the buyer – now a scammer, requests that the extra amount paid is to be returned. Once the money is reimbursed, the scammer notifies PayPal of a transaction gone wrong. In the report, they claim the transaction was never meant to have happened and that they demand to be refunded.
PayPal then makes a move to return the original overpaid amount to the scammer. In this case, the seller loses both the overpaid funds and the refunded amount. It gets even worse if the seller has sent items to a shipment address.
Phishing Email Scam
A phishing email is a different type of scam, and if you are not careful, you could lose a lot of money. In this case, fake emails can be sent to a seller claiming to be PayPal with reports of a wrong transaction that has taken place in the person’s account. The email may contain fraudulent links that give the scammer unauthorized access to personal details.
You may be redirected to a wannabe PayPal page where email and password would be requested if you click the link. Once you enter these details, the scammer gets a hold of them and uses them to gain access into your original PayPal account to withdraw money or make payments across different platforms.
Wrong Email Scam
Like the phishing email scam, the wrong email scam is another popular one with this payment method. Here, a scammer claims to be an agent or staff of PayPal saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that your funds that are “on hold” are released after performing a task. As a seller, you could be asked to drop your PayPal account details or shipment tracking number.
Once you do the requested tasks, you lose your account to the scammer or get a product shipped to another address using your shipment tracking number.
In essence, you could lose money or the items you shipped.
How to Protect Yourself from the PayPal Scams with Radaris?
In a bid to understand how to get money back from paypal if scammed, you also need to know how to protect yourself from scams. PayPal scams are almost difficult not to fall for because they come in various forms.
Radaris.com is an effective way to ensure top-notch protection from these scams. It is an open-source website that gathers information from various sources and can reveal the identity of people across various parts of the world. You can easily tell who or where the buyer of an item is by entering their full name, phone number, or postal code.
Indeed, Radaris is useful to prevent getting scammed on PayPal.
Conclusion
Will paypal refund you if you get scammed? Well, this article has made it clear that buyers can recover money using PayPal’s chargeback policy. On the other hand, sellers have to do everything possible to ensure that whoever they are doing business with is legitimate to avoid getting scammed. And that is the opting-in for the services of Radaris.
FAQ
How Do I Know a PayPal Scam?
Wanting to know a PayPal scam may be quite difficult because it almost looks like everyday business. However, if you detect any shady activity like an overpayment, wrong shipment address, or phishing emails from the wrong address, you should do everything possible to protect yourself.
How Long Do I Wait for a Refund?
If you request refund from PayPal using their chargeback policy, you will have to wait between 30 to 180 days before funds are returned to your account.
