Selling online, Paypal and Scams – Part 4

This is my 4th article in my series of posts where I write about the scams I’ve experienced in my career of buying and selling products and services online. This was a proper scam that involved a pure loss of $137,50 for me. The second biggest lost I ever had.

Read about the other scams I wrote here:

Part 1 – https://onmoneyline.com/selling-online-paypal-and-scams-part-1/
Part 2 – https://onmoneyline.com/selling-online-paypal-and-scams-part-2/
Part 3 – https://onmoneyline.com/selling-online-paypal-and-scams-part-3/
Part 5 – https://onmoneyline.com/selling-online-paypal-and-scams-part-5/
Part 6 – https://onmoneyline.com/selling-online-paypal-and-scams-part-6/

 

This happened in 2019, around a time when I was extremely busy. Today is a great lesson in why you should only buy from trusted people, or even better why you should always do everything in-house, if possible. And if you can’t do it in-house and have to buy from questionable people, always get the product or service delivered before you pay, if possible.

But if you can’t get it before payment, the one thing you do not want to do is, do not… I repeat… do not pay them with Paypal. You’re leaving yourself open to getting scammed if you pay with Paypal, the scammer’s paradise.

 

Scam? What happened?

Back in August of 2019 I was extremely busy, and my requirements for a certain resource increased tremendously. This resource can’t exactly be purchased very easily in very many places, even though it’s nothing illegal. I don’t engage in illegal activities. But seeing as it was hard to get, and all my suppliers were overwhelmed by my demand, I had to look for it elsewhere. And for the most part that went well, and I got my work done.

But I had a case of a guy I found on Skype who offered to sell it to me, and we reached a deal for $137,50 dollars, which I sent him:

You sent 137,50 USD to KAUSHIK MAJUMDAR.

 

At this point he was supposed to provide what I purchased within 2-3 days. But about an hour later the guy contacts me and says that the funds in Paypal are on hold, and that he needs to set “Tracking info” in order for him to receive the payment, which he did:

And I also needed to confirm in my Paypal account that the order was processed and received. Now, in retrospect I should have known something is wrong at this point because he wasn’t selling me a physical product, but in good faith I decided to do it:

This was a huge mistake guys. As you can see in the second screenshot, it says:

“Please note, you may no longer be able to raise a dispute against this order and the funds will be settled with the seller.”

But I was extremely busy, a lot of money was changing hands, and I really needed the stuff the guy offered to sell me. Also, while losing $137,50 would hurt me, it wouldn’t throw me into depression or nothing, haha.

After this happened, the guy replied to me on Skype one more time, and then he stopped replying…

 

Chargeback/Dispute

About a week later I decided to raise a chargeback/dispute against this payment on Paypal, seeing as the seller was ignoring me after taking my money. Here is the email:

I waited for about 2 days, thinking the scammer may refund the payment. At this point I was thinking that perhaps he was unable to provide what he promised, but he was hoping I would just let it go and let him keep the money. And so I thought that when he sees the chargeback he will either appear on Skype and provide what he promised, or issue a refund on Paypal.

But 2 days went by and he didn’t do anything, so I escalated the chargeback to a claim (asking Paypal to get involved and review the case). Here is the email:

 

As you can see in the email above, at this point Paypal said:

“KAUSHIK MAJUMDAR has up to 10 days to provide us with the requested information, but it is likely that we may hear back sooner. As soon as we receive this information, we will share it with you along with any additional steps you may need to take to resolve this case. There are no further steps you need to take until we contact you.”

And:

“You have escalated this problem to a claim so we will contact your seller for more information. KAUSHIK MAJUMDAR has until 8 September 2019 to respond to PayPal. Most claims are resolved within 30 days, but some may take longer.

We may need to contact you for more information during our review process. If we do, please respond within the requested timeframe. Otherwise the case may be closed and decided in the seller’s favor.”

So I waited the 10 days…

 

10 Days Later – Response to the Claim

Exactly 10 days later I received an email that the seller provided a response to the claim I made. Now, I’m not 100% sure if he actually did respond, or if Paypal just sent that email because the 10 days had passed and he never replied. In any case, here is the email:

Then 2 days later I received another email from Paypal, that they are proceeding with their investigation. Here is the email:

KAUSHIK MAJUMDAR has up to 3 days to provide us with the requested information, but it’s likely that we may hear back sooner. As soon as we receive this information, we will share it with you along with any additional steps you may need to take to resolve this case.

 

Your PayPal claim denied

Then 4 days later, I get the dreaded email that my claim was denied, and that the scammer will get to keep the money. Here is the email:

We have reviewed this transaction(s) and are denying your claim(s). This decision was made because we never received documentation that proves you are due a credit.

 

Oh, My, God! You Bastards!

You can see in the last screenshot that they said that the decision was made because they never received documentation that proves I was due a credit. BUT THEY NEVER ASKED FOR IT! Look at all the emails I shared in this article, how in every email Paypal says they will ask me for additional information if they need it, but they never did!

When I opened the chargeback/dispute I explained the situation to Paypal, and I considered that enough to open the case. And when they said in the first or second email they will ask me for more information if they need it, I was expecting them to do so. Why say it if you’ll never do it? Ugh Paypal sucks.

 

The aftermath

After it was over, I contacted Paypal via their message system and asked them to reopen the case! I told them that I can provide information proving I was scammed, and that the reason I didn’t provide it in the first place was because they never asked me for it! They told me that even though they take huge fees on every transaction from me, I can go fuck myself, case closed.

Okay, they didn’t say exactly that, but they pretty much said that the case was closed, and that’s the end of it.

I had lost…

 

Scammer Information

Later on I learned another extremely obvious thing for someone who had known. The scammer’s email literally tells you he is a scammer.

His email: [email protected]

I was told by a somebody that: “his email contain words ”Bunty and Babli” , bunty and babli were two couples in india, they were both scammers, they both scammed lots of poeple, there is movie on them too, just search on google bunty and babli you will find about them, i think that guy is professional scammer as he is using world class scammers name in his email.”

Son of a bitch! Had I known it would’ve certainly raised a red flag for me.

 

Here is some more of his information:

Skype: sonarkaushik
Paypal email: [email protected]
Main Paypal email: [email protected]
Paypal name: KAUSHIK MAJUMDAR

His Freelancer.com gig – https://www.freelancer.com/u/sonarkaushik

His Fiverr gig – https://www.fiverr.com/aladanhseoenter/sell-automation-scripts-for-social-media-exchange-websites

I am sharing this information so that it can be easily discovered if anyone googles for it. This should help people who are considering doing business with this person to save themselves the headache and the trouble, and to stay away from him!

 

Here is a video I made talking about this:

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, I surely made mistakes here, and this could have been avoided. I should have never bought from some random guy on Skype. I should have asked for product delivery first before payment. I should have never confirmed that the product was delivered, before it was actually delivered. And I should have provided Paypal all the information, everything I had on the case when I first opened the chargeback/dispute.

However, I still hate on Gaypal for this, because they should have asked me for more information during the process, LIKE THEY SAID THEY WOULD IN EVERY EMAIL THEY SENT ME! Or at least they should have re-opened the case after it was over when I contacted them and told them I can provide the documentation proving that I have been scammed here. I hate on Paypal because they did not give a fair and objective review of the case, even though I’ve paid more than enough to Paypal over the years with their ridiculously high fees!

And this, boys and girls, is why Paypal sucks!

 

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I wrote a comparison of Paypal and Payoneer’s buyer protection, you can read about it here:

https://onmoneyline.com/paypal-versus-payoneer-buyer-protection/

Hint: Payoneer wins!

 

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Here is a very nice and kinda funny video someone made once upon a time about Paypal and what a shitty company they are. Enjoy!