❤️❤️How to avoid being scammed with PayPal (as a seller) ❤️❤️

Hello. I am a service provider (gauntlet/ToA mainly) and so far I've had no issues, but I've potentially experienced possible scam attempts, and I've read many here avoid using paypal.

'Paypal used to be an easy tool to scam through chargeback system, but nowadays you are required to use a real bank account in order to withdraw money.

This forces you to understand, your real information can be tracked through them. But you are still being able to get scammed, if the person you're selling to requests the chargeback and you have no evidence. This is how has been working for me and I'd like to share to you so you can avoid being scammed if using paypal:

-1-Ask for the rights of recording: When performing the transaction, ask your buyer if you can record a call where you discuss your terms with him just to have valid proof for paypal in case of any issues. If your buyer refuses to be recorded or to have a call but without recording him, simply let him know you can proceed to have all in written but you'd still record the information and take screenshots (for example, record yourself explaining with your voice how the trade works, proof of when your client is in agree with proceeding with the payment and proof of him/she making the payment and so asking if the person who shows in the transaction is THEM. If buyer refuses to any of these 2 options cancel his request, and friendly explain unless he agrees with these terms you can't provide any sales/services.

2.- Guarantee comfidentiality. Explain that you can have records and screenshots of both parties personal information, and releasing this to the internet of course can be dangerous, so be in comply with your terms of being comfidential and that any information you save will be only be used for paypal issue dispute records, and only you and paypal may use it for the same purpose in case of a scam in the future through a chargeback request. A person can only request a chargeback if the transaction was made within 180 days. So you can advice them your records can be deleted ONLY after this period of time.

3.- PayPal does require proof for E-Services: the way PayPal works is either you mail it or you deliver something electronically. We go by the second prompt. Make sure if you record an ingame event, discord conversation, inventories, etc. To record yourself or write down how the process works, if it's a game, how things run, what can be used or show in a screenshot to prove ingame goods/kc completitions (such as :kc command etc) to prove your client you delivered the service as accorded, along with proof of your client verifying his paypal information (name of the transaction, and for purpose of PP proof, their email as well) and where they clearly agree to proceed.

By doing this there is no way once you save these records, that after a service delivered/sale, you will be scammed if a chargeback is requested, and paypal does give you 10 days to sumbit the information and their phone line for CS is very widely open to assist with this kind of requests.

I hope this helps you

 

This was super helpful as ive always been scared to accept paypal, I just did a trade for some of my tibia gold and used this method

 

Does this work 100% of the time? I've personally contacted PayPal and they said they do not have seller protection for digital goods.

Which is strange because when I ran my Minecraft server I won all chargeback disputes and it was all digital purchases.

 

They have started to offer protection. It's much harder to scam through paypal, but stolen accounts do pop up for trade sometimes and then you lose out on the moolah. Best to take their ID with a letter depicting the transaction, through a picture in the mirror. Just adding that for people to utilise, thanks.

 

Stolen accounts & cards are still a problem, right? Are scammers able to purchase stuff online on a Paypal account with a card linked to it without further verification needed?

 

Any time a person requests a refund from their bank/card they will win as far as I know.

 

Great information here. Thank you.

 

My current working theory is that you need to not be a pussy and not worry about chargebacks or refund requests.

You need to perform due diligence on your clients, provide a great service, and have wide enough margins to be able to whitstand some returns.

If your margins are very low, then of course you will need a no-refund payment method and you will steer towards payments like bitcoin, but that probably means that you are not providing significant added value, hence your margins are low. I don't want to be mean, but if your business model is just buying something and reselling it at 5% more, you will most likelye be out of business one way or another.

tldr, provide enough added value to justify higher margins, which will protect you against returns.

 

Thanks for the informative post, will favorite this.

 

Update: yes, it does still work. Remember that any chargeback attempt goes now into a paypal dispute, where you can do a 1on1 with the ''plaintiff'' while a paypal worker reviews information. They take mostly non mp4 format evidence. So it's always good to have a screenshot and proof with date and other marks that can help in the same picture, where they agree with your terms of service. This way, being a stolen account, you can justify and proceed to diminish liability. There are further actions that can be taken also.

 

Good info but then if you're selling something electronically , they can just say that it wasn't them on the call? Theirs no way for PayPal to know that that is the owner of the PayPal account agreeing to the terms etc? How do you get around this

 

Do not listen to OP

You can always get charged back and you will lose 93% of the time.

 

This.

First, to be clear when someone scams you on Paypal they have a multitude of options.

1. A Stolen Account, Once the real owner recovers the account they will 100% get the money back. Only way to prevent this is make sure the ID matches the PayPal account name and address.

2. A typical PayPal Chargeback, Buyer opens a PayPal chargeback saying they did not receive the product or they might say the product was not as described and they returned it. Either way they are going to win the chargeback 99% of the time. Literally nothing you can do no amount of proof really matters. If the buyer does not have a ton of disputes on his account he is going to win. Even if you do win this you still have to deal with the next one after.

3. The buyer loses the PayPal Dispute so files a chargeback with his Credit Card he used through PayPal. If the buyer has a good credit card or not a ton of chargebacks on his credit card he is going to win 100% of the time. No amount of proof is going to matter to the CC company for an online product like this.

4. This one is really common and any Joe can do it. Joe has a Paypal Account. Joe Gives his Login + ID to his friend/family member who lives in another state. Joe has them order the gold and use his ID so it matches the paypal. Joe Recovers the Paypal account and reports it as stolen. Joe wins the chargeback 100% of the time because the account did look stolen at the time of purchase.



All in All the only safe way to accept services 100% of the time is Crypto and wait for all confirmations. What you can do is take a month of your last sales. Divide them into 2 categories NonChargeback able Payment methods and payment methods that can be chargeback.


Add a 5% Tax on all non crypto methods. As long as you dont get chargebacked more then 1/20 transactions your in profit still. You can adjust that % based on the history of your disputes.