It was a $500 product, a World of Warcraft account with a very powerful character.
I have no tracking information, so your comment is no help Nensox. I only have a chat log, the paypal emails, and the account information.
HMV - I'm in the same position right now. I have a feeling I'm going to have to issue the refund in paypal, and then press charges of fraud against them in real life as I have their personal information. I really don't care about the $500, and I can't get the account back (I reported it as stolen to blizzard, so they're just going to delete the account in a few days anyways). But the person doing this I suspect knew fully what they were doing an intended to scam me. I know paypal won't help me at all, so I think I'm going to persue them in criminal court (as I said, I don't care about the money, I would rather send a scam artist to jail for a few years than get the money back).
kevnospam - I suspect the money will be released to them as paypal has a habit of giving into the buyer all the time. But that doesn't mark the end of this, I can persue them in criminal court for fraud, which is a 2 year jail sentence if convicted. And even if it doesn't go that far, I can sure make them wrack up some legal bills, probably $10k worth of lawyer fees just to keep their ass out of jail. This is the route I think I'll be going, I'm meeting with my lawyer in the morning about this. I am willing to invest the $20,000+ to nail this person, it's not about money as far as I'm concerned.
Even if the person in question claims his account was comprimised, I think I would have enough evidence to charge them with negligence (i.e. using an easy to guess password). It's not as big a crime as fraud, but it would stick them with a criminal record and they'd be fined several thousand dollars. Having this on their criminal record can screw them in many situations in the future (i.e. jobs, trying to leave the country, and any future cases against them).
However in this market, there are alot of people that claim their kid did it with their paypal account. Which makes the entire transaction illegal, and I could either press charges against the parent, or against the child, or both.
Most scammers do this crap because they think the victim won't bother with persuing the legal system, as it's very expensive. However money isnt' really an issue for me, so I'm planning to persue this fully
