Clever B/S Scam?

[VitaTimH]

Hi all, I'm not sure which forum would be the best place to post this, and General Chat seemed the best...

I'm starting to suspect that I've been the victim of a rather clever scam. About 2.5 weeks ago, I bought a camera off the StyleForum marketplace. Seller gave a Paypal address, I paid by standard (not gift), everything seemed ok.

However, after about 2 weeks, no item, no seller info, seller disappeared, etc. Coincidentally on the same day I had bought an unrelated item from an unrelated Canadian seller, which had arrived about a week prior. So I opened a Paypal dispute.

The Paypal account belonged to a completely separate person! Apparently, the camera seller had bought something from the OTHER seller prior which ended up the same price of what I paid for the camera ($105), and had just given me the other person's Paypal address -- therefore, my seller is completely out of the system. Instead of me paying the seller for the camera and him paying the Paypal account holder for whatever he got, my money went (verified) to the Paypal account holder, who shipped off his item to the potential scammer, who then disappeared.

Thoughts on any potential course of action I can take? I have a dispute open at the moment, but it would kind of be a jerk move to escalate the claim (which I think I'd win as I obviously didn't receive my ****), as he didn't do anything wrong... it seems.

I also have the potential scammer's house address, cell phone number, and Facebook. He's not picking up or responding on Facebook -- supposedly he's on vacation for 2 weeks in New York.

Any thoughts and advice would be highly appreciated!

tl;dr: I buy a camera from Canadian Guy 1. Canadian Guy 1 just bought a pair of sunglasses from Canadian Guy 2. Canadian Guy 1 gives me Canadian Guy 2's Paypal address instead of his own, thus eliminating the middleman, so to speak. Canadian Guy 1 gets sunglasses, and vanishes. I don't get my camera.

 

[whiteslashasian]

Sounds really, really fishy...

 

[Dakota rube]

...I'm horribly confused.

 

[VitaTimH]

Sorry it's a bit convoluted. I'll add a summary.

 

[Dakota rube]

^A diagram would help me.
I'm kind of a visual learner.

 

[HomerJ]

I've read this several times and still don't understand.

How do you know that the PayPal account to which you sent payment does not belong to the "camera seller"?

Did it belong to the other Canadian seller that you purchased from or does that have nothing to do with the story?

 

[Dakota rube]



I've read this several times and still don't understand.
How do you know that the PayPal account to which you sent payment does not belong to the "camera seller"?
Did it belong to the other Canadian seller that you purchased from or does that have nothing to do with the story?

Get in line, Homer.
I was stupid long before you expressed your lack of understanding.

 

[hoozah]

I understand what you're saying and it's quite clever. It's as if he made himself a middle man and made off with the cash.

 

[VitaTimH]

I haven't ruled out the fact that they're colluding -- that's why the Paypal dispute is still open. He really seems to just be a bystander, though it still is a bit suspicious.

In part it was my fault -- the buyer's name didn't match the Paypal address's name, but I didn't notice the oddness.

 

[Trainwreck]

I'm a bit confused. When you pay for an item Paypal sends your shipping address to the seller. Why would the sunglasses seller ship the item somewhere other than the shipping address for your account?

 

[VitaTimH]

Here is where it gets rather tricky (and where I get suspicious of collusion). The two Canadian guys know each other (very damning, I know) but right now it's plausible that his given explanation (they're both members of the same forums, StyleForum included) and the 'dishonest' seller told the 'bystander' that someone else would pay him directly because the sunglasses and camera were both ~$100. So basically he explained to the bystander that a third party would be paying him. I guess the bystander didn't care -- he was getting $100 regardless of the source. However, we've been in contact and the bystander has offered to refund my $100 as well as drive to the other guy and find out exactly wtf is going on, as he has his address. Still, I'm not particularly satisfied with this solution, because even if I get my $100 back, this guy is getting screwed out of $100 as far as I know.

 

[whiteslashasian]



Here is where it gets rather tricky (and where I get suspicious of collusion). The two Canadian guys know each other (very damning, I know) but right now it's plausible that his given explanation (they're both members of the same forums, StyleForum included) and the 'dishonest' seller told the 'bystander' that someone else would pay him directly because the sunglasses and camera were both ~$100. So basically he explained to the bystander that a third party would be paying him. I guess the bystander didn't care -- he was getting $100 regardless of the source. However, we've been in contact and the bystander has offered to refund my $100 as well as drive to the other guy and find out exactly wtf is going on, as he has his address. Still, I'm not particularly satisfied with this solution, because even if I get my $100 back, this guy is getting screwed out of $100 as far as I know.

If that guy drives to the scammers house he should be getting his $100 back.