This is more of an ebay issue than paypal, but I will share it anyways. I sold two high ticket items (over $600). Both arrived damaged, to two separate addresses. On one case, the buyer agreed to a replacement, the other, the buyer did not even indicate if the item was working, did not agree to troubleshooting, and did not agree to provide pictures of damage. Funds frozen on both cases, resulting in a negative balance since some funds were already disposed of. First item, customer filed a complaint, got a full refund from Ebay even though he agreed to a replacement, so now he has both the money and the items.

Second buyer also filed a claim, stating my item was insured, when I informed them that there was a denial on the damage claim (so no insurance money). Ebay refunded him as well, but since there was no funds left, I am stuck with no merchandise, and a negative paypal account. My main issue is that Ebay does not even contact a seller to get their “take” on a claim anymore e, and furthermore, their practice of allowing buyers to keep the merchandise even after a “money back guarantee” is just aiding fraud and fueling the corruption.
They should have no right to issue a refund, certainly not without getting all the facts, especially from a seller, and they should not ever release funds until such “damaged” merchandise is returned to the seller. I can only take comfort now that I had the foresight to close my linked bank account before they were able to extract any more money from me. They will not see another penny from me, nor will I ever do business with them again.

Source: http://www.paypalwarning.com/frozen-funds-scamming-buyers/

"Once upon a time I went out with a guy who got wine drunk at Olive Garden and then in a drunk rage punched the windshield out of my car when I offered to drive him home because he was belligerent." - Reddit user decentwriter

They say that 99% of the internet is not accessible to traditional browsers. The world that lives beneath that which we see when we visit the dark web, contains things which defy normal understanding. It has become a breeding ground to all of man’s most perverse and dark fantasies. It’s a place where chaos reigns supreme.

My mother is not an extremely savvy internet user. In fact, most of the time she has little to no idea what she is doing on there. If she is in someone else’s Youtube account, or Gmail she often does what she is trying to do without paying attention to whose credentials she is using. Can you blame her though? Her generation didn’t grow up with computers. They are severely disadvantaged when it comes to that kind of stuff.

I on the other hand somewhat pride myself on being knowledgeable about computers and the internet. I don’t know how I would live my life without the opportunities it affords me. One could easily assume then that I would be someone who would take an interest in the dark web. And believe me it’s not for the faint of heart.

Now the thing is that I am very careful with what I do. I use a great VPN service and I know what I can and can’t click in order not to expose my IP address to anyone. After years of doing this though, I did however become a bit too careless and it just so happens that the time I did I was on my mom’s computer.

I was hanging with my family during the holidays and I got into an argument with my little brother, Tommy about a certain listing that I had seen on a dark net market search. He’s always been a bit of a sheltered kid, considering he has a cleft lip and my parents’ baby him like a toddler. So, I figured it was my responsibility to show him some of the real world every once in a while.

I had told him about this listing for a clown that you could hire for birthday parties that was for some reason being advertised on the dark web and he of course didn’t believe me. So, I showed him the listing and we read about how the clown would “provide your party with an exceptional experience. One that you would likely never forget.” Considering my knowledge of the dark web I was pretty sure it was not an experience you would want to remember.

After I showed him, I got distracted and went about my business doing other things. Somehow though, I left my browser window open on my mom’s computer. This was hands down the worst most careless slip-up of my life. One that I will likely never live down.

After I was done on there she used the laptop and, thinking that the clown was something my little brother wanted to do for his birthday, she went ahead and paid for him to come visit the house. After I found out what she had done we tried to cancel it, but I guess it didn’t work because that weekend a clown car pulled up out front of our house for Tommy’s birthday.

Out of the car stepped an old man in traditional clown make up with these pale bluish, white eyes like those of a blind person. Yet, he seemed to be able to walk up the driveway totally fine.

My mom, was very freaked out, and had my dad go meet him in the driveway. When my dad approached him, he tried to shake his hand but instead the clown just immediately pulled out three juggling balls and started tossing them up effortlessly.

My Dad stared at him for a moment in awe than began to guide him around the side yard into the back, where the rest of the party guests were. I was definitely a bit worried so I went to the backyard and the clown was already setting up for a magic show.

The guy looked freaky as Hell but everyone in the crowd seemed ok with it. So, I supposed I was being too judgmental and should just let him do his show. Plus, he had a nametag on that said Noisey, and considering he hadn’t said a word the whole time I thought that was pretty funny.

For the first trick Noisey took a quarter out and he pretended like it disappeared in his hand. Then he reached around the back of his head and pulled the quarter out from behind his ear. It was a pretty basic trick, but then he kept going with it. He pulled out quarter after quarter from behind his ear until there was a pile of change at least a few inches high on the ground beside him.

Everyone in the yard seemed impressed when they saw this. It really was an incredible trick. Then he picked up the pile of change off of the ground and put it in his shirt. Then he held the shirt up with his two fingers and launched the coins up into the air. Only nothing flew out.

The change had totally disappeared and in its place a bunny rabbit popped out. The crowd really got into this a few of them even got up and started putting money into his tip jar.

Then Noisey extended his hand out and pointed to Tommy. Tommy smiled, excited to have been acknowledged and stepped up. Noisey then pulled out one of those huge bubble making wands and had Tommy stand in this round tray of soap on the ground. Noisey then lowered the wand over Tommy and lifted it back up quickly covering him in a gigantic bubble. This was not an ordinary bubble though. It would not pop no matter what. Tommy would hit the side of it, and it wouldn’t break.

Everyone in the audience stared at this speechless, clearly they were watching something that wasn’t possible occurring before their eyes. After a few seconds of being trapped inside Tommy started to freak out and thrash against the side of the bubble. He began screaming and crying panicking.

“Hey! Let him out!” my dad yelled as he started approaching the clown. Noisey then looked over at him and put his finger to his lips, shushing him. He then lifted the wand up above my brother’s head and quickly brought it down over him. The bubble instantly disappeared, and so did Tommy.

Frantic my Dad charged toward Noisey but just before he could get to him the clown brought the bubble wand down over himself and vanished as well.

My dad screamed frantically looking around for the two of them. Realizing the gravity of the situation the crowd began to stand up and try to help my dad look for them. Then we heard a car start up in the driveway. Several of us sprinted to the front yard and saw the clown car pulling out and taking off down the street.

My dad and I along with several others got into our cars and peeled out, chasing after him. Then the clown car turned a corner and by the time we got there it had vanished. Upon the realization that we had lost him my Dad immediately broke down in tears. Screaming and pounding on the steering wheel. I had never seen him get like that before and I knew it was all my fault.

The following weeks were some of the worse I had ever experienced. Constant contact with the police and interviews, where everyone was relentlessly asking me about why I was on the Dark web and what I knew about my little brothers’ disappearance. I honestly feel like I was lucky they didn’t pin the entire thing on me and just close the case. I didn’t stop going on the dark web though. In fact, I started using it more.

I knew that if there was any way I was going to find my brothers kidnapper it wasn’t going to be using the old-fashioned police detective model. I had to track Noisey down once he decided to stalk again.

So, I created various fake identities on numerous dark net markets and made posting after posting for birthday party clowns to come perform at my son’s party. Then finally after several weeks of doing this I got a response. Only it wasn’t from Noisey. It was from another old man dressed as a clown who included a picture of himself in the posting with his response.

The weirdest thing was though the old man had a cleft lip and looked just like my little brother. Only he had aged at least 50 years.

I was really freaked out by this and had to know more but after I posted several times for him to meet me, I think he could tell I was trying to trick him because he would never showed up. I am going to continue to look for him as long as I can, but I think he knows it’s me and for some reason he doesn’t want to be found

Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/enacmh/my_mom_hired_a_clown_off_the_dark_web/

My shop was closed down over the weekend. I could not understand why… For four years I’ve had a five star rating, great sales, great shipping speed in communication with buyers. I did submit an email to Etsy support, and they came back to me saying that they are connecting me to my husband’s shop which had a low ODR. Apparently he missed the email warning or never got one. Because we use the same IP address in the house, they closed me as well. I am so frustrated because I worked so hard to build this business to make extra money for my kids to go to college. I’ve been using this income as money for groceries so that I can save my substitute teaching money for my three children to go to school. I wish there was someone I could talk to to...but there is no human side to Etsy. These generic blanket emails are ridiculous. Can someone please give me some advice? I have literally been crying for days because I feel like I lost a big part of my life. I had invested a lot monetarily ($500 Worth of materials being delivered this week! )and emotionally call taking time away from my family to build his business. They just don’t even care and respect that my husband‘s business and mine are connected in no way whatsoever. His business is his and mine is mine. They are completely different items and I have nothing to do with his.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Etsy/comments/f8osy9/yet_another_closed_shop_its_been_real_yall/

I’ve recently sold a valuable 24 year old comic book to a fraudulent buyer via my web site. The comic was in near mint+ condition yet this buyer upon receipt of the item informed me that one staple was detached from the cover of the book. He insisted that a give him a significant partial refund which I refused knowing that his claim was nonsense.

I had photographed every page of that comic right before sending it to him to have a record of it’s condition and not one of these photos showed any type of problem with any of the staples. He filed a Paypal claim against me saying the item was significantly not as advertised. I explained the situation to Paypal and uploaded three photos to them which showed that the staple problem he mentioned did not exist.

Paypal got back to me with the verdict that the buyer must return the item to me in the same condition as he received it and upon my receipt of this item I must refund him 100% of his payment. After furnishing Paypal with visual evidence of the true condition of this item how do they determine that the buyer is correct and should get a full refund? I believe the buyer has another copy of this comic that indeed has a detached staple. He will keep my high grade copy that I sent to him and return his lower grade copy to me and get all of his money back. I voiced my theory of what was happening here to Paypal and all they told me was that if I didn’t get back the same exact comic book I must go to the police and file a report. They gave me no guidance on how to do this.

I’m an American living in Brazil with only limited Portuguese speaking competency. The police here don’t speak English and probably have no experience with Paypal problems involving an international transaction (from Brazil to the USA). What can I do? Where’s my seller protection?

Source: http://www.paypalwarning.com/paypals-seller-protection-advice-file-police-report/