Bitcoin Forum

I don't know if this is the right board for this thread.  If not, please make a suggestion and I'll move it.

I sold some BTC to a couple of Kenyan scammers on Localbitcoins.com.  I verified their IDs, and everything looked cool, so I followed through with the transaction.  They used credit cards to pay through PayPal.  One of the scammers wanted a lot of bitcoin, but she could only send $50 - $100 max, so she submitted 11 transactions.  Like a fool I just went along with it.

Several days later both of them submit disputes, they even submitted multiple disputes for the same transaction.  I wasn't able to respond to the disputes through paypal's web interface, so I called them.  I sent an email to them with all the receipts and transaction communications that I downloaded from Localbitcoins.  They reversed one of the transactions, but all the rest are going against my account.

Yesterday I got an email saying I need to pay that money or it will go to collections.  I don't have any sock puppet paypal accounts, this is my legit account with my real name, bank account, credit card, and SSN attached.  I don't feel like I should be held accountable for this shit!

What can I do?  Thanks for your help.

There's nothing much to do except to learn a hard lesson : PayPal is reversible while Bitcoin isn't.
It's common to have transactions on PayPal charged back when you don't know the person you're dealing with.
Small time scammers. Well, they got ~$550  :-\

It was $50 - $100 transactions.  PayPal says I owe them $898, and there are still six transactions being reviewed.  On top of the charge back, paypal charges another $20 for each returned transaction.  This could cost me close to $1500!   >:(  >:(

I know education is expensive, but this is like getting fucked raw with a giant black dildo, then getting smacked upside the head by it.  Repeatedly.

Unfortunately you won't be able to do anything via Paypal.

Where you might be okay is that you verified their ID's. I'm guessing this means that you actually met them? Start by going and filing a police report, as this would still fall under fraud. Once you've filed the report you might be able to use that to hold off PP for a bit before they pull back all the money.

No, I didn't meet them.  I verified their IDs via Localbitcoins.  As far as I know they are in Kenya, I'm in the US.  Somehow I doubt the Kenyan Police (if there is such a thing) is going to give my plight any attention.

How about a class action suit against PayPal?  Anybody wanna join me?  Stick it to PayPal and legitimize bitcoin all in one fell swoop.

what you have to do is going through localbitcoins.

Now it matters a lot if the transactions were friends and family or not, if they were goods and service paypal has no right to retain any of your money as a receipt was sent.

Insist with paypal.

I am saying already everywhere stop sending or receiving friends or family. It is more safe to receive as digital products payment. As long as you can prove you have sent.

US paypal tho, customer service is made of people dumb as fuck.

Pursuing them legally might cost you more than the amount you *might* be able to recover so it's not really a viable option in most cases.

It's going to be a very hard battle and the chances of winning a class action suit against Paypal is pretty slim. Also it'll be pretty costly to execute.

BTW, How did they convince you to accept Paypal? Did they have previous trust on Localbitcoins?

I created an advertisement to sell bitcoin for paypal.  I had sold bitcoin for papal several times before, mostly to US residents, and a couple of Venezuelans with no trouble at all.  Yes, they did have positive feedback.  Since then, one of the accounts has been banned by Localbitcoins staff.

Lol,  I come here for help, and find this private message in my inbox:


Hey ChrisLandin, get lost.