paypal scam

[raulbogdan]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Hello, my name is Raul, i am openly gay and i make a living by selling nude pictures online. And i live in Texas.
All the payments are made through paypal, and the last one i caught as a scam. The buyer told me that he had sent me the payment, i checked my email for confirmation, and there it was. The only problem is it wasn't from my usual paypal email. at that point i contacted paypal and they said that the email is fake and that i should forward it to them.

My question is: will paypal find the guy responsible for this, will they contact the authorities? He lives in europe by the way.
The email didn't contain any pshishing files, it was just made to look as a real confirmation email from paypal.
And the amount he had to pay was $70 USD.

Thank you,
Raul

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Hello, my name is Raul, i am openly gay and i make a living by selling nude pictures online. And i live in Texas.
All the payments are made through paypal, and the last one i caught as a scam. The buyer told me that he had sent me the payment, i checked my email for confirmation, and there it was. The only problem is it wasn't from my usual paypal email. at that point i contacted paypal and they said that the email is fake and that i should forward it to them.

My question is: will paypal find the guy responsible for this, will they contact the authorities? He lives in europe by the way.
The email didn't contain any pshishing files, it was just made to look as a real confirmation email from paypal.
And the amount he had to pay was $70 USD.

Thank you,
Raul

1: Maybe...maybe not.
2: Maybe...maybe not.

There is really no way we can guess what PayPal will do.

 

[raulbogdan]

Also, if he is found, can he go to jail? what is the penalty for this? and does it matter that he is from europe and i am from the USA?

 

[Zigner]

Also, if he is found, can he go to jail? what is the penalty for this? and does it matter that he is from europe and i am from the USA?

This is a US law forum, we don't know what the penalty will be in Europe.

 

[STEPHAN]

Very unlikely that someone would go to jail for $70.

 

[tranquility]

Also, if he is found, can he go to jail? what is the penalty for this? and does it matter that he is from europe and i am from the USA?

The European police will not even take a report on the fact a citizen there did not pay you $70 for a photograph you sent. That is assuming the photograph is clearly fine legally by U.S., TX and European and country laws and by PayPal and the selling venue standards.

Your remedy is to sue him. I suspect you will not collect.

Certainly, PayPal has a business desire to keep the quality of their service fraud free. If people don't trust PayPal, they won't use it anymore and the owners will lose the sweet, sweet income they feel they so richly deserve. But, their goals are not yours. They would look at the problem and, if such things are widespread, will advise users on how to avoid such fraud. One guy? For $70? For a nude picture? Where do you think they will put that specific instance onto their priority file?

Take this as a lesson learned. You might make more money from some bot-search for the picture online. Copyright and other IP violations can be quite profitable.

 

[CdwJava]

Also, if he is found, can he go to jail? what is the penalty for this? and does it matter that he is from europe and i am from the USA?

Even if he were from the US, this is a minor property crime in most states and unlikely to be pursued across state lines even in those states where this fraud might be a felony.

You are out the $70. Move on.

 

[FlyingRon]

PAYPAL isn't going to touch disputes that involve pornography. So will many of the other US-based payment processors. There's good reason why all the sleezeball sites use sleezeball payment processors.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Hello, my name is Raul, i am openly gay and i make a living by selling nude pictures online. And i live in Texas.
All the payments are made through paypal, and the last one i caught as a scam. The buyer told me that he had sent me the payment, i checked my email for confirmation, and there it was. The only problem is it wasn't from my usual paypal email. at that point i contacted paypal and they said that the email is fake and that i should forward it to them.

My question is: will paypal find the guy responsible for this, will they contact the authorities? He lives in europe by the way.
The email didn't contain any pshishing files, it was just made to look as a real confirmation email from paypal.
And the amount he had to pay was $70 USD.

Thank you,
Raul

Paypal won't do anything because they have not been harmed by the forger's actions. Since you have a mailing address, you could contact the police or law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction and report the forgery and attempted larceny. I have no idea if they will investigate and/or prosecute.

 

[single317dad]

PAYPAL isn't going to touch disputes that involve pornography. So will many of the other US-based payment processors. There's good reason why all the sleezeball sites use sleezeball payment processors.

This is an important point. Paypal's terms of use specifically forbid many activities, one of which is pornography (and artful nudes fall squarely in that category as far as they're concerned).

What you've encountered is a very common scam which should be obvious to anyone who spends a significant amount of time dealing with Paypal. I get 3-4 of these "payment confirmation" emails per week. You should check your Paypal account, and ONLY your Paypal account, to confirm a payment has been made. Ignore all related emails; they are meaningless.

 

[mmmagique]

If you (or someone else) tells Paypal that you have been using their service to buy/sell nude photographs, they will seize any money in your account and shut it down. You may or may not get it back in three month's time. (or ever)