My intent for writing a tale of the “Perfect eBay/PayPal Scam” was two-fold:

First of all, I wanted to increase visibility of my situation while I file police reports against the scammer and appeal PayPal’s decision against me.

Most importantly, however, I wanted to expose the complete lack of protection that PayPal’s Seller Protection offers against fraudulent SNAD (Significantly Not As Described) chargebacks, even when multiple people are defrauded by the same scammer.

I certainly did not expect this story to go viral, but it managed to strike a chord in the community of fellow geeks who were as shocked as I was by the absurdity of PayPal’s resolution process that ignored all the evidence of fraud. So what was the outcome of this ordeal?

Like many of my fellow geeks, Im an occasional eBay seller. Whenever the time comes for gadget upgrades or some sort of tech “spring cleaning”, I turn to eBay to offload my unwanted goods. Ive been doing this for quite a few years and I know my eBay/PayPal safety basics:

• Only sell to people with significant positive feedback
• Only ship to CONFIRMED PayPal addresses
• Require Signature Confirmation for items over $250

And then you, the SELLER, will be PROTECTED from buyer’s fraudulent claims by PayPal’s confidence-assuring Seller Protection…..OR SO I THOUGHT :(