I finally ended up calling Paypal, which led me to getting a text message from Paypal that took me to a special chat session where I left a message for an agent.
They don’t make this easy.
Open a 2nd PayPal account, move the money there.
PLEASE do not do that.
At some point PayPal is likely to investigate this – like when the original credit card payment is refused – and doing this is going to signal to an investigator that you are not the person on the receiving end of a scam, but rather are an active participant in one.
And you’ll be out the $475, and likely have both paypal accounts closed permanently.
Right. There is no $475. As soon as the victim realizes it was stolen they will call their bank to charge it back and the money will disappear. If you withdraw it, paypal will initiate legal action. Leave it there and one day it’ll just be gone. Don’t do anything yourself other than notifying paypal that it happened.
Yes, don’t mix messages and even respond or touch the money. If it’s still there after a year, congrats i guess.
The cake $475 is a lie.
Just leave it alone, ignore it, pretend it doesn’t exist. Someday down the line it will disappear.
I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love.
Sorry. I’ll stop.
Seriously, just don’t do anything. Ignore it.
You are not responsible for resolving any of this. Stop wasting your time on it.
Heh, that was a joke, although there is some seriousness in it. This is ‘dirty’ money and you don’t want that mixed with your ‘good’ money. Banks will regularly divert flagged money to holding accounts so they can keep track of it until a final decision is made.
The advice from PayPal is utter shite and should be disregarded. As others said, best to not touch it.
I mean, you could just refund the guy. If it is annoying
Paypal told you to, and you have the chat.
Absolutely do not refund him. Paypal doesn’t give a shit about you and will just shrug when you’re out 500 bucks. Even if it’s because their support is bad.
You may be able to get them to eat the cost eventually if you do a refund… but the hassle won’t be worth it.
Nooooooo. That’s a bad idea. If it’s the scam linked above, he’d be out $475.
Right, it’s only a good idea for someone with the time and patience to subsequently sue Paypal in small claims court to get that $475 back after following their advice.
If the guy needs to be refunded, and isn’t scanning you (he is scamming you), then he can work with PayPal to get it back.
It’s not your responsibility to fix this. Just ignore it.
Yeah, just throw away $475 to a scammer if it is annoying.