eBay/PayPal Scammer: Laurence Fee of Glasgow UK halumidrawers@hotmail.com

[nohbdyduzitbetta]

I sold the domain name NetbookAccessories.com on eBay in August, this scammer, Laurence Fee paid with Paypal and I pushed the domain to his GoDaddy account.


About 2 weeks later I received the following:


You have received a payment that we believe may not have been authorized by
the PayPal account holder. Here are the details of the transaction we are
investigating:


-----------------------------------
Transaction Details
-----------------------------------
Buyer's name: laurence fee
Buyer's email: halumidrawers@hotmail.com
Transaction ID: 5RP08690DD715392J


Transaction date: Aug 25, 2012
Transaction amount: $15.50 USD
Your transaction ID: 94N94101FW508503T
Case number: PP-001-980-342-137


We recommend that you don’t ship the item until our investigation is
complete. If you’ve already shipped the item, please log in to your PayPal
account and go to the Resolution Center to provide the shipping details.


In order to continue our investigation, we need some additional information
from you.


Here’s how to provide us the information we need:


1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click “Resolution Center” near the top of the page.
3. Click "Resolve" in the Action column to view the information we need.
4. You can either fax or upload your documents to us.


You can fax your documents to us at: 402-537-5760


Please include a fax cover sheet that includes the email address registered
on your PayPal account and your case ID number.


Here’s how to upload your documents:


1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click “Resolution Center” near the top of the page.
3. Find your case under "Resolution Center cases," then click "Resolve"
next to the request for documentation.
4. Click “Upload Files.”
5. Click “Browse” to find the file you want to send, and then click
“Open.”
6. Enter a title for the file.
7. Select the type of evidence, and then click “Attach This File.”
8. Attach any other files, and then click “Send Files to PayPal.”


Please provide this information within 7 days.


This payment will remain on hold and unavailable to you until we complete
our investigation. We will email you when we complete our investigation.


Sincerely,
PayPal


Then, finally, I received this:


A payment has been reversed


Hello,


We've concluded our investigation into the transaction detailed below.


We've returned the funds to the PayPal account holder, and your account
will be debited for the amount of this transaction.


-----------------------------------
Helping ensure safe transactions
-----------------------------------


Most of the payments you receive will be from, honest buyers. PayPal wants
to help ensure that your transactions are as safe as possible.


You can often reduce your risk by paying close attention to payment details
and unusual requests.


* Watch for address inconsistencies:
It's fairly common for a buyer's shipping address to be different from the
billing address. In some cases, though, it could indicate fraud. For
instance, a high-priced item that has a billing address in one country and
a shipping address in another may be suspicious.


* Beware of unusual requests that could indicate suspicious activity, such
as:
- Buyers who want rush shipment at any cost
- Buyers who send partial payments from different PayPal accounts
- Do not make payment in full


Go to the PayPal Security Center for more information.


-----------------------------------
Transaction Details
-----------------------------------




Buyer's name: laurence fee
Buyer's email: halumidrawers@hotmail.com
Transaction ID: 5RP08690DD715392J


Transaction date: Aug 25, 2012
Transaction amount: $15.50 USD
Your transaction ID: 94N94101FW508503T
Case number: PP-001-980-342-137


MY DOMAIN AND MY MONEY ARE GONE! PLEASE BEWARE THIS SCAMMER!

 

[seoexperttools]

That's why i don't ****ing trust Paypal.

 

[Cartoonz]

you *might* be able to escalate the claim at GoDaddy if you shown them all the correspondence of the transaction and the chargeback.

 

[getmikey]

I'm not an expert in any sense, but it seems to me that since the property (domain name) is stolen using theft by deception because of the reversal of payment, could you not start a DMCA claim against the person at every level, from domain registrar to hosting company to ? . . . at every level every time the person tried to use it? At that point, after the person using the domain which was not paid for would likely get tired of losing hosting fees and moving repeatedly, you'd think they'd give up and do right by you. It might get tiring but it would definitely let that person who now has control of the domain know that you are not going to take this thing lying down and let them get away with it. At some point it has to become not worth their trouble anymore. And with DMCA, if GoDaddy does not help, then go upwards in the food chain. If the hosting company does not help, go up another level and another one beyond that until you eventually hit the internet backbone provider! (I doubt it would get that far, too much at stake for the legit companies.)

Plus, the reversal of Paypal might be due to a Paypal account takeover, as in the person who actually has the Paypal account might have had their account hacked and the payment might not have been authorized. So they may be an innocent third party victim here. I once had my eBay account taken over by a scammer who was continuously launching auctions on my account, and eBay caught it before I did and they did make it right once they realized it was not me. (I hadn't used the account in something like 6 months to a year when it happened so it was easy for them to figure it out.)

Considering what happened to Kim Dotcom and Megaupload.com around the beginning of this year DMCA can be troublesome sometimes, especially when it seems that the companies that allow this person to use the stolen property would become accessories to the theft under DMCA, and especially since they have the bigger pockets and so much more to lose if they do not cooperate with you once you can prove to them the thing they are providing services for is not authorized to have control because of the theft. They just might drop your domain name thief like a rock once they realize the person is trading with stolen goods. And most TOS are written in such a way that if someone is dropped in such a manner the service provider usually keeps the service fees as a sort of penalty for their troubles of being caught up in such things, so over time it can get expensive for the thief.

But I'm not a lawyer. So if the thought of filing these complaints without at least speaking to one makes you extremely uncomfortable, you might want to get one. If you do, make sure you get one that specializes in internet matters.

 

[bwhhisc]

Fortunately it wasn't a huge amount of money, but its also the principle.

On thing that SOMETIMES helps, is to run peoples e-mail address thru google with quotation marks and see if it is commonly used by them on the internet, in forums, etc. In this case it would be "halumidrawers@hotmail.com". On search, it appears this email only shows up with your "scam" report, so this is not a well used email addy and might have helped you flag him.

If a buyer pays with "paypal cash" versus credit card is that a non reversible transaction?

I think you best bet is to try and get GoDaddy to help retrieve the domain....not sure they will get involved but worth a try.

Also, flag the domain name multiple times so if he tries to sell it and anyone does a search it comes up "stolen".