Bought an item through paypal, item not sent and seller took money

[masprey]

I paid for two sporting event tickets (not via ebay) but from a guy advertising them from another free advertising site. The money for these tickets was then transferred through paypal to the seller (270 pounds).

The individual did not send the tickets, appears to have deleted his email account as all correspondence just bounces back.

Paypal found in my favour because the seller failed to respond to any correspondence from myself or paypal but the seller had cleared his account of funds so therefore no refund was granted.

The police would not take the issue on as they said it was a civil matter. I have no contact details for the individual other than an email address which doesn't work.

Is there a way of forcing paypal to act as the go between to make a small claims court claim, or better still, do get round the data protection act to get the sellers contact details so that I can persue the matter through the courts directly myself?

Your help and advice would be gratefully appreciated.

[Ethel]

Firstly go back to the police and insist you are a victim of fraud, which clearly you are and you want to recorded and investigated.

Forget about the civil court - it is pointless unless you know the person has the mean to pay. You will end up paying court costs and enforcement costs such as bailiffs, assuming you will ever find him. It is my opinion that he set it up with false details and used your money to pay for goods or services directly through PayPal, rather than in to a bank account.

If you paid with your credit card speak to the issuer. Although they are not legally obliged to do anything in these circumstances, some banks do make provision in their terms and conditions,. It is worth a phone call for advice.

[masprey]

Unfortunately the police are refusing it is a police matter.

They are insisting the only way is to insist paypal deal with the issue or I seek advice from the CAB.

I am more than happy to take it through the courts, albeit costing me �30 to lodge the claim I just want to see justice, even if I only end up being awarded �1 a week fromm the individual to pay it back.

Anyone got any further advice regarding forcing paypal to release the information of the individual to make a claim?

[Rollo]

You have no buyer protection from Paypal if the item you bought was not from an Ebay listing.

The only way you will get Paypal to release details of the seller is if you get a Court Order instructing them to do so. Otherwise they will just say they cannot divulge such information to you.

Even if you did get details from Paypal the odds are that all the information the seller registered is false anyway.

Sorry!

[Ethel]

This is taken from PayPal terms and conditions - I suggest you telephone them and quote it:

We disclose information that we in good faith believe is appropriate to cooperate in investigations of fraud or other illegal activity, or to conduct investigations of violations of our User Agreement. Specifically, this means that if we conduct a fraud investigation and conclude that one side has engaged in deceptive practices, we can give that person or entity's contact information (but not bank account or credit card information) to victims who request it.

We disclose information in response to requirements of civil or criminal legal process.

http://www.goanm.co.uk/group/purchasesonline/p aypal_privacy.html

[Ethel]

And this:

By accepting this Privacy Policy, you expressly agree that each time you pay or attempt to pay another PayPal customer or a third party merchant by using your PayPal account, PayPal may then transfer the aforementioned relevant data to the other PayPal customer or to the third party merchant in order to process, execute or otherwise deal and provide information about the payment.

https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_privacy-outside&country.x=GB

[Ethel]

Please ignore my post at 13.34. That is not PayPal t&c

[Rollo]

If somebody is going to set out to scam customers using a Paypal account they would be very stupid to register correct details through which they can be traced.