Sold Fraudulent Amazon Gift Card - Balance Withdrawn By Amazon

allen5055

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2012
Messages
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I've been advertising to buy Amazon gift cards on here for a while, and I've bought many. I was approached by a new user, JohnPanatau, at the end of September. He offered to sell me gift cards for a ridiculous price, $75 for every $100 Amazon gift card, and then sent the cards before I paid him via Paypal invoice. I called Amazon and they said that if the cards were applied to my balance and worked I had nothing to worry about. I applied the gift cards, they showed up on my Amazon gift card balance, then paid the guy.

Today I noticed that $100 was taken away from my gift card balance. Apparently one of the cards was bought with an account which has since been closed and is now being investigated. The purchases were rescinded, and I've lost that gift card. I may lose the others as well, depending on if they were from the same account. The investigation of the account happens in phases according to the Amazon rep, and other purchases from the account being investigated may be repealed. Even if the other gift cards were bought with different accounts, I may lose them if they were somehow purchased in a similar manner by the guy.

Johnpantau has already been banned on this forum for offering to sell gift cards via PM, but I wanted to warn everyone. I thought that if the cards were able to be applied I had nothing to worry about. A representative specifically told me that if they were able to be applied to my account I had nothing to worry about and could not lose them. Apparently that isn't the case.

EDIT: Amazon is going to send me an email. However, they don't explain the situation at all. They will not verify when I applied it to my account, or why it was taken away for privacy reasons. Here's what they wrote.

"I'm very sorry to hear about the trouble you've had trying to use your gift card. I've checked our records, and the claim code you included in your message is indeed not available for use. I recommend contacting the person who bought the gift card for more information. If they feel this is an error please have them contact us directly with this matter."
 
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Did you pay with a credit card through PayPal? First file a dispute with PayPal then call your credit card company.
 
Good luck mate. I hope you are able to recover your funds or at least get credit with Amazon some way. I think that is pretty shitty of Amazon since they told you that if the cards applied you had nothing to worry about. I normally hear good things about their customer service and I know that they are victims to this type of thing all the time but its not cool that they aren't helping you after you did everything you could to verify the cards.
 
EDIT: Amazon is going to send me an email. They will include the gift card confirmation code, the date it was applied to my account, the amount, and why they are taking it back. I think this email would be sufficient to win me back my money from Paypal. Is there any other information I might need?

did you pay with cc? if not file a claim asap, if he is a scammer he will have withdrawn fund quickly.
 
This is what Amazon was willing to email me. It pretty much says nothing. Makes it sound like I just bought it and the code didn't work.

"I'm very sorry to hear about the trouble you've had trying to use your gift card. I've checked our records, and the claim code you included in your message is indeed not available for use. I recommend contacting the person who bought the gift card for more information. If they feel this is an error please have them contact us directly with this matter."
 
If it's too good to be true... it probably is.

Chalk it up as a lesson learned. Don't deal with anything that appears even remotely shady.
 
This is what Amazon was willing to email me. It pretty much says nothing. Makes it sound like I just bought it and the code didn't work.

"I'm very sorry to hear about the trouble you've had trying to use your gift card. I've checked our records, and the claim code you included in your message is indeed not available for use. I recommend contacting the person who bought the gift card for more information. If they feel this is an error please have them contact us directly with this matter."

see the problem is amazon doesn't know where you brought the card from. all they know is you put in a claim fro a card that was invalid.
 
Just last week this same user tried to sell me some Best Buy GC at 85% of face value. It's a good deal but I had a gut feeling something was fishy. He wasn't able to provide me the physical card and he was so much in a rush to complete the trade that I knew something was wrong. I'm glad I backed out.

There's another user selling GC that is also based out of Indonesia. I'm not saying they are related but be on the look out.
 
Instead of shooting around emails - this is one of those cases that are better handled on the phone.

Just call amazon up and tell them your story.

I hope you didn't buy too many
 
Instead of shooting around emails - this is one of those cases that are better handled on the phone.

Just call amazon up and tell them your story.

I hope you didn't buy too many

Lol, I did call them. They understood perfectly on the phone, but that little email was all they would give me. I can't prove that I didn't buy it myself and they don't want to help me potentially defraud paypal or something like that.
 
I suggest only trading with those that have good heatware when it comes to currency in exchange for credit transactions. Did he even have heatware?
 
lets see
get stolen credit card number
buy lots of gift cards
sell them @ 85%
$$PROFIT$$

guys you should know better than falling for this shit
 
Lol, I did call them. They understood perfectly on the phone, but that little email was all they would give me. I can't prove that I didn't buy it myself and they don't want to help me potentially defraud paypal or something like that.

How did you pay? Paypal....balance? Credit card through paypal? Let me know as I may have a solution. :)

Also, you can use the fact that an Amazon rep said, " I called Amazon and they said that if the cards were applied to my balance and worked I had nothing to worry about." They really said that right? They should have it recorded BTW. Ask them to pull up the log for that day and time that your phone records indicated(after you figure that out through looking through your phone records) that you spoke to a rep.
 
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Looks like he's been selling them for a while elsewhere (and scammed other people elsewhere) (found this by heatware email search: http://www.styleforum.net/forums/posts/by_user/id/148833

Also if you just do a search on their email address, you see enough random stuff that I would have never bought anything from them in the first place, personally.

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It looks like to me that they could be running a money laundering operation.

*edit*
Man, after looking around about 10 minutes, finding several aliases that this person has, they are scamming a lot of people. It doesn't take too much time to google people's email adresses and names, etc...

If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

I would also suggest you leave this person bad heat. I know they will just create another alias... but on the heatware you could put several of their aliases and it might help tie them to other people that have been scammed by them.
 
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Looks like he's been selling them for a while elsewhere (and scammed other people elsewhere) (found this by heatware email search: http://www.styleforum.net/forums/posts/by_user/id/148833

Also if you just do a search on their email address, you see enough random stuff that I would have never bought anything from them in the first place, personally.

8104984260_a4a3197de6_n.jpg


It looks like to me that they could be running a money laundering operation.

*edit*
Man, after looking around about 10 minutes, finding several aliases that this person has, they are scamming a lot of people. It doesn't take too much time to google people's email adresses and names, etc...

If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

I would also suggest you leave this person bad heat. I know they will just create another alias... but on the heatware you could put several of their aliases and it might help tie them to other people that have been scammed by them.

Nice job searching. :eek:
 
How did you pay? Paypal....balance? Credit card through paypal? Let me know as I may have a solution. :)

Also, you can use the fact that an Amazon rep said, " I called Amazon and they said that if the cards were applied to my balance and worked I had nothing to worry about." They really said that right? They should have it recorded BTW. Ask them to pull up the log for that day and time that your phone records indicated(after you figure that out through looking through your phone records) that you spoke to a rep.

I paid through Paypal balance unfortunately. Right now I have $200 in gift cards that are still good but I expect that those will disappear.

I never thought about searching his email address for other heatware aliases.

Paypal has a 45 day limit for filing a claim. I have $200 more in gift cards that are currently good but that i would not be surprised to see them go as well. I bought these at the end of September, so what do I do when the 45-day limit is coming up?

I escalated the Paypal dispute to a claim this morning. Unfortunately, I paid this guy using Paypal balance.
 
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I paid through Paypal balance unfortunately. Right now I have $200 in gift cards that are still good but I expect that those will disappear.

I never thought about searching his email address for other heatware aliases.

What's your solution?

Have you filed a Paypal claim yet? The longer you wait the less chance they have to freeze the money in his account.
 
Have you filed a Paypal claim yet? The longer you wait the less chance they have to freeze the money in his account.

Paypal has a 45 day limit for filing a claim. I have $200 more in gift cards that are currently good but that i would not be surprised to see them go as well. I bought these at the end of September, so what do I do when the 45-day limit is coming up?

I escalated the Paypal dispute to a claim this morning. Unfortunately, I paid this guy using Paypal balance.
 
I bet I know who this is..in Hernando county,FL
his paypal is some girl pornstar name.
 
This user was selling these through PM and with only 5 posts was not able to participate in FS/FT ,this should have been an indication that something was not right....

He was banned as soon as we found out what he was up to.

I'm sorry that you got scammed, but this is one of many reasons that we discourage trading through PM
 
Paypal has a 45 day limit for filing a claim. I have $200 more in gift cards that are currently good but that i would not be surprised to see them go as well. I bought these at the end of September, so what do I do when the 45-day limit is coming up?

I escalated the Paypal dispute to a claim this morning. Unfortunately, I paid this guy using Paypal balance.

I thought this happened recently in which case if you filed a dispute/claim paypal will freeze the monies in his/her account so it cannot be withdrawn. If it was so long ago and if he is indeed a scammer the money most likely will not be in his account.

Even if you win claim now unless there is money in the account you will prolly still be out the funds. Gotta be careful how you buy here and alll the forums.
 
I paid through Paypal balance unfortunately. Right now I have $200 in gift cards that are still good but I expect that those will disappear.

I never thought about searching his email address for other heatware aliases.

Paypal has a 45 day limit for filing a claim. I have $200 more in gift cards that are currently good but that i would not be surprised to see them go as well. I bought these at the end of September, so what do I do when the 45-day limit is coming up?

I escalated the Paypal dispute to a claim this morning. Unfortunately, I paid this guy using Paypal balance.

Were the remainder of this $200 in gift cards purchased from this same individual? If so, I'd file a claim immediately on the pretext that they were purchased fraudulently and then resold, along with the other gift card that was already revoked.

"Item not as described."

File a claim now, let paypal sort it out later. Honestly, you really need to get a claim in and get the evidence to them so they can get this fool's account locked anyway.
 
I filed a paypal claim and they denied me.

Thanks paypal, I'm glad I pay the 3% everytime, you guys sure are looking out for me.
 
I filed a paypal claim and they denied me.

Thanks paypal, I'm glad I pay the 3% everytime, you guys sure are looking out for me.

Ouch, was this related to the same giftcard scammer or something different?
 
Yes, this same guy, $300 worth

How did you present the dispute to Paypal? Did you tell them you were sold fraudulent merchandise? Or did you tell them something else? I'm curious to see what Paypal's rationale is on this one.
 
How did you present the dispute to Paypal? Did you tell them you were sold fraudulent merchandise? Or did you tell them something else? I'm curious to see what Paypal's rationale is on this one.

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I think in this case it's better to call them and explain it than to use their online system. Sometimes a real human can get things going in the right direction. It seems with these PP dispute, they toss a coin and stick to it. I wouldn't put any faith in PP to do the right thing.

<-- been screwed by PP too many times.
 
They said that since it was 'virtual goods' it was not protected, unfortunately
 
They said that since it was 'virtual goods' it was not protected, unfortunately

And...Chase ftw. Just called them, said the money would be back on my card in 72 hours. I am not sure what would happen if you paid with bank funds though.
 
Chase will probably get you to sign off on some paper and you'll get your money back. They will take it back from PP though so PP might suspend/terminate your account.
 
Chase will probably get you to sign off on some paper and you'll get your money back. They will take it back from PP though so PP might suspend/terminate your account.

This exaclty. Chase will take it from PayPal and you will now owe PP those funds.
 
Chase will probably get you to sign off on some paper and you'll get your money back. They will take it back from PP though so PP might suspend/terminate your account.

And take you to collections.
 
This exaclty. Chase will take it from PayPal and you will now owe PP those funds.

And take you to collections.

Chase will probably get you to sign off on some paper and you'll get your money back. They will take it back from PP though so PP might suspend/terminate your account.

There's a clause in many credit card merchant agreements that says you cannot attempt to collect funds returned in a dispute via other means if the dispute was resolved in the buyer's favor. So that may be not legal for PayPal to do. I used to do card processing and I know this for a fact.
 
There's a clause in many credit card merchant agreements that says you cannot attempt to collect funds returned in a dispute via other means if the dispute was resolved in the buyer's favor. So that may be not legal for PayPal to do. I used to do card processing and I know this for a fact.

Not true at all. There is no dispute with a chargeback, you can do a chargeback on damn near anything for damn near any reason. Also Paypal has clear terms for this situation. If you chargeback a PayPal deal you will owe them and if you don't pay you will be taken to collections.

I did card processing for years here in town through a company that managed guthy renker deals (infomercial shit) and know for a fact you are dead wrong.

When you enter into a deal with a company you are subject to the terms of that company. Sure you can do a chargeback but that don't negate the deal you agreed to with that company at the time of purchase.

Daily I dealt with morons that would buy the product and ignore the terms and never realize they signed up for a subscription so when the new shipment came and the new bill was charged would chargeback and call me freaking out. People think credit card chargebacks are some magic button that makes the charge go away and it's a fantasy. When you use PayPal or sign up for shit you are legally responsible to follow those terms.
 
I called paypal and they told me to go to my credit card company. I am not sure why they would say that if they are just going to charge me for it anyway
 
I called paypal and they told me to go to my credit card company. I am not sure why they would say that if they are just going to charge me for it anyway

should have recorded that call for future use. because paypal WILL want that money back regardless of what their CSR's tell you. alot of people you see not using paypal now days is because of this sole reason, they got scammed, paypal wouldnt help so chargeback was done, now paypal wants their money back so they close account and bring you to collections.
 
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