Please help me get my domain name back! I was scammed!

[rookers]

Hello,

I would like to ask for your help in getting my domain name back. I sold a web site yesterday through the sitepoint's marketplace. The "buyer" paid with paypal and 5 minutes after I sent him the domain name. Domain is registered to GoDaddy and i pushed it to his godaddy account. A few hours later I have received an email from paypal saying that the payment i received was unauthorized. Well it seems that he paid using someone else's paypal account.

The dispute is still open, I called paypal however they said that the real account owner should be getting his money back so I think i will lose the funds and I dont have the domain name anymore.

Now, my question is this: have anyone of you been a victim like me? And do i have a chance of getting my domain name back ?

If you have any information that might help about getting my domain name back, please let me know.

[Dan Grossman]

Your only chance of getting it back is to call GoDaddy as soon as possible.

[rookers]

Thank you Dan for your response.

I have notified GoDaddy about this issue and I am waiting for their reponse. I wanted to know if there are other people here who went through the same problem.

[SergeMD]

I've heard of that issue when you sell GoDaddy regeistered domains via paypal, and I also heard GoDaddy simply doesn't deal with it, but you can surely try, let us know what happened.

One more question though. When you sold the domain have you actually issued an invoice via paypal or simply got the funds received? When paypal reviews the transaction they will require additional documents, like the emails between you and buyer, etc. something to prove you sent the goods (bill of landing, shipment, etc) in your case could be the domain transfer statement from GoDaddy and the emails you had. That is what I assume should be like, I haven't been into a similar situation, so I'm not sure. Maybe others know more.

[Dan Grossman]

If the person he's been talking to is not the person who owns the PayPal account that was used, none of that evidence helps him. It can't be held against some innocent 3rd party whose account was stolen.

[mrwebo]

My suggestion is to not use paypal for any domain related transactions,no mater what the amount.Paypal will not help you,and will only do a charge back so basiclly you have lost your domain and money plus bank fees.My suggestion is to try and do a reversal ASAP with godaddy it worked for me once but had to take legal actions.

[reviewman]

You should always take payment from verified paypal user, so it won't happen to you again

[ozcan]

Well, what was the outcome?

A feedback would be great!

Did you get back your domain?

[MyDomAinZ.us]

Paypal is not safe for domain selling and purchasing. escrow.com is most safe for such deals.

I am pretty sure GoDaddy will not be helpful at all in this case (they are otherwise also not - our own experience).

The claim was not unauthorised. This is only a trick to scam the people and get their email ID to sell the IDs to promotional companies to send unwanted emails.

We recently recieved many such activities where user purchased hosting, paid through Paypal and once account is created, he claimed payment as 'unauthorised' and we started recieving junk mail on our email ID.

Take care and never complete a sale immediatelly. Take almost 7 days to move domains. We noticed many sellers are taking time to complete the sale. Paypal considers immediate dispute lodged as valid and favours buyers.

Good luck.

[bamaboy]

i always prefer payments from verified users only

however in your condition, the next step should be to contact the buyer and get it settled.

[jervin69]

when you push a domain in Go Daddy, there is typically a period of 15 days which is allowed for disputes. You need a LOT of documentation though. Hopefully you have all of that! good luck

[SiberForum]

You have problems with paypal. I suppose that you need contact the guy you have sold domain name to. I guess that godaddy might not help you in this situation.

[wofer]

nobody will help you, just the guy know very well the rules of PayPal and Godaddy and stole domain from people who preffer to do bussiness this way. My suggestion is to do bussiness only with verified members, doesn`t metter what you going to use, ESCROW, PayPal.... i usually sell my domains in ebay cuz they can protect me a little bit but i sell only user who has over 20points

[repossess]

I would never sell a domain name using anything but a reputable escrow service

[wofer]

I would never sell a domain name using anything but a reputable escrow service

yeah but if you sell domain for 20-30$ you have to pay to much for tax in escrow

[repossess]

a 20,30 sale would not be worthwhile. I am referring to 500.00 and up

[Fastsitebuy]

You always want to use Escrow(dotcom) when selling a domain name. They will insure you against this. If this is a $30 sale...consider it a cheap education and get on with your next deal.

[Coupon Codes]

You should always take payment from verified paypal user, so it won't happen to you again

I'm a little worried now as I often sell domains online and I never thought to check on if they are verified or not but will remember this in future and I think the OP should too.

[Dan Grossman]

Checking that an account is verified provides no extra protection against unauthorized payments. It's just as easy to steal the password of a verified account as an unferified one.

[tke71709]

Send an e-mail to the address listed for the paypal user asking them to confirm the purchase before you do any pushes.

Someone may have hacked or phished someone's paypal information but it's unlikely that they will also have access to the e-mail account of the person as well.

[Anat]

Checking that an account is verified provides no extra protection against unauthorized payments. It's just as easy to steal the password of a verified account as an unferified one.

What he said. Verified is meaningless when the account is taken over by a scammer.

This being an old thread, I'd be interested in an update too.

[Dan Grossman]

Send an e-mail to the address listed for the paypal user asking them to confirm the purchase before you do any pushes.

Someone may have hacked or phished someone's paypal information but it's unlikely that they will also have access to the e-mail account of the person as well.

Once they have access to the PayPal account, they can add their own mail and set it as the primary. It's one of the first things the pros do, so the account holder doesn't get all the receipt mails.