Source: EGS

Summary: 99.9% of the time you should not accept unverified payments. PayPal makes it easy enough for normal citizens to get this verification. This is especially true for Americans and Canadians. So the only legit reason I accept is I just signed up for a PayPal account and getting verification tomorrow in which case I will wait.

eGaming Supply username: michael_ffxi accepted an unverified PayPal payment for $350 CAD. EGS: michael_ffxi expects to be able to recover the FFXI account. He's now asking if he should keep the $350 CAD if he wins the PayPal dispute?

My comments: I know a lot of you have been scammed in the past including me, so when there's an opportunity to get money back, you'll jump on it. The first question you need to answer is were you scammed by the PayPal account owner or someone else? If it was someone else, was there enough info to know if the PayPal account owner was involved as part an elaborate scheme to scam you. Or was this account hacked? Most likely it's the latter.

Now if the PayPal account was hacked, did the PayPal owner take precautions to secure his account or did he just post his PayPal password online for the world to see.

PayPal will make open their own investigation and so will most trading forums, but depending on whether you lie or not, you could significantly influence your results.

Now to answer the question. If you were able to recover your virtual goods and won the dispute against a hacked PayPal account, then you have no right to keep that money and would make you a scammer.

If you were not able to recover your virtual goods against a hacked PayPal account, then it will depend if the PayPal owner is negligent. 99% of the time, PayPal will investigate and reward the funds back to the buyer regardless of what evidence is sent by the seller.

If the PayPal account was not hacked, and you were or were able to recover your virtual goods plus win the PayPal dispute, then you should not keep that money as it's not yours. I'd look for previous victims, and give it back. If there are no previous victims, then it's up to you. Maybe a nice charity donation.

Keep in mind, even if you win the PayPal dispute, the buyer can still file a chargeback afterwards where you may not win.

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