PayPal Help - Simple Question/Concern

Status
Not open for further replies.

innerfire

New Member
The story has some depth to it, but I'll try to keep it brief for the sake of the people trying to lend me a hand. I created a PayPal account with bogus information under the assumption that everybody could access my address/name, etc. I wasn't too familiar with their security measures and felt safer this way. I understand that I misrepresented myself and that PayPal treats their customer's information with a lot of care, aside from your name being displayed to everybody you trade with. You don't have the option of changing your name/address linked to your PayPal account after you sign-up.

In any case, after having a few successful trades of virtual goods - somebody initiated a charge back against me for a fairly large amount. $120. I could not dispute this due to the fact that my sign-up information wasn't real. I wound up with a negative balance, about -$80. Regardless of how pissed off I was, I knew it was my responsibility to pay them back, so I did. They were phoned up and had the situation explained to them, they just wanted a money order given so the account can be brought a 0. Once the payment gets processed I plan to close the account. Evading the privacy concerns is absolutely not worth the trouble you deal with from not being able to dispute scams, etc.

This brings me to my law related question, could they be bitter about my initial sign-up with false information and subsequently forward it to police thinking that it is fraud? No user I traded with was defrauded or anything like that. In the end I am the only one that lost money due to this whole ordeal. I am waiting any day now for the payment to be processed. I guess I'm just paranoid thinking about the other side of the spectrum. Sorry if this was a long read, I tried to make it as brief and concise as possible. Any of your thoughts regarding this matter are encouraged.
 
The story has some depth to it, but I'll try to keep it brief for the sake of the people trying to lend me a hand. I created a PayPal account with bogus information under the assumption that everybody could access my address/name, etc. I wasn't too familiar with their security measures and felt safer this way. I understand that I misrepresented myself and that PayPal treats their customer's information with a lot of care, aside from your name being displayed to everybody you trade with. You don't have the option of changing your name/address linked to your PayPal account after you sign-up.

In any case, after having a few successful trades of virtual goods - somebody initiated a charge back against me for a fairly large amount. $120. I could not dispute this due to the fact that my sign-up information wasn't real. I wound up with a negative balance, about -$80. Regardless of how pissed off I was, I knew it was my responsibility to pay them back, so I did. They were phoned up and had the situation explained to them, they just wanted a money order given so the account can be brought a 0. Once the payment gets processed I plan to close the account. Evading the privacy concerns is absolutely not worth the trouble you deal with from not being able to dispute scams, etc.

This brings me to my law related question, could they be bitter about my initial sign-up with false information and subsequently forward it to police thinking that it is fraud? No user I traded with was defrauded or anything like that. In the end I am the only one that lost money due to this whole ordeal. I am waiting any day now for the payment to be processed. I guess I'm just paranoid thinking about the other side of the spectrum. Sorry if this was a long read, I tried to make it as brief and concise as possible. Any of your thoughts regarding this matter are encouraged.


If anyone answered your question they'd be psychic or psychotic.
There is no way to tell what PayPal could or would do.
That said, the amount involved was small.
I'd be surprised if anything else occurred.
PayPal has their money, the customer (aka, SCAMMER) has been satisfied, you're no longer going to use the account.
This should be the END of THAT!!!!!
 
If anyone answered your question they'd be psychic or psychotic.
There is no way to tell what PayPal could or would do.
That said, the amount involved was small.
I'd be surprised if anything else occurred.
PayPal has their money, the customer (aka, SCAMMER) has been satisfied, you're no longer going to use the account.
This should be the END of THAT!!!!!

Thank you very much for the timely response army judge.

I was pretty much thinking the same thing, but it doesn't hurt to have more opinions. I'll be a bit more specific and ask if worst comes to worst and PayPal reports this, do you believe that they even have a fraud case with this?
 
Last edited:
Thank you very much for the timely response army judge.

I was pretty much thinking the same thing, but it doesn't hurt to have more opinions. I'll be a bit more specific and ask if worst comes to worst and PayPal reports this, do you believe that they even have a fraud case with this?


No, because they accepted the money.
And, whatever you did, it wasn't fraud.
Fraud is a specific intent crime.
You never formed the mens rea required to commit fraud.
 
No, because they accepted the money.
And, whatever you did, it wasn't fraud.
Fraud is a specific intent crime.
You never formed the mens rea required to commit fraud.

Thank you so much, really. I've actually been losing sleep over this thinking I'd be accused of identity fraud and I really appreciate your help. Is mens rea a legal term?
 
Thank you so much, really. I've actually been losing sleep over this thinking I'd be accused of identity fraud and I really appreciate your help. Is mens rea a legal term?

Yes, mens rea means the state of mind (guilty intent) to form the requisite intent, in your case the requisite intent to defraud.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ask a Question

Back
Top