Scammed $886 ;'(

[Russ]

I would agree with others, I'm sorry to say you have been taken for an expensive ride on the roller coaster of no return :( I buy a fair bit from eBay and use PayPal all the time for my purchases and wherever possible I also use it for other online purchases where it is available. I still believe it is one of the safest ways to buy and sell goods but unfortunately there are a lot of scams going on out there where emails and certain information contained within them is being stolen on route via the internet. I recently received 2 scam emails after making purchases on eBay and using PayPal to pay for them. These emails appeared to be quite legitimate and had the correct PayPal logo's etc.....contained within them, they were requesting that I Logon via a link within the email to confirm or decline a recent purchase (which luckily I had already received and finalised a few weeks earlier) I smelled a rat and as such forwarded the email to PayPal who in turn responded to say it wasn't from them. I am very sorry for the OP and although it may seem all plain and simple to others that it was a scam, some of these emails are very realistic and persuasive and to the inexperienced online shopper, they look legitimate :( For the OP's benefit I can assure you will not be the first or the last person to be stung like this but PayPal is still one of the safer ways of transferring funds over the internet, just be sure in the future when selling - make sure the funds have cleared before shipping off an item. When buying - it's still safer to use PayPal than making a direct deposit into a bank account and always check out other buyers and sellers feedback before buying from them or selling to them. One additional piece of advice I would advise before you make any more purchases online, change your PayPal password and if you ever suspect something just doesn't sound right send eBay or PayPal a quick email and get clarification, they usually respond within 24 to 48 hours. Hopefully your future online shopping experiences will be a lot more enjoyable than your last one was