Need Advice about some PayPal Transactions

What's the problem? I say take the money and run.

The problem is that these people could have used a stolen/hacked credit cards for payment. Being unverified members, they would have signed up recently and their CC not verified. All are high value transactions from people with strange e-mail addresses. If they were normal CC transctions, I would have CVS and AVS data to check.

You can't take the money and run in the event of a chargeback. That is unless you want to close your PayPal account permanently but this is dishonest...

It may also depend on (i) whether you fall within Paypal's Seller Protection Program (not sure what their requirements are these days...), (ii) even if you qualify, to what extent you can expect you can rely on it if the issue is tested, and (iii) if these are fraudulent cards being used, whether the original cardholder would have likely noticed and complained given the period of time that has lapsed.

When I started out, I once shipped out a high value item under similarly "suspicious" circumstances. It turned out to be a dud the next day after the original card holder complained. Paypal wouldn't cover it, but fortunately the timing was such that I was able to get HK Post/TNT to send the item back to me even after it had shipped. I 'only' lost the HK$300 or so in shipping fees...

Do a Google search on the people in question. As to the free email account lots of people are using these to avoid getting spammed by companies they buy from. Some types of merchandize are at high risk from fraud and lots of others aren't. I don't think we know enough.

I really think you should go to your Paypal account, Profile and consider changing Payment Receiving Preferences--for example Block payments from U.S. users who do not provide a Confirmed Address, Block Payments from users who Have non-U.S. PayPal accounts, Block payments sent to me in a currency I do not hold (there are Yes, No, Ask Me options)

I have tried but could not find any information about the persons through Google. I am not against free e-mail addresses but the characters are like agc1223jx@hotmail.com

The order from the US did include high risk items
The order from Spain did not have high risk items but the customer tried unsuccessfully 5 times to pay with credit cards
The order from Mexico did not have high risk items

I have had this happen in the past year or so. Over 1,000 dollar purchase, shipped overnight (of course) and the name for shipping is:

ajghhs asjjkhg
asdf st.
ashder, CA 92111

and the phone number is usually in the same area as the zip code BUT when you google it, it usually leads to an result not consistant with the person buying.

**DONT take the money and run, all of these transactions were reversed once the chargeback was put in place. In one case it took about 8 weeks before the reversal**

Leave the money where it is until you hear from Paypal. That is what we did and good thing, since they all charged back and we didn't have to worry about getting funds into paypal to cover anything like that.

Good thread, it's important to check on these things if you can.

If you aren't going to ship a product for a particular purchase, use the Refund link on the Transaction Details page to refund the payment. Do not keep the funds in your account and wait for a chargeback - you will be charged a chargeback fee if the cardholder files a chargeback with their card issuer.

Good point, I guess I should have looked a little closer and thought a little more about it.

Thanks for your opinions, after examining these orders carefully, I have decided to ship them. But we will contact the customers first to check whether their details are consistent or not. We do have some details of the credit cards used in two of these orders. Althouth they were declined by Worldpay, the details were consistent. Also taken into consideration was the fact that the products ordered were mainly low risk items that were not highly resellable.