Sort of off topic but... does anyone actually get away with PayPal scamming? I don't know anyone who wouldn't bother opening a dispute after being scammed out of >=$100, and it seems like PayPal always sides with the buyer.
I wonder about that as well. It seems odd. Maybe if they get the money out fast enough? Does placing a dispute hold the funds? I guess that is a question I need to ask paypal.
Yes.. when you file a dispute - paypal will lock the funds away until it is resolved. They do that to protect themselves from losing the money for those exact reasons.
Thing is though if you get the money out of paypal quickly enough and then out of the bank account quickly you're in the clear as a scammer. I say this because I've sold things and had funds held by paypal because of buyer fraud (stolen cc) and all that happens is you show a negative balance in paypal while the funds are held. They don't take them out of the bank or anything unless you try to use your paypal. So if you transfered out of paypal to your bank quickly and then took the money out of the account at the bank and then closed the account with the bank, you as the scammer got yours. Paypal is screwed and eats the loss there. In my situation since I had seller protection they had to eat the losses with the credit card fraud.
So this is why scammers do this, it's a nice loop hole if you move quick enough.