Scamming Buyer and How to Cancel Order without issuing refund

[kohlmane51]

Hi,
Explanation below tldr

TLDR: Is there a way to cancel a purchase without having to refund the buyer? I don’t want to refund the buyer because they scammed me.

I recently tried to sell my laptop but was nearly scammed. So this person in the US bought my laptop and then requested my phone number to handle the payment. The next day they sent in the ‘payment’ in the form of a PayPal scam email requesting my shipping number in order to receive payment. I didn’t think much of it at the beginning, it seemed like a legit PayPal thing. I should have checked it better but the email was fake in the end. So I ended up shipping my laptop off thinking it was still legit. The buyer also demanded overnight shipping because she was “shipping it to her sister for her birthday the next day.” So I sent it off thinking I will still get the money. The next day I wake up and the payment still hasn’t showed up. So I thought I would cancel it because I checked the email and noticed it was fake. I called Fedex to have it stopped and sent back. The laptop is safe and all I lost was the money for shipping. The buyer hasn’t contacted me since. I want to cancel the purchase but when I try it tells me I need to refund the buyer. But I don’t want to since the buyer tried to scam me.

[nostalgicaftertaste]

Maybe I'm missing something, but if formal payment was never received, what is there to be refunded?

Also, block them immediately if you haven't already done so.

[lady.stark]

Did you check your PayPal account to see if the money was there?

If the money is not there, open a non-payment dispute. After 4 days, if the buyer still did not pay, you will be able to close the case to get your eBay fees back and cancel the order.

[reallynicestamps]

Just to be clear, when you received the fake payment, did either you OR THE SCAMMER, mark the transaction as paid?

This can be done manually, because Local Pickups are usually paid in cash with no papertrail, but the option can be misused.

[femmefan1946]

@kohlmane51 

And if he can mark it Paid manually, you can mark it Unpaid manually.

Don't try to Cancel the purchase.

You want the Resolution Centre at the bottom of this page and an Unpaid Item Dispute.

The scammer did not pay and cannot show payment (checking off Paid on eBay proves nothing, he needs an electronic proof of payment).

You should win the Dispute (escalate it as soon as possible, about 96 hours after opening) and get your FVF back. He will not be able to leave feedback and will get a Strike on his buying account. (which is more serious than it sounds)

You should also go to your Seller Preferences/Buyer Requirements and opt to Block deadbeats with Unpaid Item Strikes.