Scammed on eBay (as seller) any recourse?

I sold three separate iTunes Gift Cards on eBay to the same buyer over a span of a week in three separate sales.
They were all paid for and I sent them to the buyer. The buyer also requested me to send them via email so he could use them sooner.
I received three emails from PayPal today saying that it believes the charges to be fraudulent and they placed a hold on my account for the duration of the "investigation."
I did NOT send the third code (fortunately) because the sale only occurred last night.
I am currently out the $80 that was paid for the two cards (thanks FW for the 20% discount!) and PayPal says that because (1) they are gift cards and (2) I emailed the codes to the buyer that I am not eligible for Seller Protection and will not be seeing the money again.
I checked the two cards and they have both been redeemed.

During the time frame of the sales, the buyer changed their address, name, phone number, email address, etc. which is what tipped PayPal off most likely (the info is different for the third card).
I had no way of knowing that the buyer wasn't legitimate and now I have lost $80. Is there anything I can do to recoup the money?

Thanks for the assistance and I now know to never sell gift cards on eBay (well, I suppose I should just avoid eBay and their little buddy PayPal altogether).
Let me assure you, PayPal is not my pal.

Read terms next time on giftcard sales. You have to have a shipping record - never email em. You are out.

Always have a shipping record. Always. Too many people are hacking Paypal accounts, setting up fake eBay accounts, using stolen credit card numbers, etc. They buy gift cards as a way of quickly cashing in. Amazon and iTunes are some of the most popular targets, but by no means the exclusive ones. If you must transact gift cards on eBay, make sure you know your seller. Check their feedback rating. If they have no feedback, have an account less than a month old, or have purchased a ton of giftcards in the previous days, cancel the sale.

I think there's very little you can do at this point, but I wish you the best.

jwmoldy said:   Always have a shipping record. Always. Too many people are hacking Paypal accounts, setting up fake eBay accounts, using stolen credit card numbers, etc. They buy gift cards as a way of quickly cashing in. Amazon and iTunes are some of the most popular targets, but by no means the exclusive ones. If you must transact gift cards on eBay, make sure you know your seller. Check their feedback rating. If they have no feedback, have an account less than a month old, or have purchased a ton of giftcards in the previous days, cancel the sale.

I think there's very little you can do at this point, but I wish you the best.

Having a shipping record for gift card stuff, though, is pointless. I prefer to just e-mail it because at least that way if I'm getting scammed, I'm not also out the shipping costs. You are at the whimsy of the buyer with gift cards on eBay (well, you're at the whimsey of the buyer on eBay period, but especially with gift cards) so going the e-mail route is a way to mitigate damages. Buyers that are out to scam you can just tell eBay/paypal that the gift card was without value when they received it and you are screwed even with a delivery confirmation, so saving the money to ship it (even if it's just a stamp) is worth it, IMO.

raringvt said:   eBay + gift card = SCAM. Keep this in mind when buying and selling gift cards and you will be ok.This is an oversimplification, to put it mildly. I have bought hundreds of gift cards on eBay over the past few years. I buy only from high-volume sellers with near perfect feedback. 95% of the time, the cards have arrived as expected. Whenever I have had to file a claim for non-delivery, eBay/PayPal has refunded my funds efficiently and promptly.
On the sell side (I've sold maybe 100 during the same time period), one does have to exercise caution - no mailing of codes, cancellation of sales to buyers with no/low FB, no foreign buyers, sig confirmation, etc.

kjgco said:   no mailing of codes

You mean no emailing? Or no mailing?

Pay-Pal is ridiculous. I sold a spear-gun to a buyer and it was allegedly damaged in transit(although he would not send pictures). As a seller you are responsible for the item whether the buyer declined insurance or not. Tracking info showing delivery is not enough. It went in the buyer's favor, but he did not return the item so I got them to release the hold on my account after three months of BS.

jwmoldy said:   If you must transact gift cards on eBay, make sure you know your seller. Check their feedback rating. If they have no feedback, have an account less than a month old, or have purchased a ton of giftcards in the previous days, cancel the sale.
Wouldn't it be nice if eBay had a feature where you could prevent the sale in the first place if the buyer has, say, a new account or doesn't have sufficient feedback? If they have that option now, I don't see it, only these:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences

cloverboy said:   Pay-Pal is ridiculous. I sold a spear-gun to a buyer and it was allegedly damaged in transit(although he would not send pictures). As a seller you are responsible for the item whether the buyer declined insurance or not. Tracking info showing delivery is not enough. It went in the buyer's favor, but he did not return the item so I got them to release the hold on my account after three months of BS.insurance is for your protection, not buyers.

raringvt said:   eBay + gift card = SCAM. Keep this in mind when buying and selling gift cards and you will be ok.

Not really. I bought many egift cards from eBay and never had any issue.

BradMajors said:   You can still USPS mail the gift card code on a piece of mail with tracking and thereby provide proof to eBay that the gift card was delivered.

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I filed a PayPal dispute in which the seller emailed me saying that the auction price was too low and he would not mail me the item. At the same time, he set the shipping status as "shipped" and gave eBay a tracking number of "000000000".

PayPal emailed me that the tracking information shows that the package was delivered to my address.

If only there was some invention that you would actually SPEAK to someone at Paypal, and have them actually look at it, since it would be fairly obvious to any human that it was not a valid tracking #, and the 0000000000 is acceptable only to a computer program..

Someday that dream will be reality... </sarcasm>

Thank you for that explanation. I would just assume now that anyone bidding over face value of a gift card is some sort of scammer, and I wouldn't ship item.

I emailed the code to the buyer. Then got the paypal dispute email yesterday asking for delivery proof. Is it too late to mail the already redeemed code today? I'll get the proof of delivery usps with the tracking number and paypal won't be able to tell when the card was actually shipped. Thanks so much for your help....

That's exactly what I did too I mailed the empty card to the confirmed paypal address then emailed paypal the tracking number the day that usps showed it was delieverd. I also took a picture of the Amazon card right below mailing, and a screen shot of the Amazon card code showing that it was claimed, and finally the eBay email that the purchaser requested the code from me electronically. we'll see what happens with paypal =( crosses fingers! thanks for your reply!

newnewdoe said:   I think its happening to me right now. So I know not to give out the codes.. but what will happen if I dont give the scammer the code?

Contact the buyer and say that you are unable to e-mail the code but will send it out via USPS. If your listing states that you would e-mail the code then you'll have more difficulty doing this.

If you think there's something wrong and have not sent the code refund the payment. Then go through eBay to try and cancel the transaction in order to get some of your fees back. The buyer can refuse to cancel the transaction, but must do so within 7 days. I would send the buyer a message stating that you are not sending the code and giving an excuse why. Apologize for any inconveniences. It may not be pretty and you may get a ding on your feedback if the buyer is anal about it. But if it is a scammer most likely he'll just forget about it and move on and you'll still have your claim code.

How do you find the buyers paypal address?

I have run into this same issue, should i just mail the physical card to the address?

I have already informed paypal and eBay that it was given via email.

I have printed a shipping label for today though, I haven't mailed it out yet but the date has today's date (9/13/12) and the claim was made this morning.