I'm so frustrated so there will be a lot of mistakes in my writing, I apologize for that!

Here's the timeline:

Sep 7 The seller whose address shows Brooklyn NY bought a $300 Kohl's GC in Jericho, NY
Sep 8 The card was listed on eBay
Sep 10 Auction ended, I won the card for $265
Sep 12 I paid for the card
Sep 18 Card received, I signed on the signature confirmation sheet, checked that balance was $300, so I left positive feed back.
Set 19 Seller transferred the $300 balance on my card to another card in Levittown secretly
Sep 24 I found out that the card was empty, looked for help on forums, and filed a complaint on Paypal.
Oct 1 Never heard from the seller at all so I escalate the dispute
Oct 3 Received an email from Paypay saying that "this claim does not qualify for a refund.We found the seller to have accurately represented the item(s) in question."

Kohl's in Jericho is 35.5 mi/47 mins drive from the seller's Broonklyn address, and 7.1 mi/ 14 mins drive from Kohl's located in Levittown.

Now that the case is closed, I can't even complain to paypal.

I'm going to the bank this afternoon. I hope that they are smarter than the stupid PAYPAL people.

------------------------old post-------------------

I saw that someone gave me a red flag but didn't say why. However I decide not to make public the seller name before I hear from him. Nevertheless I still believe that the seller stole the GC because of the timing and the fact that all $300 was gone while the card was in my wallet -- you have to know the card # in order to use it online and who else would know the # besides the seller?

-----------------------under this line was my original post, I just took the seller name down--------------

I wish the seller cheated by everyone he knows in the rest of his life!!!!!!!!!

I bided on a $300 Kohl's GC on Sep-10, paid $265. received the card on Sep-18 and the balance was $300 so I leaved a positive feedback.

Hadn't have time to go to Kohl's so I've never used the card at all ( I don't like to shop for clothes online). Cause I haven't received feedback from that J**K yet so tonight I went to eBay and sent him a message saying that I hoped he could leave me a feedback. After that I just thought I should check the card balance again and the balance is 0!!!!!!! I called Kohl's and the automatic system told me that the card is reemed for $300 on Sep-19 !!!!!!!!!

So that J**K had my signature confrimation and positive feedback and he stole all that money!!!

Now I don't even know if I have a chance to fight for that since he has all the prove with him. I'll call Kohl's tomorrow and see if there's any chance I can find out where the card is used. Cause it says that "This card not valid unitl activated at register" so I thought it's not activated until I go and activate it. I'm such a fool........

I'm going to file a complain on eBay and from the post I saw I'm planing to file a complain with the Internet Crime Complain Center too but god knows if there's any chance I can get the money back.......I'm such a fool.....

You bided on it and leaved feedback? You should stay FAR away from ANY financial transaction unless your guardian is with you.

I just called Kohl's and found out that the card was purchased on Sep 7, and on the 19th all the money were transferred to another card!!!

I kept asking how was that person albe to do that and where was the place that the card was tranferrd but the woman who answered my phone kept saying that it was not Kohl's responsible for any card boght on eBay and all they can tell me is that the balance is 0 as if I didn't know that

LordB you are such a nice person! Thank you so much for your reply!!!!!!!

I did pay for it with a creditcard through Paypal. I already filed a complain with eBay which seemingly ends up to be Paypal dispute. However in the email that Paypal sent me says that Paypal only provides communication between buyers and sellers and the deadline is Oct 14. Unless I escalate to a PayPal claim before Oct 14, the dispute would be closed.

Now my question is that
1. Do I have to wait until I hear from the seller or until Oct in order to escalate the dispute
2. The credit card company you talked about, do I contact them before Paypal close the dispute or after (since I'm not sure if they would reject to take part in the whole mess while Paypal is dealing with it)

Sorry for all the questions that I ask... I'm so ignorant of these kind of stuff

LordB said:If you paid with a credit card you should be able to get the money back though charge back. You should be able to win it. Kohls might even be able to provide you with information on where the card was redeemed. Go in and ask to speak to loss prevention once you find out what your CC wants for information. If you paid entirely with paypal well it sucks to be you.

You should probably file a SNAD claim right away through PayPal. If you win then good for you. If PayPal denies your claim then you should contact your credit card to file a claim. You did use a credit card didn't you?

There are several reasons that you may have received a negative rating. One would be that it appears as if English is not your first language. Another may be that people are tired of reading about the gift card scams.

It looks like the Seller had all of your numbers from the gift card. Then after you left positive feedback he went online to the Kohl's site and purchase another gift card using the numbers from your card.

reminbi2000 said:

Because you exposed seller's name on a internet forum which is unethical and illegal!

Uhh...there is nothing illegal about posting peoples' names. See, I can do it too. "John Smith."

Please come by and arrest me.

Neither is it unethical, depending on your outlook.

Feel free to leave the sellers E3ay ID here so we can block him and make sure we don't buy from him.

did you contact the seller?

I had this happen a few yrs ago and paypal, without even having to contact my credit card company, refunded all my money. Kinda helped that there were other cases against the guy at the same time.

This guy also had over 300+ in positive feedback and no negative. Seller just went bad one day out of the blue.

You said you paid for it with a CC through Paypal. Call the number on the back of your card immediately, tell them your story. Emphasize that you were the victim of fraud and ask to file a chargeback. To my knowledge, Citi and MBNA will go ahead and reverse funds right away with just a phone call. Chase requires the more formal letter in the mail.