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This is insane because of mistake I made
 

I am worried sick and I suppose looking for a little comfort and possibly some guidance from someone with experience.


I have a stealth account, and I make purchases all the time and request the seller send to another address.... this has never been a problem.


Last week I made several purchases, half of my packages came to my address, the other half ( about 12 boxes) went to the stealth account address because the sellers obviously ignored or never recieved the request to ship to the different address...

So I get a call from some lady saying that she has all kinds of packages in her house that belong to me ( made the mistake of listing my cell number on my PP account) She was furious and was saying something about identity theft, which it is obviously not, her name is not on the packages , I dont even know her name. I apologized , told her it was a glitch and I would come pick up the packages. About an hour later, I get a call from my cousin who is a duputy with the sheriff department, saying that this crazy lady called the sherriff, gave them my cell number, and told him to come get the packages that someone was trying to set her up and make it look like she was stealing packages. (LOL)

Obviously he was a little confused. I met him a got my packages from his police car. I called the lady once again and apologized. I found out also that in adition to the police report , that she had been calling Paypal and eBay.


What worries me now , is several things : I knew that because this was going on PP was going to slap a limitation on me as soon as they could , so I cleaned out my account and sure enough the next day , the account was limited. NOW I have a non reciept claim in the amount of $450.00 from a buyer, no $ in my PP account and everyone NOW has my correct information (name address phone etc) The lady gave them everything. And if this lady keeps calling paypal she knows how to reach me , even if I do not accept the calls from them , Im afraid she will tell them about my cousin who works with the sherriffs dept, Im really probaly worried for nothing, this is my 18th stealth account and I have used addresses that I have access to and have never recieved anything in the mail from paypal. Maybe Im over reacting? any thoughts? Thanks in advance :)

You have all the ingredients for a healthy disaster. I hope nobody puts it ALL together.

If it were me: after I finished crapping myself, I'd get a shave, a haircut, paint my car, move to a new place, and put the welcome mat out on the new front porch - face down.

Start a business and use tracfones. Never put a human name on a package.

it is a tracfone cell number.. I have several of them , and the name is a version of my own , but not my real name. The lady knows me by that version of my name, I never gave her my real name, thats partly the main reason my cousin was so confused as to why she was calling me that and why that name was on the packages. I was so embarrassed I didnt know what to tell him , and he didnt really ask.

I already have a new account, verified & everything, started selling slowly... I feel like sticking my head in the sand , erasing everything from my computer and saying " wasnt me " lol

I'd do the erasing thing. And you can activate tracfones without putting ANY info on them.

But what about the dispute that the buyer placed yesterday? I have closed the bank account after I cleaned it out, opened a new one, and I cant transfer money to that PP from my new bank, so what happens if the buyer wins the claim? There is no money in my PP account , it is now negative due to the hold, and bank account is closed.

If PP already knows that, then the buyer will lose the dispute. If PP doesn't know, they will award the buyer and settle in their favor. They'll try to take funds from your account. It won't work, and PP eats it under the Buyer Protection coverage. Then they will want to pester you. If it was all stealth, too bad for PP.

That scenario is a perfect carding scenario. The woman should have been worried but not to the extent of what she was doing. Youre lucky you know the sherriff. That could have been a setup waiting to happen.

Try to clean up that mess as anon as you can and move on.

Hopefully your real deatils wont find their way back to paypal. Its only your cousine that knows your real details right? no report has been made?> If I could turn the clock back, I would have done everything you did, EXCEPT acknowledge or pick up packages, then you wouldnt have had to admit anything to your cousin. Well done on cleaning out your account though! I can see it from the ladies point of view too.

I think generally speaking it is best to choose a stealth address that is accessible and if not one that doesnt exist properly or is could have many occupants, eg a rental office building with lots of people passing through it..and motto at all times is - 'wasnt me'

Same thing happended to me with small purchase, but I think it went to offices for rent building and I heard no more about it, seller sent duplicate to address I gave them and apologised..

The only thing that lady knows is my phone number, that the cop she talked to is my cousin, and she thinks my name is something that its not. SO...

She talked to PP, before she found me, and asked them why the packages were coming to her house, etc... She gave them the name , and all they told her was "do you realize how many people are named that , it would be impossible to track her down" Which is interesting to me ... wonder why PP would say that


So IF they do find me, what happens then? What can they do? I assume they will give the buyer her money back, and Heaven knows they have taken enough money from me with Limited accounts (stealth accounts) therefore my check after 180 days went off to someone else who didnt exist, so I never got money that I had in the accounts when it was limited.

I just dont want the cops knocking on my door ya know :)

From now on contact the seller to make sure they can ship to your REAL HOME ADDRESS before you buy from them otherwise don't buy it. How much were those 12 packages worth that the lady received that you got back? Learn from this or Dig your own grave. Your Choice.

You want to be stealth, then take the responsbility to be stealth. Cover your tracks to make sure as little as possible goes wrong.

IF the item on ebay is that important for purchase, then be careful that everything about getting it to you will work. YOU need to be careful. Don't blame a third party's reaction because you were careless :peace:

easiest thing to do is not buy and sell on the same account. you want something from ebay buy it with an account that has your address or a variation of it that is good enough to get the packages.

^^^Correct. Plan well and minimize the problems :thumb:

You are all right, I am all to aware of the mistakes I made, and am certainly not blaming anyone but myself, someone asked about how much I paid for these 12 packages, it was over 800.00 , which is the only reason why I even spoke to the lady when I found that she had them.

I have definitley leaened from it! Everything by the book from now on , well , the stealth book at least haha . I cant afford to make any more careless mistakes.

Thanks for all the input

you mentioned that you had 18 stealth accounts, were all of them suspende?

The bit about contacting seller to ship to your real address is all good, but sometimes they make a mistake when theyve got alot of parcels and ship to pp address instead.

Im not sure paypal can find you, and for $450 they may not care, I wouldnt worry but if you think they have some info on you and you think the buyer is genuinely not received and your parcel was insured, you could pay paypal back or tell paypal you are paying them back and then send money order with tracking.

Look, having a stealth account in a real address is a bad idea anyhow, for a few reasons, firstly it isnt fair on homeowner, you wouldnt like it if someone used your address, plus they could register on ebay too, the address has got to be one that if a delivery goes to it it will get returned by postal service to seller, it should never get so far as an actual homeowner, or alternatively it should be an address with alot of movement in it, rental offices, student digs, nobody can unravel that..

I totally get why you wanted to salvage $800, but its best to be on the safe side, that woman was the worst scenario you can get, she reported you. I would be totally scared too, plus you dont want your cousin or anyone knowing what you get up to in your private business..there is someone who now has the lowdown on your real details, your cousin, dont be too sure that info wont get blabbed..you will need to be super careful with your affairs from now on.

I totally think the story you should go with if your cousin or anyone ever asks is that the supplier mixed up the addresses, and to support that why would you have given correct tracfone and gone to pick up parcels if you were some sort of sly person. As for what paypal told the woman, hmm very interesting, shows they dont want to help her or get involved in any tracing of you for her purposes, thats a good thing..

You don't want your cousin in the awkward position of having to take the heat or having to rat you out, either.

all but three of them , and two are not seller accounts, just standby accounts.

It was not insured, (another stupid on my part) , and I KNEW better. DC shows nothing, it should have been there by now , but now way to prove anything with PP as far as USPS goes , not right now at least.