How I Lost €700 to Scammers and Actually Got It Back

A month ago, I wrote about getting scammed out of €700 on German eBay. Then I deleted the post the next day because I was too upset, too embarrassed, and also too annoyed to keep it public. The whole mess was everywhere — my inbox, my phone, in my head on loop. I did not want to see it on my own Substack, too.

But today I’m here to tell you: I got my money back. All €700.35 of it. After a month and a half of relentless fighting (‘fighting like a lion’, like Mischa said), escalating complaints, and refusing to accept "nothing can be done," PayPal reversed the transaction. Which is why I'm back here, rewriting this story — not as a cautionary tale of defeat, but as proof that you can fight back and win, even when everyone tells you it's hopeless.

So this is your PSA in three parts: 1) what happened to me, 2) how to avoid it happening to you, and most importantly, 3) why you should never give up when institutions tell you to shut up and take the loss.

The Scam

The setup was almost embarrassingly basic. I was selling a black turtleneck on eBay Kleinanzeigen for €30. My standard behavior. A buyer named "Marcus" expressed interest, we exchanged a few polite messages, and then I received what appeared to be an official email from eBay asking me to "finalize approval" for the transaction via PayPal.

The email was pretty good. Correct branding, proper typography, that specific green color scheme that makes you think "yes, this is definitely eBay." It looked more legitimate than half the actual emails I get from platforms. I clicked "finalize" without a second thought because I am so smart and sweet, and experienced, and nothing bad can happen to me, obviously.

Within hours, €700.35 vanished from my PayPal account, sent to someone named "Gert Dreyer." The money actually ended up with "wright-deborah w37220@gmx.com," and the phishing email came from "phoenix-ab@beetle.ocn.ne.jp."

As I learned later, it’s some new operation scheme using stolen eBay branding to trick people into authorizing payments they never intended to make. Ah, and now PayPal is sending out warnings about a crazy surge in scams, btw.

I was trying to sell a sweater for thirty euros and accidentally funded some criminal's European vacation instead.

Ughhhh, the €700 represented almost a month's rent. Or those Margiela Tabis I'd been wishlisting. Or three months of groceries where I could buy organic bio anything without checking the price first...The list went on and on and on and on. And on.

The Response

PayPal's response was short and “sweet”: "You authorized the payment. Case closed."

Over six phone calls with different representatives, I got to hear delightful variations of "you fell for phishing" (thank you, very helpful!), "we can't protect against phishing" (then what exactly do you protect against?), and my personal favorite: "deal with the police but keep your expectations low."

My bank reversed the transaction immediately, recognizing an obvious scam. PayPal reversed the reversal just as quickly, informing me I now owed them €700 for the privilege of being defrauded. Which is when I realized that all these platforms we depend on will abandon you the second you actually need protection. It made me really sad. At the same time, I felt bad for feeling bad because worse things happen to people all the time, but still I really only was thinking about what happened to me.

This is the part where the story gets a bit strange? AI!

Claude: My Unlikely Legal Counsel / Hero

I use Claude! And now (apparently) I will never stop using Claude.

I created a project in Claude titled "PayPal Scam" and started documenting everything. Screenshots, email chains, phone transcripts, my increasingly unhinged voice memos about institutional betrayal. Claude became my digital lawyer, walking me through consumer protection laws, helping me craft escalation emails, and identifying which regulatory bodies to contact.

The irony was not lost on me: in a story about digital fraud and institutional failure, my most reliable advisor was an AI. While PayPal customer service was telling me to lower my expectations, Claude was mapping out a comprehensive battle plan. It never got tired of my questions, never told me to give up, never said "well, you did click the button so..." At 5am when I couldn't sleep, spinning out about my stupidity, Claude was there with next steps. It told me exactly who to contact and what to say, step by step, like the world's most patient legal aid. IT WORKED!

The Month of Arguing

Armed with Claude's strategic guidance, I contacted:

• Berlin cybercrime police (multiple times)

• German consumer protection agencies (useless)

• eBay Kleinanzeigen directly (useless)

• PayPal's executive complaints department (yes, this exists, yet almost impossible to find)

• Luxembourg's financial regulator (PayPal's EU headquarters, what actually helped in the end)

• Local journalists (useless)

• Financial ombudsman services (useless)

Every time someone closed my case, I reopened it with new evidence. To me, every "nothing can be done" became an opportunity to escalate further. I documented everything, referenced specific laws, and quoted their own terms of service back at them. Again, cause Claude told me to!

The breakthrough came when I finally reached PayPal's executive complaints team via their supervisors in Luxembourg. Suddenly, what had been "impossible" became "we're reopening your investigation." Three days later: full refund.

Victory

From “PayPal Global Customer Complaints & Advocacy”

Lol, Claude’s reaction.

Some revelations:

I almost gave up multiple times. When PayPal first closed my case, when the police seemed uninterested, when everyone kept telling me I should have been more careful. I realized that the system relies on victim fatigue, it's designed to make fighting back more exhausting than accepting the loss.

Judging from the stories I read and heard, most people do give up — they get scammed, feel embarrassed, take the financial hit, and move on quietly. I guess criminals are counting on exactly that response: shame, defeat, silence?

BUT! Scams aren't personal failures!! They're crimes. And they should be talked about more!

Your Resale Safety Guide (The Actually Useful Part)

Since we all love resale and want to keep doing safely, please remember some things:

• Do not trust confirmation emails, even perfect ones. Go directly to the platform to verify any transaction requests rather than clicking links. Scammers tend to conceal their identity and use mobile payment apps to send fake payment notifications.

• Use platform payment systems only. Never pay outside the app - most secondhand sales apps have partnered with companies like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Klarna for buyer protection programs. Completing transactions outside of these systems will disqualify you from any protection the platform provides.

• Check seller profiles obsessively. Look for reviews, transaction history, and red flags like newly created accounts with no history. Be wary of random usernames, suspicious profile pictures, or accounts with no user reviews.

• Verify product authenticity. Use Google Lens to conduct reverse image searches on product photos - scammers often steal images from other listings or websites. Ask sellers for current photos (maybe next to a piece of paper with your name written on it).

• Trust your paranoia over politeness. If something feels off about the listing, seller, or transaction, walk away. If the price seems way too good to be true, it most likely is.

If You Do Get Scammed

Don't feel stupid! Don't absorb the loss quietly! Don't give up!

• Document everything immediately. Screenshots, emails, transaction records, phone call logs. Everything.

• Contact everyone. Your bank, the platform, consumer protection agencies, financial regulators. Make noise!!

• Escalate relentlessly. The first person you speak to will tell you nothing can be done. That's not true. Keep pushing, ask for supervisors, file regulatory complaints.

• Reference specific laws. It helps to do some research and know your consumer protection rights and quote them.

• Use AI strategically. Seriously! Claude helped me more than any human customer service representative. It's available 24/7, never gets frustrated, and can help you organize your approach.

• Make it more work to ignore you than to help you. Persistence works when applied systematically over time.

What Else I Learned (The Character Building Part)

Other than getting my money back, this whole mess taught me something about myself: turns out, I'm way more stubborn/persistent than I realized.

I did most of this fighting in German. Phone calls with PayPal customer service, emails to regulatory bodies, formal complaints to government agencies — all in my (?)fourth language. I am not trying to show off (or maybe just a bit), but German is definitely not my most fluent language, especially when I'm furious and trying to explain financial fraud while also sounding rational and not like a crazy person.

But I kept going. I translated legal terms, practiced what I was going to say before calling customer service, wrote and rewrote emails until they sounded authoritative in German. I realized that if you don't stand up for yourself, no one will. Not PayPal, not eBay, not the police, not anyone.

But persistence is persistence. Being right in not perfect German is still being right. And refusing to shut up, even when you're not sure you're using the correct subjunctive, still works.

So yeah, this whole experience was quite character-building. I discovered I have this stubborn streak that I didn't really know was there — the kind where I'll spend a month trying to prove a point. I’m glad to see this side of me exists!

Now What?

Well…now back to our regularly scheduled programming of Margiela finds. Since I did get the money back, should I buy a 1996 Margiela grey wool crewneck????

It’s EUR250 and I’ll likely wear it a lot. Or will I? I think V-necks suit me better.

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To wrap up on a serious note, I think this story is helpful, so please share it if you can!

If my expensive mistake can prevent someone else from clicking that "finalize" button, it's worth it.

Have a great weekend,

Anni