I would never accept PayPal from anyone. I’ve used it as a buyer when requested by a seller only.

Question: I have always seen people say friends and family is the way to go if you are a seller because it is harder for the buyer to reverse the transaction on you. Apparently that is no longer the case?

Yea, I thought that F&F payment meant there was no recourse for the buyer but through PayPal, but clearly the credit card chargeback took full precedence. I know that a lot of the people on Pinside that have been hit by the scammer had lost out due to making a F&F paypal payment but they apparently didn’t make that payment through a credit card.

Whether law enforcement will get involved is totally dependent on the local law enforcement office. There are plenty of locations in the US that law enforcement would investigate this matter if a report were to be filed (there are also plenty that would view this entirely as a civil dispute and not involve themselves). The OP should go through the steps of filing a report, he may need it for other reasons as well such as an insurance claim if he has insurance to cover against this sort of thing.

Hopefully he is able to recover his game at some point.

Well, if it were me based on the same facts that have been shared with us here, I’d approach the matter by reporting the item as stolen and then file for charges to be brought for them being in possession of stolen property (no need to show criminal intent at the onset with that approach). This would mean the OP could potentially get the item back if it gets re-sold to a third party as well...he would at least have a chance. If he does nothing then he has no chance if they won’t return the machine.

I agree this is all location specific and whatever approach may work in Texas or Nevada may not work in California or some other state. Every area is totally different. I also agree we are probably missing some key info that would impact the thought process and possibly even the recovery options.

If law enforcement is not willing to travel to you to receive the complaint and statement, the proper protocol is to go down to the precinct and file your complaint in person. Many insurance companies require you to do this for stolen items and law enforcement will accept your complaint (they may do nothing about it, but they will give you a complaint number and keep a record of it).

Totally agree. Vid’s appearance is by far the best thing in this thread. Now we just need to figure out a way to get him to stay.