Around September 2004 I sold  (Video game account) which is considered by Ebay a non-tangible item therefor not covered by Paypal insurance against frauds.

Shortly after the winner  won my auction, i waited about 1 days to see if  his payment  was sent to my Paypal account. When i did received the money from the winner i immediatly transfered the fund too my Bank institution and waited 2 more days to make sure the money was in my real bank before giving out my Login name and password to the winner.

After 2 days of waiting, the descrition status went from pending to complete. In other words, the money that was in my Paypal account has been succesfully transfered to my bank account. according to paypal webpage. The balance was showing 0 which is normal.

Happy with the sale i made, i logged into my bank account to see if the money was really there but the money wasn’t there yet.  So i presumed that my bank institut will  refresh their database over the night so i waited another day.

Meanwhile i gave the Login name and password (the non-tangible item) to the winner of my auction. Since i did receive a fund from the winner and it did say complete on Paypal site regarding the transfer to my bank institut i had nothing to worry about… right?

Well, guess what.  The next day i checked my bank account and still nothing from Papayl eventhough it stated Transfer Complete on Paypal site.  So i checked my Paypal account again just to be sure i did read that,. And guess what !,  the “Complete status” was changed to “Transaction Held”.  I checked my email and there was an email from paypal telling me that the fund i received from the winner was under investigation as the payment from that winner could have been a fraud. and they were going to investigatie.  Meanwhile they will not transfer the fund to my bank account eventhough it stated Transaction complete a day before.

I called them on the phone which cost me probably 20 bucks of long distant call, and the representative told me that i have a very low chance to win but i will have to wait for the investigation results.2 days later i checked my bank account and the money that was held by paypal was finally in my Bank account.. woohoo.  In other words, they tried to stop the transfer but it was too late for paypal. The money did arrive to my bank.