Ryan Anthony Thomas
Complaint 74960 Details

I was approached via e-mail, text, and phone by the above named individual who saw that I was selling gold bullion on Ebay. We agreed on a price for 17 gold bars that he would pay me for through PayPal. He said that he had several "backers" who would be sending me funds through PayPal. I received the money and PayPal assured me that the money was in my account and it was OK to ship. However, they didn't realize that I was only going to be shipping to the one address that Thomas gave me. The other addresses were not "seller protection" addresses, so I was not protected against loss of merchandise. PayPal should have: "OK to ship, but only to the specific address shown on this transaction page" instead of only: "OK to Ship" on the transaction page when you receive funds. Also, I did not realize that the people sending me funds were unwitting employees of Thomas that he hired as Ebay sellers of cameras, computers, etc. They thought they were sending money to the supplier of these goods, which they would then send to their buyers on Ebay to fulfill their orders. After I shipped the gold bars, I started getting notices from PayPal that they were refunding money to the people that sent me funds due to non-delivery of merchandise. Now I am out 17 ounces of pure gold. In my life I can take a $30,000 hit and not feel too much pain, but I hope that this will help others to avoid a hit like this and help the authorities to deliver a hit to Thomas.