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I’ve been defrauded - any advice?

Over the weekend, an ex-customer defrauded my company by filing a false "unauthorized charge" claim on a payment they had made by Visa, through PayPal. The customer has been and is still using the logo, stationery collateral and brochure designs that were itemized on the invoice for this particular transaction.Despite the fact that I sent PayPal clear and indisputable evidence proving that the charge was 100% legitimate, they still found in the customer`s favour because I am a service-based company. After speaking with them, they are not willing to hear my evidence because I have no third-party courier tracking number to prove "goods were shipped".Needless to say, our company no longer accepts PayPal. As far as I`m concerned, they all but drove the getaway car.So currently I`m out of pocket a pretty hefty amount... and I am very worried that since this method of robbery worked the first time, that this ex-customer may try the same thing with payments they have made for other projects (quadrupling my already significant losses). I want to send a cease-and-desist letter forbidding them from using the design work attached to that payment, but at the same time I don`t want to provoke them into victimizing me further.I am severely disillusioned - not only in this customer for whom I had bent over backward and was extremely generous in free revisions, overtime and add-ons... but moreso in the general lack of protection we have as business owners against customer theft and fraud.Any thoughts or advice would be most welcome.
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Comments
That is unfortunate, they must like the work you did if they are using it????????????
I suggest that you obtain your own merchant account, instead of using paypal. Since you are in Canada you should use www.optimalpayments.com</A>
When you have your own merchant account, the processor will listen to both parties (consumer & merchant), look at the evidence and then decide who is in the right. According to your evidence, if you would have had your own merchant account you would not have lost your money.
I would love to process your transactions for you but my company doesn`t provide services for businesses outside of the U.S.A.
It`s always best to have your own merchant account instead of using a company like paypal.
I`m glad that you have a merchant account. Since you now know Pay pal won`t back you up against charge backs maybe you shouldn`t accept paypal anymore.
Your customer might have chosen paypal as an option to pay you just so they could burn you.
I`ve seen this before with consumers using AMEX. They know AMEX sides with the card holder 99.9% of the time so they buy something on AMEX and charge it back to the merchant to keep from paying for it. That is why many of my customers and other businesses around the U.S.A. refuse to accept AMEX or paypal.
God bless you on your future business endeavors.