‘Next knock will be from police’: Woman tracks down scammer who ordered ₹83,000 iPad using stolen PayPal password
After discovering unauthorised PayPal purchases totalling ₹1.58 lakh, a woman tracked down the scammer and recovered an iPad.
A woman took matters into her own hands after her husband's PayPal account was used to make fraudulent purchases, including a ₹83,000 ($1,000) iPad from Best Buy and a ₹75,000 ($900) phone from Mercari. The scammer had the items shipped to an address just 10 miles from their home, leading her to track down the culprit herself.
The incident began when her husband noticed something unusual. “He looked at his computer. On the screen was Chrome, open to his password settings,” she explained. The next day, he asked if she had purchased expensive electronics—but he didn’t even have a Mercari account.
Checking their PayPal and bank statements, they found that the payments had already been processed. However, the scammer made a crucial mistake: PayPal provided a delivery confirmation along with the recipient’s address.
Determined to get their money back, the woman decided to confront the recipient directly. “I’m going to get the iPad,” she told her husband before heading to the address. When a young man answered the door, she demanded the item, but he seemed confused. “I told him I knew it was delivered, and I either want my iPad or the money,” she recalled.
At first, he shut the door. But she persisted, knocking again and issuing a firm warning: “Give me my iPad or money, or the next knock will be from the police.” Moments later, the man returned with the package but demanded to see her ID. She refused, saying, “No, I wasn’t showing him my ID.” Eventually, he handed over the box—which had her husband’s name on it, but the scammer’s address.
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One user wrote, “Absolutely call the police. You’re probably not the first person he’s done this to.”
A user explained, “Careful jumping to conclusions. It could be a triangulation scam, i.e.: Young man orders iPad from a sketchy site. It's cheaper than other retailers, so he takes the risk. Scammer on sketchy site orders iPad from BestBuy for young man with your husband's stolen PayPal info, which is why it has your husband's name on it but the young man's address. Sketchy site scammer gets to keep the clean (non stolen) money from young man and leaves your husband, BestBuy and young man duking it out with each other.”
HT.com has not independently verified the claims.
