AIBU to think this is a scam and not know what to do now.

[MusicWithRocksIn1t]

Yesterday I bought something on FB market, nothing expensive, just something small for the garden and I payed £15 for it.
The seller mentioned they wanted me to pay straight away by PayPal when she confirmed I could buy it as she had other people interested and didnt want to deal with 'time wasters' but I wasn't comfortable paying until I collected it and said so, I offered to pay cash or PayPal when I collected but if this wasn't acceptable to give it to the next person and after some dithering she accepted, she sent me her pay pal and I collected it the next day (yesterday) sent the money by paypal and all seemed fine.

Today she has messaged me saying she didn't receive the money and that there is a typo in her email address that I sent the money too and that I need to send the money again to a completely different email address.

I copy and pasted the email directly from her message so it was her typo not mine (if there even was a typo), so I sent a screenshot of the message showing the email address she sent me and I had already sent her a screenshot of the confirmation of payment from PayPal.

I got an extremely long message back saying I am scamming her out of money, I am lying, her DC will go hungry because of me and saying she will tell everyone what I'm really like.

I screenshot the conversation then blocked her. There have now been a number of other people messaging me telling me how disgusting I am for stealing from this 'poor woman'. It turns out she has put a massive post up on a local FB group showing my profile pic and name and saying not to sell to me (a friend found it and showed me) I've messaged the group admin and its now been taken down but i really don't need this stress and I'm sure she's going to do it again.

Was I BU to not send the money again? I'm fairly sure I wasnt!
What can I do to stop her being such a vindictive cow on SM?

Did you pay friends and family on PayPal (NEVER pay friends and family on PayPal)? If you didn't then just open a dispute with PayPal to get the money transferred back to you and ask for the "correct" email.

You can't do anything of course
Just move on with your life

Just check your online bank account that PayPal is linked to, surely? If the money hasn't gone out then you need to pay her again.

What email address did she say you should have sent it to? How did it differ? Can you email the one with the typo and ask if they have had any money turn up?

This seems like a complete scam to be honest. I’m willing to bet she has done this before.

@Boom45

Did you pay friends and family on PayPal (NEVER pay friends and family on PayPal)? If you didn't then just open a dispute with PayPal to get the money transferred back to you and ask for the "correct" email.

Don't do this - she can dispute the refund and get it paid back to her and end up with both payments

Sounds like a scam. Its her responsibility to give the correct email address.

I did use freinds and family as thats what she requested.
The email she claims is right is almost completely different! The first one was initials and number and the second is a name that could match the initials but very different from the first email address

Threaten to put her on the Facebook group Scammers Timeswasters Rants Advice and Banter if she does not sort it out.

I would put the screen shots of her message stating email address and you PayPal showing email address paid so that everyone can see you have paid as she requested.

Look at the transaction on PayPal.
Is it saying "unclaimed" next to it?

If you send a payment to an email address with bi registered PayPal account, the money will say "unclaimed". Its been taken from you, but it hasn't been delivered to anyone.

PayPal will send an email to the address saying that they've been sent money so need to open a paypal account and claim it.

If the money is unclaimed, you can cancel it and get it back.

Obviously this only works if the "wrong" address she says she gave you doesnt have a PayPal account. But at least it's something you can look at to see if she might be telling the truth.

You should also be able to see the name of the account holder you sent the money to, so if it has her name or the same surname then you have proof she is scamming.

The money has gone through and the name on paypal is the same name in the second email and her FB account.

Shinesweetfreedom its so tempting to put her on the group but I worry it might just make things worse.
I'd have to unblock her to threaten to put her on there and i don't want to do that

I would just take a screenshot of your paypal payment and put that on the FB group. Then block and move on. If she's legit (she isn't) it's her fault for asking you to use the friends and family option for a sale transaction.

If she desperately needed the money to feed her children (sound of tiny scammers violin playing in the far distance over the weeping of her children ) she would have been better advised to let you pay in cash wouldn't she, rather than it going into her PayPal account and having to be transferred to a bank account.........

Vote for scam, as others have said, post information she sent you and that you used in good faith, and confirm that it has been paid.

YANBU, she knew the score.

Tell her (or tell the weirdos contacting you on her behalf to tell her)to open a dispute with paypal. They will investigate it and you can reply to their email to you.

As you have the address I would contact the police as she is potentially scamming a lot of other people too.

I’d make a post and add all the screen shots and tag her.

Lying bitch

She’s scamming. I’m almost 100% sure. I agree with PP, take a screenshot of your payment and call her out.

Unblock her, so that you can see the post she's put on Facebook and then show a screenshot of the initial payment which shows HER NAME!

Humiliate her. Sounds like she owes paypal money and she gave you the email for the overdrawn account instead of her new one and she's angry with herself.

Thing is, despite that first paypal account being in debit, all she had to do is click 'refund' to send it back to you (you can still refund even if overdrawn) and then ask you to send it to a new email

Just u block her go on the post on Facebook that she has slated you on and post your proof that you've paid her.

Then block and ignore anyone that messages you.

*unblock

Screenshot everything and post it. You don't even need to explain.

Wouldn't posting someone's email on social media constitute a breach of GDPR though?

I would report to the police, this is fraud/cybercrime.