KnifeBestStore has a unique trick double scam
KnifeBestStore ran a scam on me as follows: on January 2 2025, I put in an order $80.xx at KnifeBestStore and paid with PayPal. I then received a verification email from PayPal stating that I had authorized a payment of $80.xx to “Brook Maurice”. It was a bit strange that “Brook Maurice” was the name on the payment rather than “Knife Best Store”; however, I did not worry too much about it, since some small online stores might use an account with the name of the store owner.
The next day (January 3), I received an email from PayPal stating that Brook Maurice had updated the amount of the transaction from the original $80.xx by $11.xx, to $91.xx. Being up charged without my permission and for no reason confused me; therefore, I contacted Knife Best Store about this unauthorized upcharge. Knife Best Store did not respond to this query; therefore, on the PayPal website, I opened a dispute about this additional upcharge of $11.xx.
Then on January 14, I received an email from PayPal stating that the dispute for $11.xx was resolved in my favor, and $11.xx was credited back to my PayPal account. I then realized that I had not received the products for which I paid the original $80.xx. I again attempted to contact KnifeBestStore for clarification and received no response. I now believe that KnifeBestStore is simply a scam site, and that I will never see the products for which I paid the original $80.xx.
I am now in something of a quandary: there is no way on the PayPal website that I can dispute the original $80.xx transaction, since the whole mess of $80.xx + $11.xx is considered a single transaction, and since I disputed and was refunded the $11.xx upcharge, the whole transaction was marked as “resolved” and there is no way another dispute can be opened online. The only way I am ever going to be able to get my $80.xx back is if I spend a lot of quality time finding and talking to an actual person at PayPal.
In retrospect, this scam is quite cunning: take an incoming customer order and add a small unexpected upcharge within 24 hours. The customer then disputes and is refunded the upcharge. The customer then waits to receive the order for which he paid but never sees that order. Due to the way PayPal disputes are handled, the customer has no way online to dispute the original order amount. The original order amount is pure profit money in the scammer’s pocket unless the customer figures out how to get in touch with a live human at PayPal.
The scammer's PayPal account is under the name of "Brook Maurice".
I have sent email messages to the posted contact for KnifeBestStore. However, my email messages to that address have gone un-answered.