I purchased a fake designer purse on eBay unwittingly for
approximately $200, which is against eBay policy, and violates general
fraud and copyright laws/policies. The seller didn't really respond to
emails regarding refunds or the item's authenticity, so then I filed a
charge complaint with my credit card company. Paypal authorized the
chargeback, thereby awarding the dispute to me. I have not seen the
chargeback money refunded into my credit card account. The seller
requested that I send the purse back, and now she/he is threatening
me. But first of all, I have not received the refunded money yet, and
second, she/he is extremely rude and did not answer my initial emails.
Am I obligated to mail the purse back to her? (I would rather not, as
I know she will simply sell it again.) Does this constitute "theft" on
my behalf, even though I did not "steal" any goods/money from her? It
is Paypal and the credit card company that awarded the dispute to me.
What do I do? Thank you.

I would suggest that you not return the purse until you have the money
refunded back. I doubt the seller can do anything to sue you, and I
doubt he will spend money to initiate a lawsuit first.

As for the theft thing, I suggest you don't waste a second worrying
about it. There is no theft unless the seller goes to the police
first, and it is unlikely he will go to the police at all if he is
selling fake goods. And even if he goes to the police, it is very
unlikely for the police to classify it as theft as this is a
contractual dispute, not a case of you breaking into a house to steal
a purse.

I am no lawyer, but this what I will do if I have been sold fake goods.

Well, yes, she has been threatening me with the police, but she seems
to forget that the item she told violates copyright and fraud laws. I
just want to make sure I don't have any liability. At any rate, thanks
for your response. I am going to go seek legal counseling today.

If paypal ruled in your favor, then this was not a chargeback on your
credit card. To get the money refunded to your credit card, you would
have had to dispute the charge with the credit card bank.  Have you
logged in to your paypal account and checked the balance? I would
suspect the money is in there.

As for sending the item back, if you received a refund, then the item
does not really belong to you any more. To cover yourself, I would
respond to the seller, that you will send the item back subject to
them prepaying for your shipping and handling expenses.  Let them know
how much is needed to compensate for the mailing cost and your time
and effort.  I really doubt they will send you these funds in advance
so you are clear. Keep this correspondence for your records that you
offered to return the merchandise.

I did dispute with my credit card company, because Paypal wouldn't do
anything. I've heard stories about this in the past, where Paypal,
when faced with a credit card company chargeback, will simply issue
the chargeback in favor of the buyer. The money is not in my Paypal
account, nor does it show any transaction. It does show that in the
resolved disputes section, that this case is closed. Thanks for all
your help. I am going to contact a lawyer friend of mine in a few
hours, but if anyone else has any advice, I'd greatly appreciate it.

If you disputed with your credit card company, and you won, then the
money would have been credited to credit card account. It sounds more
like you initiated a dispute with your credit card company, but then
dropped the dispute and agreed to let paypal handle it.  If the
dispute was directly with the credit card company, then it would make
no difference what paypal did with the dispute.  Call your card
company again and tell them what happened and that you need to
reinstate your dispute.  Sending them something from paypal may speed
things along.  Don't spend time and money on a lawyer, this is a very
simple procedure that takes 1 or 2 mails or faxes and a couple of
follow up phone calls in my experience.

Some more things to clarify for you, research-ga: I initiated the
complaint with the CC compnay. They in turn notify Paypal. Paypal then
settles it, and has favored me. Then Paypal is supposed to contact the
CC company, because Paypal has the refund money that they need to give
to the CC company, before the CC company gives the refund to me. I'm
not concerned so much about the refund, as I am concerned about the
possible actions of the seller against me.

Paypal says they award you but you will see how tight Paypal will be
with refunds. Not only that, Paypal will be sure and extract charges
on the refund too. Paypal awarded me before, saying 1 thing, and not
doing what they had said.
Paypal takes part of  shipping fees that a buyer sends a seller. %3
plus 30 cents of refunds too.
   A seller charges exactly the price to ship, say $5, paypal took 45
cents from the $5. Seller has to pay $5 to ship (which paypal will
charge to create postage)but has only $4.55. Watch out if Paypal is
"helping".
    If you have received your refund, You must send back the item, its
the only fair honest thing to do. Paypal will not give you a penny
until you do. Might not after.
good luck
paypalfan1