I would recommend the following actions:

1) for the postal money order option, go to your local post office and file a fraud complaint.

2) For the paypal option, file a "nonshipping seller" (or whatever they are calling it now) complaint directly THROUGH paypal, which automatically triggers a whole sequence of events. You *have* to do this before you have any other recourse, and they can't legally do very much until you do this action.

Once you've done that, *call* eBay (do not email them). You specifically want to talk to someone in the Trust and Safety department. Tell them what's up, and start a formal complaint process. You wouldn't believe the amount of time they spend working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies trying desperately to keep things as clean as possible. Please be patient and kind to the T&S people, they work very hard in a very stressful position and while they will try very hard to do what they can, ultimately it's neither their fault nor eBay's fault and they are just trying to make things right.

eBay cannot pursue most actions until and unless you do these things. They don't have very much legal recourse or power until you start initiating formal complaints. The wheels of justice turn slowly sometimes, but if you work with them and work with the system you have a much better chance of getting a favorable result.

Unfortunately, eBay is just at the heart of it all a website and a transaction engine wrapped around feedback. People attribute a whole lot of magical powers to eBay, believing they can reach out and grab a package from a suddenly AWOL seller, pick a recalcitrant buyer up by the bootheels and shake them, or otherwise make things happen that they, in fact, have no legal ability to do at all.

At the heart of it, it's a trust model which unfortunately breaks down when a [censored] insists on screwing someone. The only thing I can personally recommend is never buy from someone with below a 98% feedback, never buy high ticket items from someone with low double-digit rating, never go outside the eBay system and inform eBay IMMEDIATELY if something looks fishy. Finally, as always, if a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.

HTH

DISCLAIMER: as always, I do not speak for eBay in any official capacity. These sentiments are not meant to reflect official eBay policy in any shape whatsoever. I'm just a humble tools engineer.

-- Gary F.