Andrew,
It's not exactly Paypal's fault when you send money to the wrong person. I
do not think the police
will want to interfere. On most money matters, they will simply tell you
that it is a civil matter to be
resolved by the courts.

I have sent money to the wrong address before. A I recall I simply initiated
to cancel the payment
since it remained unclaimed. If that doesn't work, initiate a dispute
with Paypal for a item not received
or item materially different from what you supposedly purchased. That will
flag a Paypal intervention
which usually happens within one business day. If all that fails, you can
file a disputed amount with
your credit card company if it was funded as such.

Cheers,

BenT

On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 7:43 PM, Andrew Grebneff <goose1047@gmail.com> wrote:

> > Have the seller make the inquiry. They are more receptive to sellers than
> > buyers for some reason. With enough offensive emails you will eventually
> get
> > a legitimate email or call from Paypal.
>
> Maybe, IF it was possible to actually send a message that someone
> would read (or even send them a message at all!).
>
> Unfortunately the following:
> +1-402-935-7733 (Personal Accounts)
> +1-402-935-2057 (Personal Accounts)
> are NOT lines to people; they just take you to the phone menu which
> doesn't have an option I can use, and the menus do not accept my phone
> number, without which I cannot complete the menu...
>
> So in other words PayPal has my money and there's no way to get it
> back. I might have to contact the police about this...
>
> --
> Andrew Grebneff
> Dunedin, New Zealand
> Fossil preparator
> Mollusc, Toyota & VW van nut
> Temporarily in Calgary, AB, Canada
> <goose1047@gmail.com>
>

--
BenT