Help Danial and Salma Recover After a Devastating Scam

We are Danial and Salma, a couple that is working too hard to build a stable life together in Berlin.

Like many people, we are trying to manage difficult circumstances as best we can.

Danial is in his final semesters of medical engineering, balancing the intense demands of his studies with a small Minijob. I (Salma) work full-time, but most of what I earn goes toward covering our basic living costs, debts I took on when moving to Berlin, and legal costs related to my support for Palestine.

On top of that, we try to support our families, some still in Syria, others here in Germany who depend on us.

Despite these challenges, we have always tried to stay positive and keep moving forward. But recently, we were hit by a scam that has left us devastated and unsure how to recover.

In an effort to earn a bit of extra money, we listed a table for sale on eBay Kleinanzeigen. A buyer sent us what looked like a genuine PayPal payment confirmation, including a QR code. When we scanned it, they gained access to our PayPal account and sent four payments of 980€ each, using our Mastercard because we didn’t have any money left in our bank account. In total, they took over 4,000€.

To make it worse, they sent the payments as “friends and family” so that we wouldn’t be able to get the money back through PayPal’s buyer protection. They even sent back 520€ to our account to make it look like a normal transaction between friends leaving us with a loss of 3,390€, not including the extra fees. We are now left with debt that we simply cannot repay on our own.

We contacted PayPal, both banks, and the police right away. Unfortunately, nothing could be done beyond filing a report.

The money is gone, and we are left to deal with the debt ourselves. This means Danial may have to pause his studies to work more, and all the plans we had made for a secure and stable future are now on hold. I have already been working extra hours for more than a year, pushing myself through long-term burnout I was diagnosed with last year, and this situation has pushed us to a breaking point.

We have tried everything we can think of, and now we are turning to our community for help. If you are able to support us ( whether through a donation or by sharing our story ) it would make a real difference. Every contribution helps us move toward paying off this debt, supporting Danial’s studies, and trying to rebuild the stability we have been working so hard to create.

We also want to share our experience to raise awareness about this type of scam. Even though we were always careful and aware of scam risks, the scammers found a way to trick us, and we hope no one else has to go through something like this.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story, and for any help you can offer.

With love and hugs

Danial & Salma