I managed to brave the cavernous and foreboding menu system of PayPal and get through to Carolina. This lovely latino lady (try saying that with a mouthful of chips) talked me through the transactions and adjustments that have been made on my account. Some of them were just plain random. At one stage she seemed to be suggesting that I should keep the difference between a £53.01 and the £19.02 I expected for a correction. I explained that I wanted the account to balance at 0, not some extra cash for me. As it stands, though I'm still £466.19 down, even though one adjustment was random and wrong.

Carolina has agreed to push harder at the people who un-fraudlificate accounts and get my final $1045 returned. This will be converted to fewer pounds than it cost me at the end of February. I've asked her to get them to make a currency adjustment such that the surplus of the £53.01 wrong adjustment is accounted for. So long as it goes back to 0 before my credit card bill arrives, then I'll be happy.

It was a pleasant exchange and I think Carolina was getting all giggly and flirty towards the end of the conversation. Given that she's in America, she need never meet the person who nobly announced that he didn't want to benefit from this fraud any more than he wanted to be out of pocket from it (that was me).

The reality of me is far more complex than the concept.