Again (again, again, again) you're looking to pin it on them. You can accuse anyone of anything you want, but there need to be direct correlation. "Too coincidental" isn't really enough. The clear pattern that emerged from this thread is paypal fine, direct payment with SDE problematic. Not only are you an outlier, your 'story' doesn't really add up considering how things work.
So please, just blame me. I'll send you my contact info to forward to the police privately upon request. But leave paypal out of it.
[I realize this is a vain attempt at trying to let you sleep well tonight, but I have this stupid hope in humanity that if offered proper phrasing of words people can be reasoned with]