There is no way to prevent it or guarantee that it won't happen.
Here are some tips that you can do to reduce the chances of it happening:
- Do a background check on every buyer and see if they have a history of scamming.
- Do not accept payments from unverified paypal accounts.
- Send an email to the Paypal account's address and ask them for a response.
- Ask the payment to be sent using the friends & family option when possible. When receiving payments as goods&services, make sure that the buyer did not leave a shipping address.
- Use escrow/seller protection services.
When you already have a steady business:
- Use a website where they have to register and implement an automated phone verification. This gives you more info about them (phone number, IP, email) which can help you detect if they are malicious.
- Use a payment gateway (like g2a pay) or a chargeback protection service.
- Increase your prices a bit so that you can tank occasional charge backs.