Are fruitcakes running rampant on eBay lately? Selling, buying, listing, feedback, etc...

[Gondorian]

14 hours ago, Highlander said:

So i sold a Lego R2-D2 10225 on ebay last week, sold the day after listing BIN or best offer, buyer paid the full price.

I went to post it the next day & noticed the postcode didn't match the address "totally different city"

Contacted ebay,  they advised contacting the buyer to get them to correct there address then post.

The buyer got back to me today with the correct postcode & apologised for the mistake,  i posted the set tonight.

I get home 10 minutes later & i have 6 emails from ebay saying the buyers account has been hacked & they have taken the item down, so i nip back to the post office to get the parcel, but the post office won't give me it back until they speak to a supervisor tomorrow. I tell the shop "DO NOT POST IT AL BE BACK!" pick up is tomorrow. 

So after 2 hours on chat with ebay they say i can keep the payment & they will reimburse the buyer ' i said what about the item? Ebay said the scammer will get it. "not if i have anything to do with it"

I will let you not if i get the parcel back tomorrow 

Exactly the same thing happened to me mid-January. Someone bought a Millenium Falcon off me and the delivery address had two postcodes. Soon after, I get message on eBay telling me which is the right postcode to use. I post the set the next day. TWO DAYS later, eBay send me a message saying it was fraudulent purchase and not to send it. I contact eBay customer service and tell them it's already gone and they tell me I am protected because I sent to the right address. Just yesterday I get a PayPal Chargeback for the item. I responded on there with the tracking that showed it was delivered to the address provided. Now it's being reviewed by PayPal. Nowhere on there is it linked to an eBay item even though it was through eBay so that's weird. If they review and don't give me my money, I guess I go back to eBay to complain since I was told over the phone I would be covered.

Since that happened mid-January, I now compare Buyer Postcode with Delivery Postcode every time. Certainly if I ever see two postcodes again, I will put a deliberate delay on it and let the buyer know why.

Side note: I tried stopping the item being delivered by contacting Hermes and they said wait til it's with local courier for delivery. I do Online Chat at 9am to say Return to Sender. They say they will do that. 4 hours later, I get an email telling me the issue was resolved and it has been DELIVERED. So they had 4 hours to avoid delivering, but they did anyway. If it had come back to me, I would have just done a refund for the buyer, but it was delivered to the scammer unfortunately. Never had any problems with Hermes to date, aside from this and I guess you could put a positive spin on it - they never fail to deliver, even if you tell them not to deliver it!

[Alpinemaps]

If there's anything I'm learning from these stories - it's that I'm going to wait an extra day or two before sending if I get any orders with address issues like this. Willing to take the hit.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

When I posted an item (Sea Cow) just before the PayPal warning email, I also went to the post office to retrieve it and they refused at first. However, I thought quickly on my feet and I told them that I forgot to take the 8 large Lithium Batteries out of it. They gave it back to me straight away as soon as I showed the receipt - I know it's lying but, it worked for me.

My other instance was sending a Red 5 where the buyer's account was hacked and it was shipped to the scammer's address that actually said "verified" on PayPal. This also resulted in the PayPal warning email but, at least my Collect shop let me reclaim the package without fuss and I was refunded then next day! This particular scammer didn't live too far from where a rather large buddy of mine lives so the guy had a "bit of a talking to" and nearly turded himself.

I now have 2 days grace on eBay when shipping expensive items and I send the buyer a polite confirmation message to call me on my mobile before I ship. I'm a good judge of character when people call me and I've weeded out 2 out of 2 suspected scammers by doing this. Any legitimate buyer is often happy to wait an extra 2 days for their item.

[Gondorian]

15 hours ago, Highlander said:

So after 2 hours on chat with ebay they say i can keep the payment & they will reimburse the buyer ' i said what about the item? Ebay said the scammer will get it. "not if i have anything to do with it"

Don't mean to alarm you, but I was assured exactly the same by eBay over the phone mid-January, but I have the Chargeback on my PayPal account now and the money is on hold. I just contacted eBay again (got them to call me back) and they said I need to talk to PayPal since the Chargeback was initiated there and there's no eBay case. So that assurance I got from eBay means nothing, it seems. I can't even create a Case on eBay because the listing was removed (and I don't think the eBay account user could create one either). If PayPal don't resolve in my favour and give me the money, then I don't know what I can do.

 

[Gondorian]

12 minutes ago, TabbyBoy said:

When I posted an item (Sea Cow) just before the PayPal warning email, I also went to the post office to retrieve it and they refused at first. However, I thought quickly on my feet and I told them that I forgot to take the 8 large Lithium Batteries out of it. They gave it back to me straight away as soon as I showed the receipt - I know it's lying but, it worked for me.

My other instance was sending a Red 5 where the buyer's account was hacked and it was shipped to the scammer's address that actually said "verified" on PayPal. This also resulted in the PayPal warning email but, at least my Collect shop let me reclaim the package without fuss and I was refunded then next day! This particular scammer didn't live too far from where a rather large buddy of mine lives so the guy had a "bit of a talking to" and nearly turded himself.

I now have 2 days grace on eBay when shipping expensive items and I send the buyer a polite confirmation message to call me on my mobile before I ship. I'm a good judge of character when people call me and I've weeded out 2 out of 2 suspected scammers by doing this. Any legitimate buyer is often happy to wait an extra 2 days for their item.

For expensive items, I've taken to emailing buyers directly to ask them to confirm they actually made the purchase. I've also done a Facebook search by their email address to try to get a rough idea if they are scammers! This bullshit thing with the Millennium Falcon has made me extra vigilant/paranoid now, when previously I was a fairly carefree seller. Hopefully it saves me more grief down the line!

[KShine]

2 minutes ago, Gondorian said:

Don't mean to alarm you, but I was assured exactly the same by eBay over the phone mid-January, but I have the Chargeback on my PayPal account now and the money is on hold. I just contacted eBay again (got them to call me back) and they said I need to talk to PayPal since the Chargeback was initiated there and there's no eBay case. So that assurance I got from eBay means nothing, it seems. I can't even create a Case on eBay because the listing was removed (and I don't think the eBay account user could create one either). If PayPal don't resolve in my favour and give me the money, then I don't know what I can do.

Years ago, I ran into an issue that was going to have a detrimental effect on my ebay account. I was assured at least 8-10 times (I kept wanting to make certain) that I had absolutely nothing to worry about, I was fine, it would be taken care of.

I wasn't fine - and all the assurances I had received meant absolutely nothing. 

 

[Guest TabbyBoy]

7 minutes ago, Gondorian said:

For expensive items, I've taken to emailing buyers directly to ask them to confirm they actually made the purchase. I've also done a Facebook search by their email address to try to get a rough idea if they are scammers! This bullshit thing with the Millennium Falcon has made me extra vigilant/paranoid now, when previously I was a fairly carefree seller. Hopefully it saves me more grief down the line!

I'm now thinking about disabling PayPal and accepting bank transfers or cleared cheques for >£250 items. I doubt that a genuine buyer will have a problem with this. I'll also be able to accept credit cards soon once my new business (non-LEGO) is up and running.

eBay/PayPal should really assume some responsibility as they seem to charge us enough for fees.

That's the problem with today's commerce, greed and profit come before quality and safety!

Edited February 15, 2017 by TabbyBoy

[Val-E]

2 minutes ago, TabbyBoy said:

I'm now thinking about disabling PayPal and accepting bank transfers or cleared cheques for >£250 items. I doubt that a genuine buyer will have a problem with this. I'll also be able to accept credit cards soon once my new business (non-LEGO) is up and running.

You´ll sell less but have less headaches and be able to undercut paypal fanboys.

[Darth_Raichu]

9 minutes ago, Gondorian said:

Don't mean to alarm you, but I was assured exactly the same by eBay over the phone mid-January, but I have the Chargeback on my PayPal account now and the money is on hold. I just contacted eBay again (got them to call me back) and they said I need to talk to PayPal since the Chargeback was initiated there and there's no eBay case. So that assurance I got from eBay means nothing, it seems. I can't even create a Case on eBay because the listing was removed (and I don't think the eBay account user could create one either). If PayPal don't resolve in my favour and give me the money, then I don't know what I can do.

 

eBay assurance means nothing when it comes to Paypal chargebacks.  

You already provided the needed information to Paypal.  The only thing you can do now is pray that your case is being handled by a competent Paypal agent and not by a few morons Paypal keep in their payroll for whatever reason. 

[Guest TabbyBoy]

4 minutes ago, Val-E said:

You´ll sell less but have less headaches and be able to undercut paypal fanboys.

I'll be using a dedicated account for high value items so that my typical sales are not affected. It's very rare that scammers target <£100 items.

[lego rules]

So how is this scam working?  Someone hacks someone's ebay and paypal account and changes the shipping address to their own?

[red panda]

I wonder when the tipping point will be reached with online fraud and an appropriate level of resourcing? I was reading over on brickset a thread where somebody sold £10k of rare items, polybags etc in a quick period of time before taking the money and running. When I last checked the link he/she had 176 negatives on the obviously shell eBay account.

Just imagine for one minute if you physically robbed a sub post office or high street bank of £10k, I can't help thinking the response would be tenfold compared to the often none existent effort placed on online fraud. I reckon within our lifetimes the tipping point will reach and most law enforcement will be solely online. The only area that really seems to be taken seriously in terms of online crime is abuse / indecency etc.

[Darth_Raichu]

5 minutes ago, lego rules said:

So how is this scam working?  Someone hacks someone's ebay and paypal account and changes the shipping address to their own?

Technically they only need to hack to the Paypal account

[Darth_Raichu]

5 minutes ago, red panda said:

I wonder when the tipping point will be reached with online fraud and an appropriate level of resourcing? I was reading over on brickset a thread where somebody sold £10k of rare items, polybags etc in a quick period of time before taking the money and running. When I last checked the link he/she had 176 negatives on the obviously shell eBay account.

Just imagine for one minute if you physically robbed a sub post office or high street bank of £10k, I can't help thinking the response would be tenfold compared to the often none existent effort placed on online fraud. I reckon within our lifetimes the tipping point will reach and most law enforcement will be solely online. The only area that really seems to be taken seriously in terms of online crime is abuse / indecency etc.

Sadly, the law is not going to catch up unless close relatives of law makers, President, or Prime Minister become victims of these type of frauds

[lego rules]

If a shipping address is provided to the scammer, why isn't anyone calling the police?

[red panda]

Found the link.

http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/494289#Comment_494289

[Guest TabbyBoy]

3 minutes ago, lego rules said:

If a shipping address is provided to the scammer, why isn't anyone calling the police?

There's no point, well, in the UK... I did and they didn't want to know and I was told that it's a civil not criminal matter. The only option in the UK is using a solictor to raise a case against the scammer but, it'll cost you a non-refundable £250 for an hour just to get started. It was the same "Catch 22" when I had to wait nearly 2 months for my refund from TRU and I only got that when Trading Standards and Watchdog stepped in, luckily at no cost to me.

At this time, you can only do what you can and be prepared to swallow the loss unless you're prepared to "send the boys round" to the suspect address. I know a bailiff so I did this once and it all ended peacefully and profitably.

13 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Sadly, the law is not going to catch up unless close relatives of law makers, President, or Prime Minister become victims of these type of frauds

Agree, little is done in the UK to protect the public unless it happens to "them".

[minicoopers11]

39 minutes ago, red panda said:

I wonder when the tipping point will be reached with online fraud and an appropriate level of resourcing? I was reading over on brickset a thread where somebody sold £10k of rare items, polybags etc in a quick period of time before taking the money and running. When I last checked the link he/she had 176 negatives on the obviously shell eBay account.

Just imagine for one minute if you physically robbed a sub post office or high street bank of £10k, I can't help thinking the response would be tenfold compared to the often none existent effort placed on online fraud. I reckon within our lifetimes the tipping point will reach and most law enforcement will be solely online. The only area that really seems to be taken seriously in terms of online crime is abuse / indecency etc.

The other thing to consider is the visibility of either crime. Which will you see reported more by news outlets? Obviously, a robbery of a bank at gunpoint. A similarly sized online fraud? The perp might get caught, but who cares? There's no ratings there. You might see an article in WIRED (or similar) about the online fraud, if it's larger or technically interesting, but a segment on "ABC ACTION NEWS at 6?" No.

Edited February 15, 2017 by minicoopers11

[Ma-gic]

Going to leave this here, though it is not ebay but Marktplaats (Craiglist equivalent).

Had a buyer showing me the toy store link to a now retired product I listed, and demanding me selling him the RRP. Patiently explained to him it can't be bought in toy store anymore or even online internet store is selling 30% above my listed price. In fact my price is in the ballpark of other offers. Buyer retorted that it could still be bought in physical store and name calling (Thief)

 

p/s: Mod if it is not allowed to leave the name, I'll delete it.

 

[BrickLegacy]

1 minute ago, Ma-gic said:

Going to leave this here, though it is not ebay but Marktplaats (Craiglist equivalent).

Had a buyer showing me the toy store link to a now retired product I listed, and demanding me selling him the RRP. Patiently explained to him it can't be bought in toy store anymore or even online internet store is selling 30% above my listed price. In fact my price is in the ballpark of other offers. Buyer retorted that it could still be bought in physical store and name calling (Thief)

 

p/s: Mod if it is not allowed to leave the name, I'll delete it.

 

I deleted the name for you.

[Alpinemaps]

Going to leave this here, though it is not ebay but Marktplaats (Craiglist equivalent).
Had a buyer showing me the toy store link to a now retired product I listed, and demanding me selling him the RRP. Patiently explained to him it can't be bought in toy store anymore or even online internet store is selling 30% above my listed price. In fact my price is in the ballpark of other offers. Buyer retorted that it could still be bought in physical store and name calling (Thief)
 
p/s: Mod if it is not allowed to leave the name, I'll delete it.

 

Best to ignore those folks. Don't even respond.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

11 minutes ago, Ma-gic said:

Going to leave this here, though it is not ebay but Marktplaats (Craiglist equivalent).

Had a buyer showing me the toy store link to a now retired product I listed, and demanding me selling him the RRP. Patiently explained to him it can't be bought in toy store anymore or even online internet store is selling 30% above my listed price. In fact my price is in the ballpark of other offers. Buyer retorted that it could still be bought in physical store and name calling (Thief)

p/s: Mod if it is not allowed to leave the name, I'll delete it.

Just tell them to go and buy it there then, I would. On eBay, I simply ignore messages that ask me to lower the price, give a hard-luck story or submit a lowball offer. By ignoring them, it's them that get disappointed and I simply block them if they persist.

[minicoopers11]

17 minutes ago, Ma-gic said:

Going to leave this here, though it is not ebay but Marktplaats (Craiglist equivalent).

Had a buyer showing me the toy store link to a now retired product I listed, and demanding me selling him the RRP. Patiently explained to him it can't be bought in toy store anymore or even online internet store is selling 30% above my listed price. In fact my price is in the ballpark of other offers. Buyer retorted that it could still be bought in physical store and name calling (Thief)

 

p/s: Mod if it is not allowed to leave the name, I'll delete it.

 

Yeah, no matter the venue, that is best to ignore. Nothing good will come of discourse with such people.

[Ma-gic]

Cheers folks. I'm cool as I just ignored him after my response.
Just checked my message, he still bombing me with name calling. If it continues...I'm going to report to the site admin.

[Phil B]

2 hours ago, Alpinemaps said:

If there's anything I'm learning from these stories - it's that I'm going to wait an extra day or two before sending if I get any orders with address issues like this. Willing to take the hit.

I've said it several times on here already, but it's worth repeating: EBay (at least in the US) has a Seller-initiated cancellation reason just for this: "Issue with buyer's address". I always ship to the Paypal confirmed address, and if that has issues, or the buyer sends a soppy "Oh I made a mistake in my address" story I reply by cancelling the order and sending them a polite email telling them to reorder the item once they have corrected their address. I _NEVER_ correct an address.