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

[Fenix_2k1]

1 hour ago, Will 4 said:

Hey discrimination I watch baseball and NBA at that hour or after and need to kill time during breaks.

Were you the person who bought something from me at 4:57am? lol

[MoHu]

14 hours ago, Bobbynobricks said:

I have to admit that I assumed the ebay rants were just another in the pantheon of Tabby moans, and more a reflection of the scale of total sales.

I thought that too but didnt post "unhealthy" comments about other members.  Now thats i've had a few 'frauded' sales that i've cancelled, I understand Tabbys position as these scams only stating hitting me once i started to sell £100+ lego items.  More sales, more high value items, more scams.  More scams this past 2 months than 8 eight years of selling on fleabay.  

11 hours ago, Val-E said:

Paypal user data not matching Ebay data would be the main red flag.

Paypal user data matched Ebay user data for me.  Only thing different on each one was the buyers name.

11 hours ago, roxio said:

I just had somebody pay full price without best offer, eBay account not used in last 12 months. Messages the mobile number on eBay contact and they confirmed name and address. All the same on PayPal as well. So I've got seller cover anyway, but guess if they're hacked they'd change everything, address, mobile etc

I give the buyer a call these days and so far so good.  If they get disconnected (or hung up), I send a message to let them know that i'm cancelling the sale (explaining why) and they soon text back saying its a legit sale.

[Captain_chaos]

Another type of fruitcake I've noticed (more harmless) recently, are people who list like this:

Lego set MISB box damage.

Makes me laugh.

[LegoBro]

Buyer pays for one Won this morning. Right after the order, places request to cancel. Then messages not to cancel. Pressed button by mistake. Then proceeds to place another order of Won a half hour later. Messaged buyer I won't cancel at their request but I do mention the 2 orders. Anyone have this happen before?

[Darth_Raichu]

29 minutes ago, LegoBro said:

Buyer pays for one Won this morning. Right after the order, places request to cancel. Then messages not to cancel. Pressed button by mistake. Then proceeds to place another order of Won a half hour later. Messaged buyer I won't cancel at their request but I do mention the 2 orders. Anyone have this happen before?

Mistakes happen all the time.  Just ask how many they intended to buy and cancel / ship accordingly

[LegoBro]

About 400 dollars sold on ebay this morning. Various buyers. 2 hacked accounts and requests for cancellations on them. Gonna be a busy month.

[Gondorian]

Hey all! I've not sold anything for about 6 months and listed a bunch of things on eBay last night. Within 12 hours, I have sold 3 £100+ items to two buyers all at the same address in Leicester. The first has already been flagged as unauthorised payment which is what alerted me to the other two purchases from the second account (both of these bought within minutes of each other).

Just had long chat to eBay about this issue and mentioned what has been discussed on this thread too. I asked if they would send police round to this address or at least put some fraud detection on that flags things to an address that has already been marked unauthorised payment as potentially dodgy. I was told they are going to investigate. I was passed onto Selling team after I said I am not even going to bother relisting the items because hacked eBay account fraud is so rife. I suggested they add an option for us to block buyers that don't use two-factor authentication.

I still have 21 items on there. I wonder how many more will sell today with that same Leicester address.  The last time I was scammed like this (last year), it was to Leicester as well. I think there must be a fraud ring there. I don't think the fraudster is actually at that address, but maybe the courier is in on the scam.

[Gondorian]

Another sold today to the same address to a third buyer.

I've been told right thing to do by eBay customer service is to hit 'Cancel the Order' and put 'Something wrong with address' as the reason and hit 'Refund'. Then also report the buyer and add to blocked buyers list. Does not stop hacker using another account and trying to get from me though.

p.s. Last night I had an email with no content other than 'Lego ???' from the email from the buyer who bought 2 sets. So the hacker has the email account as well as eBay account.

[MoHu]

2 hours ago, Gondorian said:

Another sold today to the same address to a third buyer.

I've been told right thing to do by eBay customer service is to hit 'Cancel the Order' and put 'Something wrong with address' as the reason and hit 'Refund'. Then also report the buyer and add to blocked buyers list. Does not stop hacker using another account and trying to get from me though.

p.s. Last night I had an email with no content other than 'Lego ???' from the email from the buyer who bought 2 sets. So the hacker has the email account as well as eBay account.

The scumbag bought 2 items from me yesterday too and another bawbag in London address ordered something.   London one thankfully came up as unauthorised use as was going ship it next tuesday but only after i had called the buyer since it looked legit .

This Leicester postcode & address is slightly different from the fraud ones a month ago.  I know it was fraud as two different buyers to the same address plus the font on the address was weird.  DO NOT POST ANY LEGO TO LEICESTER.  ITS A SCAM.  Think i'd rather post without tracking to Russia.

One of the buying accounts (ebay & paypal) still hasnt said fraud.  Going to have to phone the imbecile to let them know their accounts hacked.

[richieh69]

First time poster, weighing in as had some similar hacked experiences last 2 weeks...

Only sell relatively low volume (3-4 sets per year) but got about 20 to sell for Christmas (need space back!). Had an AT-AT scammed twice, and a winter village market. All 3 to addresses in Leicester, the last 2 to the same address, 48 hrs apart.

First one was subject to a Paypal chargeback, but after phoning Paypal complaints department managed to get the £14 refunded. The last 2 have been simple refunds requested via Paypal, and charges reversed including no impact on the fees for me. But, incredibly frustrating - have another couple of sets still listed and a bunch more to sell for Christmas. The one that sold last night I emailed straight after the sale just to confirm if it was a genuine order and the person's mother messaged me from another eBay account saying her daughters had been hacked and they were onto the fraud dept on the phone, and a few hours later had the eBay cancellation through.

The last two accounts hacked have both have had more than 50 positive feedback, so not really sure anyway of easily filtering these on eBay other than I guess changing them to auction style listings instead of BIN?

[BarryZola]

I've had to cancel 2 separate orders for £100 plus sets in only the last couple of weeks on Ebay. Basically someone (scammer) has gained access to someone else's account and placed an order. Seems to be getting worse.

Just leaving this here to add to the tales of woe.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

All this is because eBay/PayPal can't be bothered to implement COMPULSORY 2FA which would solve most of the hacked account problems instantly!

I'm now setting a £50 value limit (less likely to be ripped off) for selling BIN items on eBay until they do more to protect accounts. Just as well because I can now send everything 2nd Class Signed For.

This is why I closed my business account last year and created this thread:

https://community.brickpicker.com/forums/topic/17779-ebay-is-fraud-on-the-increase

Even if eBay can't force customers to use 2FA (why not? It's free!), they should at least make careless account holders partly liable for their lack of security. Somebody who's stupid enough to use the same password for eBay, PayPal and email deserves to be ripped off IMHO.

No wonder our fees are getting higher!

Edited November 13, 2017 by TabbyBoy

[gregpj]

5 hours ago, TabbyBoy said:

All this is because eBay/PayPal can't be bothered to implement COMPULSORY 2FA which would solve most of the hacked account problems instantly!

https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/10/15946642/two-factor-authentication-online-security-mess

2 Factor Authentication isn't the answer .. the big tech companies know it and don't care because it won't ever make them money.

Short term they need to do some type of 2FA AND also start disabling accounts that are inactive (even something like 3 months). You can come up with some creative ways to have accounts re-enabled using ID (just never save the ID on insecure servers) or tie the 2FA to a specific device ID - many high security firms use USB fobs - such as your phone. Sure you can lose the device, but if it's password protected that buys you time to cancel/change info.

Long term, they should be working together with anyone who is interested to come up with something better.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

13 minutes ago, gregpj said:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/10/15946642/two-factor-authentication-online-security-mess

2 Factor Authentication isn't the answer .. the big tech companies know it and don't care because it won't ever make them money.

Short term they need to do some type of 2FA AND also start disabling accounts that are inactive (even something like 3 months). You can come up with some creative ways to have accounts re-enabled using ID (just never save the ID on insecure servers) or tie the 2FA to a specific device ID - many high security firms use USB fobs - such as your phone. Sure you can lose the device, but if it's password protected that buys you time to cancel/change info.

Long term, they should be working together with anyone who is interested to come up with something better.

The technology has been around for years, I use it for banking, tax returns and cryptocurrency exchanges - never had a problem in over 3 years. There should be regulation is place so that it COSTS them money if they don't implement it. Also... penalties, in the UK at least, are a slap on the wrist at worst.

I'd happily pay a 15% FVF on eBay if fraud was eradicated.

[gregpj]

The technology has been around for years, I use it for banking, tax returns and cryptocurrency exchanges - never had a problem in over 3 years. There should be regulation is place so that it COSTS them money if they don't implement it. Also... penalties, in the UK at least, are a slap on the wrist at worst.
I'd happily pay a 15% FVF on eBay if fraud was eradicated.

When implemented properly, it’s the most secure solution there is... but obviously it garners a lot of attention from hackers and scammers.

They should be working on the next evolution but either they aren’t or nobody is collaborating which is a mistake.

[AirborneAFOL]

I'd happily pay a 15% FVF on eBay if fraud was eradicated.

Bollocks. As if you’d ever be happy about anything to do with eBay. Or LEGO investing at all, for that matter...

[Guest TabbyBoy]

1 minute ago, gregpj said:

When implemented properly, it’s the most secure solution there is... but obviously it garners a lot of attention from hackers and scammers.
They should be working on the next evolution but either they aren’t or nobody is collaborating which is a mistake.

 

Of course, there's one thing that will probably never be cured.... fraudulent SNAD cases.

1 minute ago, AirborneAFOL said:

Bollocks. As if you’d ever be happy about anything to do with eBay. Or LEGO investing at all, for that matter...

Language!

[Darth_Raichu]

7 hours ago, TabbyBoy said:

All this is because eBay/PayPal can't be bothered to implement COMPULSORY 2FA which would solve most of the hacked account problems instantly!

Any big time scammers ($3000++ / scam) knows 2FA is not going to stop their scams  You know it once you loose that amount of money and Paypal would not lift a finger to help

[Guest TabbyBoy]

23 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Any big time scammers ($3000++ / scam) knows 2FA is not going to stop their scams  You know it once you loose that amount of money and Paypal would not lift a finger to help

Anything that I sell for $3000+ will be a local exchange for cash and NEVER posted or PayPal. The maximum for me on eBay is £50 without question and £100 if the buyer sends proof of address and a genuine buyer has never refused to provide this. It depends on what 2FA they use and employing TOTP on a local device would be a start.

[AntimonyER]

Well, I got hit with my first fraudulent buyer. I knew it too, buyer name didn't match paypal account name, and email address didn't match either of those. But it was a paypal echeck that I waited 7 days to clear, and it did, so I checked seller protection was active, and shipped when the check cleared... Packaged delivered yesterday, today, payment reversed by financial institution. Hopefully I don't lose my money.

[iahawks550]

4 minutes ago, AntimonyER said:

Well, I got hit with my first fraudulent buyer. I knew it too, buyer name didn't match paypal account name, and email address didn't match either of those. But it was a paypal echeck that I waited 7 days to clear, and it did, so I checked seller protection was active, and shipped when the check cleared... Packaged delivered yesterday, today, payment reversed by financial institution. Hopefully I don't lose my money.

On cases like this that don't seem right, they probably aren't. I always send a message or email the buyer. If no response, I don't send out. You probably won't lose your money, but it still costs everyone in the end.

[AntimonyER]

2 minutes ago, iahawks550 said:

On cases like this that don't seem right, they probably aren't. I always send a message or email the buyer. If no response, I don't send out. You probably won't lose your money, but it still costs everyone in the end.

Yeah, I should have, but I am small time, and it was a $35 sale. After reading here, it seemed the higher dollar ones were the targets. But that will be the end of my good graces, if I see something fishy in the future I will verify first.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

10 minutes ago, AntimonyER said:

Well, I got hit with my first fraudulent buyer. I knew it too, buyer name didn't match paypal account name, and email address didn't match either of those. But it was a paypal echeck that I waited 7 days to clear, and it did, so I checked seller protection was active, and shipped when the check cleared... Packaged delivered yesterday, today, payment reversed by financial institution. Hopefully I don't lose my money.

It's happened to me a lot of times and it's getting worse, especially with more expensive sets. The first thing I check is to make sure that eBay/PayPal details match and that they are verified. If there's a mis-match, I always send the scammer buyer a message to change their details so that they match. If I have no response, the sale is cancelled and I contact eBay on chat to let them know. You're unlikely to lose money since you shipped to the stated address, but it affects us all in the way of higher fees as it's becoming a big problem now. This is why anything that I sell on eBay of high value is strictly cash on collection (NOT from home!).

If you still have to ship something of value, always ask the buyer for a scan/photo of a utility or tax bill that shows the correct address. If they refuse, then there's a reason ;-)

[CNH1974]

Well I was about to have a rant about the 5th fraudulent sale in a month but you lot are already doing it.

Since the first 3 (and one user taking 4 days to inform me, annoyingly one hour AFTER I'd posted it!!) I have been contacting buyers to ask if they are genuine.

 

Also, I know I am not around here as much as I used to be - too busy sorting building and selling vintage Lego - but since when is TabbyBoy back on eBay. The last I read was that he gave them the finger

 

[Guest TabbyBoy]

19 minutes ago, CNH1974 said:

Well I was about to have a rant about the 5th fraudulent sale in a month but you lot are already doing it.

Since the first 3 (and one user taking 4 days to inform me, annoyingly one hour AFTER I'd posted it!!) I have been contacting buyers to ask if they are genuine.

 

Also, I know I am not around here as much as I used to be - too busy sorting building and selling vintage Lego - but since when is TabbyBoy back on eBay. The last I read was that he gave them the finger

 

I'm building up feedback on a new private account. I have another account which is for another business unrelated to LEGO. The worst thing to happen to me was a PayPal chargeback after 3 months and then get whacked with a £14 chargeback fee. This is the only instance where somebody was paid a visit.