Sellers are scammers on ebay. The buyer is a scammer. But eBay closed the case in his favor and returned the money. Price manipulation

Hello, dear forum users!
I want to tell a story about a scam buyer and the disgraceful work of eBay support, and also ask for advice on how to resolve the situation in your favor and avoid problems in the future. I apologize in advance for the sheet, I will try to be as brief as possible. I'm from Estonia, Business seller, Power seller, TRS and all... I've been selling on eBay for many years, but this is the first time I've encountered such a fraud scheme.
At the end of December, I sold a satellite receiver to a buyer from England for 235 pounds, including delivery. After 10 days, the item reached the buyer, for three days he pestered me by email with technical questions (how to connect, how to set up). Then the flow of questions stopped, I decided that he had managed to set everything up and ticked off another successful sale in my head.
But two weeks later, the buyer, without any warning, opens a case on eBay, saying that the product is broken and he wants to return it and get a full refund. I agree, although over a couple of years of sales, there has not been a single case of defects with this model. Some time later, on February 10th, a message appears in the case details that the buyer sent the item and reported the tracking number to eBay. Okay, I'm sitting here waiting for the parcel. Refand, so refand. Electronics, defects are always possible, the supplier will replace them for me under warranty. I will lose about 100 euros, but my reputation and rating are more valuable. Suddenly, on February 20th I received negative feedback from this buyer that I was selling clones (counterfeits) of these receivers. I’m writing, don’t fuck me, asking how to remove this false review, I can prove that all my products are original. They answer, we won’t remove the rating, but we can remove the contents of the review. They send you a link to the document: print it, fill it out, scan it, send it to such and such a link, and then it’s up to us. Ok, I've done everything.
On February 21st I receive a message from eBay, saying that the buyer sees in the tracking that the parcel has been delivered, let’s confirm the delivery and make money. But I haven’t received anything, I’m sitting quietly, waiting for the notification. Give me the tracking number, I say, I’ll sort it out. They give me number LB109682777GB and a link for tracking: http://www.royalmail.com/trackdetails. I punch through and see the status: UNDELIVERED ADDRESSEE CANNOT BE LOCATED. I check the number on the Estonian Post website www.omniva.ee, I see that on February 16 there were two delivery attempts, but not to mine, but to a similar address. My house number is 6, but they tried to deliver it to house number 16. Apparently, the courier there was told that a person with my name did not live with them and on the 18th the parcel went back to the sender, in England. Let me remind you that the number was given to me only on the 21st. I am writing about all this on eBay, saying that the buyer is wrong, the address is wrong, and what should I do now?
At the same time, I have doubts: why, in fact, was the parcel sent via RoyalMail? You can only send letters and melpacks up to 2kg from England through them, and my receiver weighs 2.7kg and had to be sent via Parcelforce (England Postal Service). I expressed these doubts to eBay support. They replied that the case was frozen for contact with the buyer until the 23rd. Ok, I'm waiting.
On the morning of February 24, I received a message that the case was closed in favor of the buyer and the money was withdrawn from me and returned to him. Allegedly, the eBay support agent sees in the tracking that the parcel has been delivered to me. I ask you to re-read the tracking details again and find the Delivered status. Immediately this agent replies that, oh, it was not delivered, but there was an attempt to deliver to your address, and you did not ensure receipt. I send him a link to Estonian mail tracking, where it is clear that they tried to deliver to a different address. He ignores it, writes that the appeal was rejected and further appeals in this case are prohibited for me. By that time, the tracking shows that the parcel returned to England and is being stored in the UK NATIONAL RETURN CENTER.
Twice I tried to sort out the problem through the ebay chat, but they forwarded the problem to support, and they wrote the next day that they delivered to your address, but you, fool, didn’t receive it. They offered to contact the buyer so that he could arrange re-shipment. They gave me a link to request his phone number. Requested, received, called. The number is left, I only hear “this number is not in use”. I wrote a request to RoyalMail asking for details on this parcel. They promptly and politely responded that the parcel was in their storage, but there was no return address on it and they were waiting for the sender to contact them. They also confirmed my fears, saying that the shipment with this tracking format is a small package up to 2 kg, weighing, i.e. obviously not what the buyer received from me. eBay also denied my request to remove the defamatory content of the negative review. They said deal with the buyer directly. The buyer, of course, does not respond to messages through ebay or emails. The bottom line is: I have no goods, no money, paid eBay and PayPal fees for this sale, and, the icing on the cake, is slanderous negative feedback, which has already led to a decrease in sales.
I would be glad to receive advice from members of the forum on how else I can try to resolve the situation in my favor.

Hello, my dear readers! Today I wanted to discuss with you a very delicate topic on one hand. We continue to get acquainted with the giant in the world of the Internet store eBay. Yes, indeed, this online store has been operating for a long time, and in most cases no misunderstandings arise either with delivery or with payment.

However, like everywhere else, there are scammers here too. For this reason, today I would like to understand in detail what kind of fraud can be found on ebay, and how to protect yourself from dishonest people.

So, the presented auction is a place where thousands of decent users make purchases every day. The company does its best to protect its customers to a fairly high degree.

To this end, every year the auction management allocates millions of dollars, regularly informs buyers and exposes many violators and scammers.

But the desire to get rich dishonestly does not disappear for many people. If one deception scheme ceases to function, then another, more sophisticated one takes its place.

When deciding to buy something on a service, you need to clearly know everything about the product, delivery, seller and payment. For this reason, pay close attention to the following points:

1. Product.

• Description of products.
• Photo.
• Price.
• Payment method.
• Delivery method and cost.

2. Seller.

• Profile.
• Rating.
• Reviews.
• List of products sold.

3. Payment (only approved method with a guarantee).

Only if all this information satisfies you and inspires confidence, you can think about purchasing. After all, quite often it happens that users themselves are to blame for their troubles, not adhering to the rules of the site, or taking everyone’s word for it.

Therefore, I propose to look at some tricks and schemes that can help you make money.

Letters to mail

We're talking about email. This is probably the oldest and most common method used by scammers to find out the personal information of a visitor. It is worth noting that it is used not only on eBay, but also for thousands of other resources on the network.

The bottom line is this: receive a letter to your e-mail stating that the client’s page has been frozen for one reason or another, and in order to unblock it, the person is asked to follow the link (indicated in the letter) and unblock his account.

Thus, the user enters his data there, which falls into the hands of scammers. After this, the villains are free to carry out dishonest transactions from the client’s account.

You need to know that at first glance, this letter may be very similar to an official notice from the store administration: the same logo, name, template and font. But to check where this letter came from, just look at the sender’s address and everything will immediately become clear.

This scheme is very simple and has been working for a long time. The expectation is that the user, having seen such information, will immediately rush to find out what the actual problem is through the link provided in the letter.

Few people think of checking the sender's address. Of course, the store management is trying to close such clones, but in place of one closed service, a dozen new ones will appear. It's impossible to keep track of this.

Payments

You can use different payment methods on eBay. However, there are those that are allowed by the administration, and there are those that cannot be used. Allowed payment methods provide a certain guarantee to the buyer, which allows them to get their money back in the event of any dishonest actions by the seller.

In most cases, that is, about ninety percent of payments go through a special PayPal structure that takes care of consumer rights.

All criminals are well aware that they will not be able to deceive the buyer through legal payment methods. For this reason, scammers ask buyers to transfer funds to a page without provided documents, or through another money transfer system that does not require passport data.

Firstly, you, as a participant in the system, thus become a violator of the rules, and secondly, in most cases, it is the scammers who ask to make such transfers.

Moreover, if this happens, you will not have the opportunity to use the consumer protection structure and get your money back. Therefore, in this case, it is the actions of the buyer that play a big role.

Sellers

Reviews are a great way to test the reliability of a seller. Before making any purchase from a seller, you need to check its ratings and reviews.

It happens that there are not many reviews - about ten, and all of them were made in the last five days. In this case, there is a high probability that these comments were purchased, and the page was created only to deceive buyers.

In addition, it is worth looking at the seller's rating. If it is ninety-nine percent or more, then most likely he is an honest person. You can also look at the sale of what products it was received. There are accounts that have a fairly high rating, but only small items were sold, the cost of which did not exceed two dollars.

If these are scammers, then often, after a set of positive reviews and a high rating, such people move on to selling expensive goods. In this case, it is better to choose another seller, or wait a little with the purchase.

You can also talk to the person before purchasing the product, asking him a few questions. For example, you can ask to send a photo of higher quality or from a different angle. You can also find out about the payment method, guarantees, and so on.

Rules about expensive purchases

Many people who already have experience with shopping on eBay are no longer afraid to buy expensive goods (five hundred dollars or more). However, when purchasing such products there are specially designed procedures and rules.

Firstly, expensive products must be insured, the cost of delivery and duty money must be taken into account. Some users from the CIS countries work according to this scheme: through the official question form, they ask the seller for the maximum delivery time, pay for the products via PayPal, and two weeks later write to the seller that they do not intend to wait more than thirty days for the goods.

Thus, if the products do not arrive on the twenty-ninth day, then the money is returned. Also, newcomers to the system like to use the services of intermediary firms that evaluate the seller, pay and deliver the goods, and in case of problems, they take them upon themselves. It will also be good when the seller has a special SquareTrade certificate, which, in case of fraud, allows the buyer to get their money back.

Development of fraud

As I already told you, every hour methods of deceiving consumers acquire new forms and graces. That is, some simpler fraud schemes are replaced by others, more thoughtful ones.

You should not be afraid to ask, find out all the details from the seller - this is your right to information, which can help you protect yourself from dishonest people. Don't take their word for it, especially from big stores like eBay.

After all, despite the fact that the administration tries to protect its clients as much as possible, scammers do not stand still and come up with new fraudulent transactions and financial frauds. There are many methods by which attackers are punished, but even this does not help.

• Until you are one hundred percent sure of the seller’s intentions, do not pay for the goods, do not transfer your personal data, and check everything a hundred times.

Best regards, Natalya Melnikova!

Although it is one of the most effective mechanisms for protecting buyers in the field of online shopping, unfortunately it cannot guarantee absolute protection against fraud on this online auction.

The buyer must take a responsible approach to choosing both the product and the seller, so as not to unwittingly give money into the hands of a criminal. Moreover, with due care and caution, it is quite easy to detect attempts at fraud, since the main schemes by which online trading scammers work are well known and they are designed for inattention, excitement and haste on the part of buyers.

What schemes to defraud buyers exist on eBay and how to avoid them?

Manipulations with product descriptions.

If we summarize all the varieties of this type of deception, then it consists in the fact that the description of the product is compiled in such a way as to create the illusion in the buyer that a completely different, more expensive product is being sold. So, under the guise of a new fashionable smartphone, they can only sell you a case for it. At the same time, in order for it to look like a fair deal from the outside, there will always be a clear, but invisible at first glance, disclaimer in the description, making it clear what kind of goods will actually be supplied for.

To avoid falling for the bait of crooks, follow these tips.

• Compare product prices from different sellers. If the seller’s price is much lower than the market average, then this is a serious reason to doubt the seller’s honesty.
• Pay attention to the photos. The presence of only standard photographs provided by the manufacturer is a reason to write to the seller with a request to provide photographs of this particular instance. Also, in the seller’s photographs, the item may be photographed in such a way that its shortcomings will be skillfully hidden. Ask the merchant to take a photo of the product from the side you want.
• studying its rating and reviews of other buyers.
• Read the product description carefully. Pay attention to the condition of the product (new, used) and the described shortcomings.

Let's look at the example in the picture above. Someone is selling a list of stores where you can buy the latest models of portable electronics.

• In this case, a standard image of one of the smartphones (1) is used as a product photo.
• The price of the product is comparable to the starting price of bidding on a real phone (2), but is obviously overpriced for a regular list of stores, the usefulness of which is in great doubt.
• The seller has positive reviews (3), but there are very few of them, which suggests that they were made from fake accounts.
• And already in the title it honestly states that it is the list (4) that is being sold.

In this particular case, the catch is obvious. But don't let your attention drop. As a rule, scammers are much more creative.

Price manipulation.

Since the final price on eBay consists of the cost of the product and its delivery to your address, some unscrupulous sellers take advantage of this by setting a meager price for the product itself (1) and greatly inflating the cost of delivery (2).

At the same time, the high cost of delivery does not guarantee that the goods will be delivered to you as quickly as possible. Most likely, it will be sent by regular mail, and the remaining amount will compensate for the low price of the product itself.

The delivery price is indicated below the price for the product and is displayed in a much smaller font size, which allows scammers to take advantage of the buyer’s carelessness.

Payment fraud

A payment scam involves a seller asking you to pay for an item in some unusual way that is beyond eBay's control, such as a money order. Today, it is considered a good practice to accept payment on eBay through a payment system that reliably protects the buyer. If the seller insists on making the payment differently, this is a reason to suspect fraud.

Deception by canceling a transaction or closing a dispute

• The essence of this type of fraud comes down to the fact that after payment for the goods, a letter comes from the seller in which he apologizes for the fact that the goods were not in stock or were hopelessly damaged. As a solution to the problem, he offers to return the money, but only if you cancel the transaction.
• Or the seller deliberately does not send the goods to you. By showing a little patience and spending a bit of time familiarizing yourself with the available information, you will definitely distinguish an honest seller from a scammer, which means you will save your money and receive the product you expected.

How can an eBay seller cheat with impunity? Very simple. It would seem that this is not the first year that I have been buying many interesting things through this wonderful auction. Decent experience, several hundred positive feedbacks. And now, for the second time this year, I became the victim of an interesting scam. It looks like this: the lot (item) is exhibited by an American, directly from the USA (not China, the Philippines or Uruguay!). The seller has a bunch of positive feedback. Next, I win the lot and pay for it, with delivery to Russia. And then the seller’s brain “turns on”, because... Papuans like the Russians can be scammed very easily. Namely: the LOT IS SENT HONESTLY to Russia, but with an ERROR IN THE ADDRESS/ADDRESSER! The seller gives a tracking number, which you can use to “track” how the parcel is going. But they still won’t give it to you, even if you try to get it, because... according to our rules, there is an error in the address -> no one received it -> the parcel is sent back to the sender. Naturally, you write to the seller, what the hell is this and how to live now? The seller cheerfully replies, saying, sorry, it’s my mistake, now the parcel will be returned and I will send it again at my own expense, to the correct address! And you, naturally, are waiting for this happy moment. Then weeks go by, you start writing to the seller, saying, how is it going?! And he goes into the mud. All! No answers! Having come to your senses, you run to PayPal/ebay to write a negative review, demand money, but... your time is up! The deadline for filing complaints and leaving reviews has passed, because the seller’s task is precisely to PLEASE out time until you become powerless and the item goes into the archives!

To be honest, it's unpleasant. Both purchases were ~$300. And there is no opportunity to punish, NO, not even negative feedback. I decided to warn you, maybe it will be useful to someone. I myself have now greatly curbed my shopping ardor.

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Comments (6)

(no subject)

from: strangelondon
date: Jul. 5th, 2011 03:08 pm (UTC)

yes, quite an inventive trick, I’ve never heard of this. Indeed, nothing can be done in such a situation.. I don’t even know how to continue buying on eBay now.. Probably our hammer instead of eBay and webtransfer instead of Paypal :)

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Skandalist

from: eugeneblond
date: Apr. 3rd, 2014 07:12 pm (UTC)

Well, the American there, you understand) is 99% the same Chinese-Filipino)))
Now there are new rules and now the deadline for opening a case is not 45 days, but the maximum delivery period + 30 days after.

Edited at 2014-04-03 07:15 pm (UTC)

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Gudya

from: inadin1902
date: Aug. 22nd, 2014 07:00 am (UTC)

No, you guys are screwing yourself! eBay protects buyers for 45 days! So, if you haven’t received the parcel within 40 days, write to the seller:
“Due to the fact that I still have not received the parcel, I demand a refund, if my parcel does arrive, I undertake to pay!” if the seller does not respond within a day, we open a dispute; if he answers but evades in every possible way, then we write to him saying “if you don’t return the money within 24 hours, I will open a dispute”! Opening a dispute against the seller is practically a negative review, the sellers are terribly afraid of him, they even asked me to somehow remove the dispute because he was somehow fined for this, I told him that “it’s my own fault and I warned you” and under no circumstances should I remove the dispute, the dispute is the guarantor of your protection!
Over the years I have met a couple of these scammers, after about 2 months I received a parcel from them and paid again (because ebay always returns the money if there is an open dispute and you don’t have the parcel)!!

Read the following case about purchasing on eBay with an unfortunate ending and remember what not to do in such cases. This article will be especially useful for those who have not yet had much experience shopping on eBay, or on the Internet in general.

Comrade X, for example, decided to buy his wife a new gift that was in demand on the market - the first smartphone in her life! The time-tested Samsung Galaxy S i9000 was chosen due to its excellent selection of alternative firmware, including the latest version of Android. He found an excellent item on eBay: a new smartphone with a full set of accessories, for only half the price including delivery. At the time of purchase the cost was $215, i.e. half of our Russian online stores. The description clearly stated that the lot was NEW, fully complete and in the original box.

eBay auction scam - seller

on eBay#1: A seller with over 140,000 ratings and 98% positive reviews can be trusted, even if he is from Hong Kong.

The purchase is made - the customer is full of joy. The next day he receives the HongKong Post tracking number, pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the seller. A week later, the tracking number is still not tracked on tracking services, but the buyer waits patiently, and two days later, in response to an angry letter, the store support service (the seller on eBay) instantly sends a new tracking number, but for some reason Swiss Post. Every other day it is tracked, and it’s wonderful - the whole family freezes in anticipation of the gift.

The purchase finally arrives, but what’s in the package?! And in the parcel there is a used set of something unknown, assembled from what was lying on the shelves, as a classic once put it, “in the dirty, stinking corridors of the free pit of the Oktyabr cinema.” To be more precise, the Korean operator version of the Anycall M110S phone, patched with crooked Chinese firmware, full of dust, with a burnt-out screen in several places, a box from another phone, an incomprehensible charger, a left-hand battery, and someone else’s cover, as well as instructions from push-button Samsung !

Having contacted the seller through eBay, we received an answer that he was indignant and how could this even happen?! Apparently one of the careless suppliers failed. A thousand apologies and you are offered a full refund or resend of another, 100% new device, of course, only after receiving the goods back.

First time buyer mistake on eBay No. 2: you don’t want to pay extra for return shipping, and the seller, cynically caring about your money, strongly advises you to return the parcel by regular parcel post, not registered, i.e. without tracking.

First time buyer mistake on eBay No. 3: you send the parcel back in complete peace of mind under double protection of PayPal and eBay, as well as the seller’s assurances that with his over 150000 Sales simply cannot be a problem!

First time buyer mistake on eBay No. 4: you understand that you have already earned a headache, but the problem with the gift has not been solved, and you have already successfully spent half of the budget saved on the gift. Perhaps inside you chooses “exactly the same, but only a new smartphone at half the price.”

The moment of truth comes on the last 45th day allotted for opening a complaint, when the seller’s interest in you miraculously disappears. He no longer responds to letters and generally ignores them completely. What’s noteworthy is that everything is legal and on the 45th day neither PayPal nor eBay will help you, since the deadline for opening a claim has passed. As a result, the seller has both your money and a “smartphone”, which will soon be sent to the next “Client”. This is the essence of e-business, or rather hired business. cellphoneforever, also known as FAN YANG HONGKONG.

Fraudsters have been working for a long time and apparently successfully. A huge number of positive reviews have been collected on the sale of small things such as cheap chargers, adapters and other mobile accessories. Against the background of several thousand positive reviews, a couple hundred negative ones are a drop in the ocean. This post was written after several of my friends “bought” a headache from this seller for the holidays. This indicates that the problem is large-scale, be vigilant, warn your friends. And remember, if you have already ordered the product, no matter what the Cellphoneforever seller promises you, no matter how they beg you to wait a little more,
YOU MUST OPEN THE DISPUTE BEFORE DAY 45, otherwise you risk being left with your nose.