So many scammers

[calipsoms]

OK so lately the amount of scammers have just been crazy. Im taking photos every step of the way before posting them.

1st scam attempt was a cracker !!  So I sell a £1045 phone. Buyer had good feedback. I pack it up and get it ready to post next day. 5 minutes after the sale of the phone a brand new account buyer buys a gaming phone holder for £50. Again I pack it up to send the next day. I take pictures of everything especially the package with address label attached. 

3 days later the phone guy tells me ive sent him the wrong item. Ive sent him the gaming phone holder. Im angry with myself for making a stupid mistake. So I look back at my pictures. Phone was sent in a RED bag and gaming phone holder was sent in a PINK bag. Hes taken a picture of an opened red bag with his address on it and the gaming phone holder along side it.

So I goto royal mail and look at the delivery pictures. BOTH items were sent to the correct addresses MEANING the phone guy bought both items delivered to different addresses and said they got mixed up.

How many times is this being done on ebay ??

I contacted ebay and it was so difficult getting the foreign chat people to understand. Finally got through to a UK person and got it sorted. He was banned later that day BUT the new account he opened was still allowed to run !!!

A week later the scumbag has now opened a dispute with his bank stating he never made the purchase !!

Ebay have said he wont get refunded.

[four_mid_able]

Taking pictures proves nothing.You could take a picture of a parcel with buyers address on and then send something completely different.

[iew-signed-books · Accepted solution]

Phones and such expensive items seem to attract alleged scammers like moths to a candle flame. I'd never have anything to do with that market.

[cobwebcottage]

Also lots of scammers selling brand new phones (etc) on private accounts with no returns and the statement 'Registered as private seller, so consumer rights stemming from EU consumer protection law do not apply'.

[calipsoms]

So its went from ME having people try to scam ME to ME scamming others ??

LOL well done genius

[cobwebcottage]

Have a read of this and see if the cap fits. Business seller policy | eBay

[iew-signed-books]

You are seemingly yet another in the very long line of business sellers masquerading as a private individual.

[wyntersemporium]

I'm getting sick of private sellers. Spotted one in particular in the costume jewellery section, 2000 items fir sale, I have 999 and I'm a business. 

time fir eBay to crack down on so called business sellers masquerading as private sellers

[*knight-rider*]

`

A week later the scumbag has now opened a dispute with his bank stating he never made the purchase !!

Ebay have said he wont get refunded.`

Good luck with that one, because he`s gone to his bank, which Ebay have nothing to do with, so they just told you what you wanted to hear 🙂

Most expensive things i`ve sold on Ebay, are a couple of cars, though both on classified and the only other one was £400 and that was years ago. Personally, i would have sold that phone collection only for cash or bank transfer, i`d never sleep at night posting things like that!

The only hope you might have, because i`ve only ever done one chargeback in 20 years, but when i did, the bank did say to me that i would get my money bank there and then, BUT, if the seller came back with any proof to the contrary, they`d come back after me, so any evidence you have, keep as it may help 🙂

[iew-signed-books]

Always worth reporting them though I've had no evidence that it makes one iota of difference.

[martin475]

They have now moved from Facebook to ebay in the motorhome and car deposit scams as well. Easy to spot though stupid price and if you look at there listings they have hundreds of vehicles with very few pictures. Motorhomes have pictures stolen from genuine sales, but the inside photos are usually copies from brochures. Sick of it, unfortunately this is now the wonderful digital age we live in.

[nelson1805]

I want to buy a phone but I'm wary of being sent an empty box, with no phone inside, by the seller. Is there a system whereby an "escrow" process can be used (legal arrangement in which a third party temporarily holds money or property until a particular condition has been met – such as the fulfillment of a purchase agreement.)

Any ideas?

[martin475]

No if they are requesting Escrow payments I would be wary. Paypal is OK, if it is over £100 credit card payments are covered I believe.

[nelson1805]

That does not answer the scam of the seller sending me an empty phone box
and then disputing my claim by stating that it had a phone inside when they
sent it?

[martin475]

Yeh I know, they say you should open the parcel while the delivery driver is there, but unfortunately the driver does not even hang around long enough for you to answer the door now. Dont know what you can do? Cancel your ebay account? Phone the police? not a clue, unfortunately any form of transaction nowadays seems to be a scam. I am sat here waiting for a parcel that needs to be signed for, the bell rang and by the time I got to the door there was nobody there, I will now get an attempted delivery notice. Its a disgrace. You buy something now and its pot luck as to whether you get it or not. It gets worse by the day. I tried to close my Amazon account when I got a photo of a parcel left outside my front door, apparently delivered????? when I went to the front door there was nothing there. They refunded me once I tried (unsuccessfully, because thats not simple either)to close my account.

[torquetech-ebike]

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@nelson1805 wrote:

I want to buy a phone but I'm wary of being sent an empty box, with no phone inside, by the seller. Is there a system whereby an "escrow" process can be used (legal arrangement in which a third party temporarily holds money or property until a particular condition has been met – such as the fulfillment of a purchase agreement.)

Any ideas?

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Is that not near enough what ebay is?

[pg_kicks]

I could be totally wrong but surely you just open an INAD case and get the seller to pay for the return label? Sending a box of rocks is probably still happening but only by the fools unless I have missed something. 

Much bigger scams going on from sellers I'd be wary of on eBay tbh.

Looking at a new phone myself, the price of an Iphone 15 Pro is only around £70 cheaper than at a genuine retail store, and in lots of cases actually cheaper, not really worth the risk of getting on thats stolen/blocked or without any guarantee.

[martin475]

What is to stop people saying they got an empty box when they didnt though? Scams work both ways.

Unless you open the box in front of the deliverer what proof is there that they sent an empty box? If ebay refunded everybody that said they got an empty box the scammers would just flip the way they work. I should imagine that they could not get away with it for long but then they would just move to another account and start again. This is the problem with buying everything online, its all on trust, with no human contact.

[smithfield1uk]

I think as unfair as the comment is and in your case untrue, looking at it ,what is it you can do to protect yourself in the future, because as they point out anyone can say do anything if they think can get away with it. Scammer are on the buyer /seller side and we all have to be aware. I only do buying but had a fair few try it on and some sellers are gems. Luckly eBay system is well thought out. If you can get Irish some Brits working at home on customer services it helps but all the staff good on eBay. 

[dougbat20]

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@iew-signed-books wrote:

Phones and such expensive items seem to attract alleged scammers like moths to a candle flame. I'd never have anything to do with that market.

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Indeed, I certainly wouldn't want to sell on my old phone online (if I had one I wanted to sell, which wasn't already worthless) and if I did sell it online, eBay would be the last place to get it. Their policies about protecting the buyer even if the buyer scams the seller means eBay is not a trustworthy platform for such items.