topic Re: New iPhone Scam in Buying

New iPhone Scam

andremiliano — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 12:27:55 GMT

Hello everyone, never thought this would happen to me but here we are... ordered the newest iPhone after seeing a couple of listings quite cheap without a box so went for one - didn't think this would happen as ebay has a good money back guarantee, it arrived today, as soon as I picked up the box because of its weight I knew... so I recorded the unboxing and there was half of a sweet potato inside.

It was also weird that it didn't have my name there and it the direction was for my neighbour but thank god the delivery driver scanned the code and noticed it was actually my address. - hope this isn't part of a bigger scheme I'm not thinking about.

Raised a return and hopefully ebay will resolve this without too much trouble but just be aware of sellers with little feedback and no selling done before - a lesson to remember.

Re: New iPhone Scam

roger_roger_over_and_nowt — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 12:32:54 GMT

Hopefully you opened a not as described claim and NOT an item not received claim ?.

Re: New iPhone Scam

andremiliano — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 12:35:47 GMT

Yes, I opened a return for 'Item didn't match description' so hopefully that is the correct one for it to get sorted quickly.

Re: New iPhone Scam

roger_roger_over_and_nowt — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 12:38:40 GMT

That's correct.Just wait 3 working days and ask Ebay to step in on day 4.

Re: New iPhone Scam

lucy_farmer — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 12:52:40 GMT

'It was also weird that it didn't have my name there and it the direction was for my neighbour'

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Part of this scam relies on the parcel not being delivered to *you*, but being delivered somewhere, (usually extremely close so the gps of delivery matches and the postcode matches) so that it's marked as delivered by the courier and ebay.

Then you cannot claim 'not received' because it's marked as delivered (and in order to claim 'not as described' you have to *have* it to know it's 'not as described' and send it back...!)

Re: New iPhone Scam

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:48:06 GMT

your not the first and you wont be the last, funny how a huge corporation with 30yrs experience hasn't done anything about scams or fake goods!!! do they actually learn anything?

Re: New iPhone Scam

nigel_paul_wright7557 — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:34:40 GMT

You asked for an Apple and got a sweet potato so they weren't miles off !