New scam on eBay

[daban-22]

I bought an iPhone on eBay and received an alert stating that the item would be delivered the next day. The next day, I received another alert to confirm that it had been delivered. I was at home all day, and I never received anything. I called Royal Mail to find out what had happened, and they told me I would need to call back the next day. I then called eBay, and they opened an INR case for me.

I called RM this morning, and they said the item was delivered to another address, and they don't know why. The agent then gave the name of the business where it was delivered. I googled the company and decided to visit to see what had happened. On arrival at the industry, I was shown the parcel that had arrived.

It wasn't the phone, but a large envelope with a red bedsheet inside. 

Now, this is where it gets strange: the tracking number on the packaging matches the one on my item (see picture below). The name on the parcel isn't my name, but the business name. It's a scam, but I don't know how they were able to change the address and name with a different tracking number.

It appears to be a new scam circulating on eBay, as I can still see numerous iPhones matching the exact details of the one I purchased. The phones are mainly brand new and at a lower price than usual.

The picture is the actual item that was delivered to an address that didn't match mine. As soon as the item was posted, I received an alert from eBay to confirm it had been posted. Then, when it was delivered, I received another alert to confirm it had been delivered.

[dontworrybehappyalways]

I have been a victim of this twice now and second was more sophisticated. The barcodes were genuine but the printed tracking number and address were wrong. Downloaded a barcode scanner to scan and prove.
The Royal Mail tracking gives you coordinates. There is a website that which will give you home address when you put in coordinates. Use that as evidence and also to get the package if the recipient has not already binned it.

Sent from Outlook for iOS<>

[jj898]

Thanks for your advice. I tracked down the parcel through Royal Mail and it was full of plastic bags. I got photos  and it sounds like ebay are going to refund me, thankfully. The seller has the same listing for the iphone back up and ready to scam the next unsuspecting person, so I left  a negative review to warn other people and have reported him to get him taken off ebay. 

[jj898]

Thanks for your advice. I managed to get more evidence and photos and called ebay. They said they could tell from the packaging label that it had been tampered with. It turned out the parcel was full of plastic bags. They said they would refund me which is great. 

[renzolondon]

Glad to hear 

I hope you do get your money back.

It’s crazy that in these cases eBay doesn’t automatically ban scammer users!

I had to get in touch via chat and ask they do it - pointing out they had the same phone up for sale! 

[8384elizabethw]

Well done. It takes time to complain and get action doesn't it.

I'm not sure how a seller can control reasons for returns and charge for
all of them. Shouldn't be allowed.

[rainbowtrax]

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@8384elizabethw wrote:

I'm not sure how a seller can control reasons for returns and charge for
all of them. Shouldn't be allowed.

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They can't and it isn't. The return options are always the same and controlled by ebay with return postage for all seller fault/item damage ones being at the seller's expense.

[mac4560]

Same here except I wasn't able to track down the item. From the proof of postage photograph the item definitely wasn't an iphone and the door was not my door. It was of course in the same postcode area.
Ebay ruled the case in the seller's favour because they provided proof of posting to my address.
Absolutely the same scam. Not only have they doctored the delivery label but also the Post Office receipt.
Buyer Protection is a joke because there is no proof of delivery to my address and yet I will not be refunded.

I have now logged a case with Paypal but I guess they'll stick with Ebay in their decision.
Had I looked into the listing further I would have seen numerous other listings which are exactly the same but listed under different user ids.
Ebay absolutely know about this scam and yet the sellers are getting away with it.
What was your outcome?

[ahmahme.qulzzuzzf]

Unfortunately the door photo is not enough, you need to try and get hold of the scam package in my case the scammer used the last house on my street. I would try knocking on doors on your street maybe the end house and see if they recieved a strange parcel or something they were not expecting. In my case I did get a refund only because I was able to get hold of the scam package from the last house on the street and open an item not described case. If i opened item not received case I would of lost. The seller was cheeky enough to open a case against me saying I sent him blank papers back instead of the iphone!. You should be  able to track the item on a map on the Royal mail website which will pin point where they delivered too. It's good you  open a case with paypal, report to police for fraud and get an incident number this will help your case with paypal speak to royal mail and see if they can help you view the map of the live tracking. When I was tracking my parcel it did mention the weight of the parcel so maybe you could argue that if it was and iphone it would of weighed more than blank papers I've attached a pic of what he sent

[jj898]

Initially ebay ruled in favour of the seller for me too, because he claimed the phone had been delivered. But I kept at them. Have you contacted your local Royal Mail sorting office? I contacted mine and managed to get the parcel tracked down (it was full of plastic bags...). Prior to locating the parcel Royal Mail were able to confirm from their system that the tracking number hadn't been my address - this could be enough evidence. I kept at ebay until I got the refund. Take a photo of your door and the wrong door in the tracking, try to get some evidence from Royal Mail. and send all this to ebay. Also, if the seller did this to you, they likely did it to others so suggest this to ebay that they check for you. Ring ebay , rather than messaging them and keep on them until you get your money back - after all you pay payment protection. In my case I did get a refund, £750, so pretty substantial really. I tried to report the seller and informed ebay that he already had listed another iphone17 only 3 days after scamming me, but ebay don't seem to care and I can see from his selling history that he has sold another 6 items since I bought mine (he only lists phones), so another 6 people have been scammed out of £700-800. I checked his listing again today and he has another phone listed, same picture every time! It's insane. I don't understand why ebay are tolerating it and allowing known scammers to continue selling and scamming other people. Ebay are at fault here as they enable this. I feel so sorry for the people who will buy from this seller again , and angry he is getting away with it.

Good luck and repost how you get on

[jj898]

I got my money back thankfully. I rang ebay to let them  know my scammer  had a another phone listed only a few days after scamming me, but they didn't do anything about it. The seller has since sold 6 phones and has another listed today. Crazy. All those people getting scammed and ebay just sitting back and letting it happen