SCAMMED

[cormaduff0]

To a hopefully understanding community,

I will not be the first person posting here banging my head off a wall for being stupid. Those inclined to scoff at my naivety should leave now in fact, as I have already had my fair share of judgement from people who actually matter to me.

To those that are willing to offer some guidance and advice, I will summarise what has happened in the hope that there may be some course of action that I am still able to take. Here is a sequence of events:

1. I responded to a post on a classifieds website, asking for eBay sellers.

2. I exchanged eMails and text messages regarding the process. It was explained to me that this individual was a full-time eBay seller but their accounts were full/unable to add any more items. They wanted to use my account to sell additional items, and would give me a % of the sale for allowing them to use my account. No PayPal/bank details would be exchanged. I was obviously very reluctant, but also felt reassured by the answers being given 

3. Yes, stupidly, I shared my eBay log in details. I am aware, having spoken to some apathetic eBay customer service representatives, that this is not in line with eBay policy and therefore there is nothing that can be done. More on that later.

4. Next, the person listed a few items on my eBay page - a phone and a watch. Miraculously, both items sold within 10 minutes of being posted with multiple offers, which seemed somewhat odd to me. The person explained to me that he also had access to the buyers' accounts. Starting to sound very fishy, but okay.

5. The money from the sale of the 2 items goes into my PayPal account. The PayPal "up to 72 hours" policy is upheld to the second, much to the chagrin of my "selling partner". Countless messages hounding for an update on the money. In the meantime, the individual was responding to messages using my account, and was receiving nearly instant responses with very similar level of English being used. Odd.

6. The money comes in and I am instructed to transfer X amount to his bank account, which I do immediately. Within minutes, coincidentally again, I receive two eMails from eBay saying both "buyers" raised issues with the sale and demanded an instant refund. All of a sudden I had a negative PayPal balance of over 1K. I contact the individual but he has now blocked me on WhatsApp and his phone is switched off.

7. I contacted my bank to reverse the payment made. Nothing they can do. I contacted eBay. Nothing they can do. Or will do.

8 That evening, the individual contacts me from a different number, asking panickly what I had told eBay and what case I brought up. He then offers to "sort out" my PayPal balance the next morning. The next morning comes, nothing needless to say, until late afternoon he calls me and tells me he has a friend that is able to "clear PayPal balances down to zero" using some fancy computer programme. But here's the rub - I need to pay more money to do this. No thank you.

9. During this conversation, the individual admitted to using the buyers' accounts to 1) make the purchases of these fake items he posted on my page, and 2) message my account back and forth. He claims he "hacked into" these accounts, which I find remarkably difficult to believe given these message exchanges went on for 2-3 days. My suspicion is these are all accounts used by him and his buddies to scam idiotic naive individualised like I.

10. In sum, as it stands, the "buyers" have been issued full refunds by eBay. My PayPal balance shows -1.5K. And these scammers have most of the money from the original sale of items as I transferred it to them. If my suspicion is correct, these "buyers" have just made a tidy profit. 

My question is this: Can, or will, eBay investigate this activity? They have simply sided with the "buyers" based on the fact that I was in breach of eBay terms of service. I would hypothesise that these "buyers" are in breach of far more than that. 

Any advice would be massively appreciated. Again, I did not come on to be lectured, so if that is the motivation fuelling your response, please channel your energies elsewhere.

PS - The Resolution Centre does not even offer the opportunity to raise these issues as a "seller". 

Thank you.

[*vyolla*]

@cormaduff0

This is outside of eBay's arena I'm afraid. You've been complicit in a scam in which the victim is you. It's not an uncommon scam, but we're seeing way less of this one as people realise that it doesn't sit right.

I know you don't want a lecture, but the bottom line is that there is nothing you can do except to report it to Actionfraud where it will just be logged. These guys are from organised crime rings, they completely know what they're doing.

It does annoy me when common sense goes out of the window and greed kicks it (because, let's face it, this is what blinds people to being duped), because you've basically funded these guys to continue with their other crimes which include people trafficking (this also includes child trafficking). 

I must warn you, having been duped so easily, your details have been 'scraped' and are now on the Idiot list (not my term, no insult meant there, this is actually name of the list that's for sale) on the dark web of people who are easily parted from their money. Be on guard for phishing emails, real life letters, phone calls etc from bad guys out to part you from your money. 

[cormaduff0]

Yes, unfortunately, I fell for everything. It's sad what desperation, more so than greed, can do to cloud one's judgement.

I appreciate your advice, and look forward to more correspondence from the dark web.

A healthy dose of scepticism and suspicion never did anyone any harm, and if that's the price I have to pay to realise that, so be it.