Parcel sent by mistake.. error or scam?

[an_217993]

Hi, this is a bit of a strange situation. I received a parcel by Royal Mail addressed to me and opened it; inside there was a pair of designer boots sent by eBay. I did not order them.

The following morning, I received multiple emails from a person claiming that she sent the parcel to me by mistake instead of sending it to eBay. She says she is an elderly lady and is asking me to send the parcel back to her.

Is this a scam? What should I do? Thank you.

[tressygirl]

If this person had your name and address then they must have been a seller too, and you purchased an item from them.

Have you made a recent eBay purchase?  This person may have genuinely mistaken your address for the seller from whom they purchased these boots from.  

If they want their item back they need to send you the postage cost for a fully tracked and if necessary insured postage label.

I'm presuming there is no return address on the back?  

@an_217993 

[an_217993]

So first she said she had my address because  she purchased from me ( which is impossible) and after she said that Royal Mail gave her my personal informations, she has my name, address and email. 
I’m very confused about the all situation. 

[papso22]

First you need to work out how you could be scammed and how the person got your address and email.

Also....

Have you ordered anything from ebay recently,  or has anyone used your account?

Rather than this being a return to seller could it be a misdirected sale, possibly from someone you bought from in the past?

Does the label have 'ebay simple delivery' on it?

Does the label have a return address?

Has the other person offered to pay the next lot of postage?

 No-one sends parcels to ebay.

[an_217993]

And yes , there is a return address on the parcel on what she says being her name.

[papso22]

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@an_217993 wrote:

So first she said she had my address because  she purchased from me ( which is impossible) and after she said that Royal Mail gave her my personal informations, she has my name, address and email. 
I’m very confused about the all situation. 

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That all sounds very odd.

However, I doubt you will get to the bottom of it. 

As long as you are not out of pocket, you could send it back at her expense.

[an_217993]

I’m not sure what the scam could  be, but reading online it could be related (Ovs if is a scam) to receiving drug and handing them over.  Nobody uses my account, I do order from eBay but why don’t contact me on my account if the person is a seller I bought from? Parcel says Marketplace seller, has my name and the return address is the alleged Lady. The content is designer boots and inside there is a card that says that the authenticity is verified by EBay.  She offered to pay me back after I post it. Thanks  

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@papso22 wrote:

First you need to work out how you could be scammed and how the person got your address and email.

Also....

Have you ordered anything from ebay recently,  or has anyone used your account?

Rather than this being a return to seller could it be a misdirected sale, possibly from someone you bought from in the past?

Does the label have 'ebay simple delivery' on it?

Does the label have a return address?

Has the other person offered to pay the next lot of postage?

 No-one sends parcels to ebay.

---

[an_217993]

 

 some of the emails.. my husband reply and no answer from her to him but she emailed me again 

[john1297576]

This is all weird, but it is possible that “sending to ebay” was for authentication, which would make some sense. 

Do you have the ebay ID of this “lady” who signs as Jules. If so you could look to see what “she” has sold, which could confirm that so long as she paid the postage it would be safe to return to her.

Ebay would not provide your real email to anyone, and as you did not buy, it is strange that “ she” has your contact details.

[papso22]

That still makes absolutely no sense,

I get that the buyer (who I don't think is a late 70 year old woman), could mix up QR codes, but that means she had a QR code with your address on it, and where would that have come from?  She would only have that if she was returning something to you.

RM absolutely should not have given out your personal details, but perhaps she got a kind yet misguided person who told her the address when she gave them the tracking from the proof of postage.  Doesn't explain how she got your email address though as RM shouldn't have that.

However, the return address on the parcel does match the address she wants it sent back to, but there is no way ebay (as in the authentication centre) will get it by the 25th December.

Why would she send you the postage receipt?  She needs to send you the money to buy the postage to send it back.  Have you thought about how she will do that?

Late 70's buying expensive designer boots?  Possible but unlikely and returns of authenticated items are unusual.

[papso22 · Accepted solution]

OK, someone cleverer than me has suggested that the person who sent you the boots in error could be the person who sold you the GHD hairdryer in late November.  She would have had a QR code for sending you the hairdryer which seems to be the last thing she sold.  

She is based in Bury.

So it looks like that is how she had a QR code with your address which she could then mix up with the return for the authentication centre.

Thank you @dansvan1 

[papso22]

You could ask the other member to email you the QR code she didn’t use.