strange envelope signed for othing inside scam?

[tessybear2315]

Hi have rec'd an envelope today  siged for but number  was assigned to a shirt rec'd  on 4 aug - seller has done something strange on my ebay acct as inv now o/s again   scam or not 

[*.*..lola..*.*]

Tessy this is more of a chat board - you might be better off posting your question on Buyer Central:

http://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Buyer-Central/bd-p/21900000767

If I'm reading your post correctly though, you bought and paid for a shirt which you subsequently received on the 4th Aug.

Further to that, you then received an empty envelope from the same seller which you had to sign for. The seller has entered the tracking number for the empty envelope into the transaction details for the shirt he sold you on the 4th August. You haven't been refunded or anything but the shirt transaction is now showing as unpaid. Is this correct?

Firstly I would log into your Paypal account and check that your payment for the shirt hasn't been reversed or declined by your bank for some reason.

If it has, that would explain why the seller is so desperate to get a tracking number because without one, they won't be eligible for seller protection.

Check your Paypal account then contact the seller to find out what's going on. I don't think the seller is trying to scam you as such but I do think he is being a bit naughty.

Post your question on Buyer Central and see what the regs have to say.

[blues8447]

Hi, today I received a brown envelope and it had to be signed for but nothing was inside the envelope!  Under the "sign for" sticker, it had "CityhealthUK" and an Ebay motif and 9.521 lifetime feedback and 99.7% positive feedback!  I ran a google search ....nothing!  I ran an Ebay sellers search.....nothing!  So I'm worried it may be a scam.  It only happened a few hours ago and my bank and PayPal haven't been accessed YET!!!!

I will try and report it to Ebay's sercurity if I can find a link!

[thesmokingrunner]

I wouldn't bother trying to report it to eBay, blues8447 - they're not bothered and nothing will be done.

Items turning up out of the blue usually mean that the seller (usually a Chines-based business with a fake UK address) has randomly chosen your address for returns: the item gets delivered (to you) and once registered on the system a refund is sent to the buyer. It's not right but eBay don't verify return addresses (they could but don't) and it means the seller doesn't have to pay to have the item returned to China.

It does seem odd that you've received an empty envelope but it could be a buyer, knowing the seller is in China and will use a random return address, is scamming a seller: raise a return, get a label which will almost definitely be a random address, send an empty envelope and get a refund. And as an aside even if the return address wasn't fake, the system registering the return as delivered would trigger a refund whether the actual item was returned or not - it's the delivery of the label that counts, not the delivery of the item.

"CityhealthUK" may be the company name but the eBay username is probably different which is why you can't find it. Are the any other clues on the label - order number, item number, something like that? They may help track the actual username.

I doubt very much that your PayPal account has been hacked. Their security is, er, slightly better than eBay's. Every time I log in I get an email telling me I've logged in from a new device because the ISP server isn't near my location. Keep an eye on it by all means but I think your PayPal is safe. As for your bank account I'm not so sure - you presumably gave those details to eBay and they'll have been passed on to Adyen. That's the one I'd be more worried about.

[blues8447]

Thanks for the information and advice. I went on eBay live chat and told the chat person about it; she did a quick check and she said, that account doesn't exist. Not much help from the chat, but I will keep checking my bank account and hope it remains safe! Thanks again for your prompt reply to my post.
Have a lovely Christmas 🎄
Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[thesmokingrunner]

You're very welcome blues8447.

Not much help from the chat indeed. No doubt you could have told the chat person that the account doesn't exist because you'd already looked for it; all they probably did was duplicate your search for CityhealthUK as a seller account rather than search for a seller's address which had the name in the first line. They'd probably have more luck searching for your address - it should show up as the return address for a seller with a completely different registered address - but as I wrote previously eBay really won't be bothered and won't do anything about it because it doesn't affect them. Hey ho.

I do hope you don't have any problems with your bank account. I suspect you'll be ok - annoying though it is even if your address has been used for a return that will have nothing to do with your bank account.

Have a lovely Christmas yourself.