Vinted mystery. Can anyone explain the scam here?

[CrackOfYawn]

Recently I’ve noticed that in the early hours of the morning loads of designer bags appear in my recommended feed (Mulberry especially) The bags appear all in good used condition according to the pics. They are all priced at the exact same low amount. This is normally around the £6-£9 mark but always very specific amounts like eg £9.37. The sellers all have different names but all are made up of random letters and all have no reviews.
Now obviously I’m not a dafty, I know a Mulberry bag selling for under a tenner honks of a scam but I’m a curious fecker so I start favouriting them to see what happens. They seem to last until the morning and then suddenly vanish.
Yesterday there were stacks of them so I reported half a dozen. Vinted just sent feedback on the reports, saying on 3 of them that they had taken action and on 3 of them the item had been removed before they could view.
Thing is, I’m mystified how this can be a scam? You don’t get paid on Vinted until the buyer receives and accepts they’re happy with the item so how do these scammers make money out of this?

The bags probably aren’t listed as genuine mulberry. If they are listed as mulberry they have to include pics of the label/serial number. Some people are sneaky and will list fakes as “unbranded” in the brand category they choose.

This is done so that if you order they send a fake bag, then when you claim to Vinted it isn’t mulberry, nowhere has the seller listed it as so.

edit: this is why they are listed as under drill bits and possibly under a diff brand!

This sounds like a courier problem. Vinted will refund you if it doesn’t arrive at the parcelshop or your house.

So weird that this subject has come up on Mumsnet tonight. I've just been having a general nosey on there. Nearly all of my "suggested items" are underpriced, with the exact same pictures on multiple listings and each seller has no reviews.

This seems to be what's happening here. Not sure how they're being refunded if they delete the account though.

Explanation

@DryDays I think you mean 101. Not sure what NHS Direct will do when you report Vinted to them!

This isn’t the case anymore as Royal Mail on Vinted gives you a label. You don’t have to arrange it yourself

I've seen the same on my feed when I've searched things, they do seem to disappear very quickly! I've seen perfumes such as Valentino and Chanel for £25, which is ridiculously low, especially for the big bottles!

I just assumed they were counterfeit goods, but you're right OP, I hadn't thought about the buyer verifying that they're happy with the goods. I wonder if they have documentation to say it's genuine or something, as I once purchased a bottle of Hugo Boss Deep Red from Vinted, and it was clearly a fake, but the seller had a receipt from Boots. I think they'd actually got an original from there but bought the fake first, and decided to use the Boots receipt as verification, because when I reported it to Vinted, they sided with the seller and I had to pay to send the item back!

However, thinking about this further, I was still able to send the perfume back (at a cost to me), so I don't know how they'd make the money?

With EBay and Amazon purchases, I often get a note asking to contact the seller before leaving negative feedback. When I've contacted the seller, they've offered discount and a partial refund, so maybe they do this, although it's hardly worth the effort for under a tenner!

Ah yes this sounds more feasible than having fake documentation, Vinted will side with the seller in this instance. Not sure on the rules on eBay, but I do feel better protected when I make ebay purchases, although I still use Vinted because it's so cheap.

I am confused by an interaction I had recently too. Bought an electrical item which is £300 new for £90. Did think it was a bit suspect but went ahead anyway.

parcel arrives - a packet of batteries inside, nothing else.

Obviously I reported but what on earth did the buyer get out of this? He / she had to go to the post office and post a parcel, buy something to actually post and as a result will be out £ (a small amount but still!)

Maybe that’s what it is @FreddysFingersif they’ve got a bot to churn out the same partial refund requests? Same small scam repeated globally loads of times might just go under the radar… until now lol

They still would have made money out of it for the price of just sending the batteries, the creeps.
I used to work with a guy years ago who was an absolute cretin. A real Walter Mitty character who was a compulsive liar and bragger. He was showing off to the guys at work that he was selling X-boxs on Ebay and just posting something heavy on a box instead of the item, like a brick. Not sure if he was lieing about that as surely thats fraud and could be traced back to him but who knows.

The batteries and XBoxes are sometimes written up as 'batteries for a hedge trimmer' or 'Xbox box' but the listing is deliberately confusing and filled with wording that makes it look like you're getting the item unless you read it very carefully, which most people don't.

Then when people complain, technically they haven't broken any rules so might get away with it. Although I don't know if eBay can get them on 'intention to deceive?

This is what happens with these listings:

If you click buy the seller marks the Item or bundle as posted out almost immediately (even in the middle of the night!)

But nothing ever arrives... and if you contact Vinted they say the seller has posted and you much wait for the maximum period in case it is delayed in the post.

By the time that very long number of days passes, most people have forgotten that they ever bought the item.

And if they do remember, there is only tiny time period in which you say you didn't receive it before the system marks it as automatically received.

So most times these sellers get to keep the money, just for uploading photos as no goods are involved (if you look closely you'll see they always use others sellers active photos).

Do people really forget what they've ordered though? I definitely don't! But this does sound plausible I suppose if you're doing it in sufficient volume.

It must be a big problem for Vinted though in this many categories! I first spotted it with Russell & Bromley shoes last year.

I think I can be the live thread guinea pig.
Purchased a Heidi Klein mini raffia bag yesterday for the random amount of £9.35 first red flag.
Instantly received a notification to say it’s posted, second red flag.
No reviews should also have been a warning.
This morning the listing is removed and seller has been blocked so fascinating to see if anything actually arrives.

I paid from my sales account so not unduly concerned they have any financial details.

I always wondered about beds for sale that had scantily clad girls sitting on them.

Ashamed to admit I fell for one, Birkenstock’s. Soon as I clicked buy I got a “seller has dispatched” notification. I immediately realised I’d been an idiot and tried to complain(but you can’t because it’s got to be past your receiving date). Anyway it did eventually cancel and no money went out of my account but I did wonder what the point was?

I suppose even if people do remember, then it's whether or not they CBA going through the reclaim process for a few quid.

Some will remember or do it on principle, but many will just write it off because experience will tell them that it will be a hassle.

So from the scammers point of view, if they get a few quid from possibly hundreds or thousands of people, it's a nicer earner for them. Especially if they're based in a country where the cost of living is much lower, that money could go a lot further for them.

That’s what I thought. Stolen goods or drugs.

I don't think it's a problem for Vinted, at least in their eyes.

Their AI scans emails from buyers and auto refuses to help until it reaches their maximum time period for a missing parcel to arrive.

If a buyer flags the parcel hasn't arrived, Vinted usually refund

And if a buyer doesn't flag within the short window after that, Vinted transfers they money to the seller.

They've improved recently by notifying buyers from the date that they can claim something hasn't arrived. But if you miss that window of opportunity, that's it.

I've worked out how it works, and it's all about the "custom postage"

If you look at the listings, they're all in weird categories like "timber" or "drill presses" or "fire pits".

That's because these categories, where heavy/bulky items are sold, are the only ones that allow "custom postage" instead of integrated Vinted shipping.

So you buy the item, the seller immediately marks it as dispatched manually (which you can do with custom postage) and uploads a fake tracking number/QR code. If you check that code, it may well already claim to have been delivered There's no integrated tracking because..."custom postage".

Once it's been manually marked as dispatched, a certain amount of time later (usually 21 or 30 days) it gets marked as "delivered" automatically.

The buyer then has just 24 hours to raise an issue. This time of year, that's harder than ever - in 21/30 days loads of people will be on holiday! Not checking their phone, not there to know if it's really been delivered or not.

The scam sellers are relying on people not raising a claim within 48 hours of it being marked delivered.

It's so obvious and I can't believe Vinted aren't doing more to stop it. It's clogging up everyone's feed with scam listings and real sellers' items aren't getting a look in!

In terms of forgetting what was ordered, as you have to wait to claim it can be easier to put it out of mind and not think about feeling embarrassed at being scammed and dealing with AI messages to/ from Vinted etc.

I have successfully got my money back in this situation- but it was a faff!

I think Vinted just want their slice of commission on sales, and DGAF about scammers.

With the amount we all buy off there, they must be raking it in!

So to reclaim, you've got to hit a 24-48 hour window 2 months after you ordered the item?

You've got to be incredibly organised and on it to manage that.

And never go away in the summer holidays...