EBAY/PAYPAL BUYER FRAUD

[ianisace1]

I have been selling on EBAY for about 10 years without and major problem with buyers.

This all changed recently and I have had 3 fraudsters buy from me in the last month. I won't go into details about exactly how they operate as it may encourage other con artists.

I have phoned EBAY many times to try to get the sellers barred and they did eventually block one but weeks later 2 are still buying and conning more sellers.

I have the feeling that they are not too concerned (after all they have my seller fees and it costs them money to investigate).

Anyone else had a similar experience ?

what do you mean by fraud? If they claimed not received then that is your own fault for not sending tracked.

Well if you won't give details, then how can people comment on whether they have had a similar experience? Depends on what exactly happened as to what people will think Ebay's response should have been.

OK - these fraudsters buy hundreds of low cost items in a short period (knowing they will be sent without tracking). They wait a week then claim they have not received their order and request a refund. Most sellers pay as it is not worth the hastle of contesting.

with no tracking you can't contest - you need to send tracked.

Exactly, that is what they rely on and how they fraud works. But they are doing it to hundreds of sellers so EBAY should be able to detect what they are doing (they have to message every seller they have bought from to demand a refund)

But they won't last long on ebay. All it will take is several angry sellers to complain to ebay and they will be closed down. Ebay will surely notice all the requests for refunds.
I can't see hundreds of refunds going unnoticed.

Cherry- it's not always worth sending items tracked. I sell 5000 items a year and rarely send tracked. It is cheaper for me to send untracked and cough up the (thankfully rare) refund claim.

So how do they turn a profit then? Do they resell all the low cost items they've bought?

This is why any request for a refund should always go though the system.
'Open a case for my records and your safety' is the standard line I use. If buyer refuses then there is a reason for that...

It is always worth pointing out to them that when a seller puts in a claim with RM, repeated claims for the same address are now being strongly investigated, and prosecutions made.

Contact anyone who has left feedback for them and see if they had similar claims. Report to Ebay, they do sometimes ban buyers. Report to Paypal, after all, they are also losing money when you refund. Report to Actionfraud if you can get enough other sellers to also complain.

It is part of the terms of eBay/paypal that you send something tracked. You are reminded of this when you receive the email notifying of payment. If you don't send tracked then you do run the risk of a buyer defrauding you.

It's not part of the terms cherry- it is advised, but not mandatory.
I rarely send anything tracked, it's not worth it from a financial aspect for me. I use just regular untracked mail for most of my stuff.

To comply with seller protection you do need tracking - which is why buyers who claim not received will always get a refund.

I am a business seller so can't claim much from Royal Mail anyway. Of the 5000 items I sell a year I have less than 5 who claim non- arrival.

Worth the risk to me. Tracking costs more than I end up refunding.

I also send about 5000 items a year, the vast majority of items turn up eventually (though with 2nd it can take upto 2 weeks). If a buyer claims non-receipt I always ask them to wait a few days.

The Fraudsters always ask for immediate refund and are very rude (another clue).

With the most recent case I messaged 10 other sellers (IDs from buyers FB) and the 7 who replied all reported the same (buyer claiming non-receipt and demanding immediate refund). Despite this he is still trading on EBAY !!!!!

Buyer has now set his FB to private so it looks like he has worked out what people are doing.

thanks AutumnDragon. I have already contacted EBAY and PAYPAL.

Usually I would not bother putting in a claim to RM for low value items but now I shall if I suspect fraud and hope that other sellers do the same.

I will also look at Actionfraud, which I have never heard of before.

So, thanks, you message was very helpful.

how do you know they do the same to HUNDREDS of other buyers?

you sound a bit paranoid to me I'm afraid (and I'm an ebay business seller)

ianisace1 I had a serial scammer a couple of months ago. I kept in touch with all other sellers who responded to me and we all reported her to both freebay and Actionfraud (Police department dealing with online crime).

Actionfraud have not come back to me so I don't know if they prosecuted, but Ebay did ban her within a few days of reporting her.

Ebay annoyingly took away our ability to check buying history, so some nice, enterprising people have provided this service free of charge. Check out : www.watchcount.com/bh.php

Good Luck

But if a side note but if you are selling 5000 items a year do you have a Royal Mail account? Postage including tracking is cheaper through a PPI account than buying over the counter. Although I am like the other poster and I just factor in the thankfully few claims as an overhead cost of selling on eBay.

AutumnDragon - yes,another seller tipped me off about the first fraudster and we got him barred from EBAY.

With the most recent fraudster I was contacting other sellers he had bought from but then he made his FB private. So I shall certainly be using www.watchcount.com/bh.php. The more reports we can file the better.

Petallic - I do have a PPI account with RM and I accept that a few items go missing occassionally. But fraud is fraud even if it is only a few pounds. And these people are stealling from hundreds of sellers so they are getting thousands of pounds worth of goods for free