Scam: Buying item, reselling it and claiming it never arrived

soolin

skylight wrote: »

I was wary of this - I sold a game this week and before the listing ended (was the only game on Ebay) another had popped up with a similar name to my lead-buyer, using my photos and description! I reported the listing to Ebay who pulled it quite quickly and luckily the item was won by someone else.

I am posting it tomorrow Recorded to its tracked.

Just to be pedantic recorded is not tracked, it supposedly gets a signature on arrival but in reality this rarely happens in many areas. I don't recall the last time I had to sign for a recorded item, they are just left with the rest of my post.

Tim_Deegan

I believe this is what they call chargeback fraud. They don't just do it through ebay, but they also try and claim their money back through their credit card company.

I was once allerted by my credit card gateway (Sagepay) about a high risk transaction. They explained to me that there was a history of chargeback fraud at the student house in question.

The trouble with Paypal chargebacks is that they don't tend to investigate properly, and often just refund without looking into the case properly.

Another scam I have come across is one where ebay sellers send damaged goods via courier, and then try and claim off the couriers insurance.

cyberbob

If people think every buyer on ebay is out to con you you shouldn't be selling on ebay. In reality 99% of buyers on ebay are honest. You can easilty protect yourself by insuring you get proof of posting and keeping that for 6 months (which will protect you from a CC chargeback) and sending items over £41 special delivery.

There is way to much paranoia.

Tim_Deegan

cyberbob wrote: »

If people think every buyer on ebay is out to con you you shouldn't be selling on ebay. In reality 99% of buyers on ebay are honest. You can easilty protect yourself by insuring you get proof of posting and keeping that for 6 months (which will protect you from a CC chargeback) and sending items over £41 special delivery.

There is way to much paranoia.

Yes I'm sure we all know that, but we aren't concerned about the 99%, it's the 1% who are out there to con people.

It's Paypal who are part of the problem, by not investigating properly.

macfly

cyberbob wrote: »

If people think every buyer on ebay is out to con you you shouldn't be selling on ebay. In reality 99% of buyers on ebay are honest. You can easilty protect yourself by insuring you get proof of posting and keeping that for 6 months (which will protect you from a CC chargeback) and sending items over £41 special delivery.

There is way to much paranoia.

I see posts like this a lot. How do you know the percentage of honest buyers?

porto_bello

I agree with macfly. There are rather more than one or two con artists buying on eBay, whose feedback, and in particular, their ‘feedback left for others’, on closer inspection often shows a long history of leapfrogging from seller to seller, making complaint after complaint and false claim after false claim. Meanwhile, naturally, eBay have a vested interest in playing down such issues.

Reassurance that it’s possible to pass on the cost of these (in some cases) patently obvious, on-going, fraudulent antics to Royal Mail (and effectively become a part of the scam) really doesn’t solve the problem, but merely serves to encourage it with tacit support.

mobile48

macfly wrote: »

I see posts like this a lot. How do you know the percentage of honest buyers?

I thought I have a quick go and see if I could estimate this figure.

First ignore ebay and instead estimate the percentage of on-line credit/debit card fraud as I assumed these figures would be published.

They are but not in a format I can use.

The amount of on-line credit card spend is reported here:

http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/view_point_and_publications/facts_and_figures/internet_card_use_(2009)/

The amount of credit card fraud is reported here:

http://www.financialfraudaction.org.uk/Financial-card-fraud.asp

However the breakdown does not include on-line fraud.

Lets skip this and just say X% of on-line spend is fraud but if you assume a fraudster spends more than a honest person then less than X% are dishonest using credit cards. However this only accounts for dishonest use of credit cards and most dishonest claims may not be connected with dishonest use of a credit card anyway.

I also found the following organisation I was unaware of before now:

http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/

Part most specific to ebay here:

http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/sites/default/files/Fraud%20Advisory%20Panel%20-%20Online%20shopping%20scams.pdf

spugzbunny

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

I believe this is what they call chargeback fraud. They don't just do it through ebay, but they also try and claim their money back through their credit card company.

I was once allerted by my credit card gateway (Sagepay) about a high risk transaction. They explained to me that there was a history of chargeback fraud at the student house in question.

Student house you say? Crikey that credit knows it's stuff! Are they hiding behind the bins watching them cycle to Uni with their text books?

twotimes

You cannot protect yourself from this scam by having proof of postage. All you can do is get some of the money back by making a potentially fraudulant claim to Royal Mail and have them compensate you for something that may have been delivered by them. This doesn't protect you from falling victim to these scammers. These people are still stealing your item and getting away with it.

lindos90

Its a shame ebays reputation is spoilt by members who are underhand, I remember a similar thread where the buyer was caught out by the seller finding their item relisted...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2715339

I would persue, its so annoying when you know someone is lying to you! Good luck and dont give up.