help! eBay buyer bought with stolen card

Barnabysmom

Can anyone offer any advice. I recently sold an iPhone 6+ on eBay. Buyer told me a story to make his situation urgent so he could send a third party to collect on his behalf. I only agreed if he paid by paypal. He did with no hesitation. His friend collected the phone. They left feedback to say they had the phone. Then a week later paypal reversed the payment and I'm now without phone or money for it. It seemed buyer paid with a stolen card. eBay say they can do nothing to help. Paypal say I'm not covered as I didn't post the item and get a proof of posting and delivery. I'm disappointed that paypal allow their buyer to have a card attached to their account which is stolen as I thought they all needed to be confirmed and the address on eBay was probably a fake one anyway. Anyone have any ideas to help. I've reported it to Action Fraud but doubt they'll do anything to investigate as Im small fish in big sea - but £600 was a lot of money to me and my family.

Lomast

unfortunatly there is not much you can do, its a well known scam especially for high risk items like phones, paypal should never be accepted for collected items. The only thing you can do is if you have the buyers name and address (unlikely i know) is to take them to court

soolin

Barnabysmom wrote: »

Can anyone offer any advice. I recently sold an iPhone 6+ on eBay. Buyer told me a story to make his situation urgent so he could send a third party to collect on his behalf. I only agreed if he paid by paypal. He did with no hesitation. His friend collected the phone. They left feedback to say they had the phone. Then a week later paypal reversed the payment and I'm now without phone or money for it. It seemed buyer paid with a stolen card. eBay say they can do nothing to help. Paypal say I'm not covered as I didn't post the item and get a proof of posting and delivery. I'm disappointed that paypal allow their buyer to have a card attached to their account which is stolen as I thought they all needed to be confirmed and the address on eBay was probably a fake one anyway. Anyone have any ideas to help. I've reported it to Action Fraud but doubt they'll do anything to investigate as Im small fish in big sea - but £600 was a lot of money to me and my family.

Unfortunately you have been scammed by a very old scam- one which rarely works anymore as sellers become more aware of how seller protection works.

Paypal is very clear about seller protection, it's on every email you receive when you get oayment, and is on each transaction page if you check your paypal account. Unless you can prove delivery using inline tracking you have no seller protection against an INR. Even worse for you is that if this was merely a claim that theire was fraud on the account, you wouldn't even have needed proof of delivery- just proof item was posted to the address that paypal gave you.

It is all covered on the ebay board (see my sig) under the postage sticky thread.

Your only hope is a goodwill gesture from paypal, but since they warn sellers about seller protection I think the chances of getting paypal to refund is very slim, always worth a try though.

boo_star

Lomast wrote: »

unfortunatly there is not much you can do, its a well known scam especially for high risk items like phones, paypal should never be accepted for collected items. The only thing you can do is if you have the buyers name and address (unlikely i know) is to take them to court

Sadly this is the correct answer.

Was it ever used on a phone network?

If so report it as stolen to them and they'll block the IMEI so it will be unusable in the UK (and some other countries.)

Edit: If you registered the device to your Apple account and didn't remove it, it may show up in the devices listed in your Apple account. You can effectively kill the device from there. It won't get you your money back, or the device but it'll make it practically worthless to the thief.

Extra Edit: You can also track it if if/when it's turned on.

paddyrg

If selling any item face to face, take cash. It's a common con you've fallen for, sadly.

Crazy_Jamie

paddyrg wrote: »

If selling any item face to face, take cash. It's a common con you've fallen for, sadly.

This. In this situation scammers are actually wanting to pay via Paypal for the reasons that you are now well aware of. Even if the card didn't subsequently turn out to be stolen, the internet is full of examples where buyers have taken Paypal for an item to be collected in person and subsequently lost that money when they couldn't prove that the item had been 'sent'. Unfortunately it seems that this pay be a painful lesson learned, but the lesson is a simple one; when handing an Ebay item over in person, always deal in cash.

dj1471

Crazy_Jamie wrote: »

when handing an Ebay item over in person, always deal in cash.

And if you're going to do this invest in a counterfeit note detector pen - I wouldn't trust cash from a random eBay buyer anymore than I would PayPal!

Barnabysmom

.... but it was bought direct from apple. I cant track it as it didn't have a sim card in and it was reset to manufacturer's settings. it wasn't only contracted to o2 which I used it on, it's open to any service. will it still be able to be blocked?

Barnabysmom

I thought it confirmed cards belonged to the person using them and I was more concerned about someone turning up with fake notes to collect it. paypal have advised that next time I accept large amount of cash do the transaction at a bank or post office where they'll check the notes for me.

lindens

the IMEI number is inside the phone. and on the box label.nothing to do with a sim card

psx

I hope you have the IMEI number to block?