EBay tracked Royal Mail delivery scam

TimeLord1

What was the seller's account like? Good feedback? A new account i remember in hot weather labels peeling and becoming stuck, but the fact that a phone managed to get sent to the wrong address doesn't sound like a one-off. More intentional.

eBay often ignores customers, but they rarely ignore a Crime Reference Number (CRN).

File a report

use these specific words:

"I am a victim of a 'Dual Label' postal fraud. The seller provided a tracking number [Number] which shows as delivered to my postcode town, but Royal Mail GPS data confirms it was physically delivered to a different address miles away. This is a known technique to circumvent eBay's buyer protection. Police reference required for eBay appeal."

https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/?hl=en-GB

savergrant

I'd guess the qr code would contain the delivery address, service information, tracking number, covered value, size and weight. It's not impossible that someone could decipher a supplied qr code and create a replacement code for a different address but where the existing postcode is still recognised by the tracking system.

Ultimately the advantage with Royal Mail is that the tracking will tell you which delivery office delivered the item so if it clearly isn't in your area just badger ebay to refund. The difficulty comes if the parcel is actually delivered to an address local to you.

savergrant

"They have completely different address and postcode in the system so from their point of view all is ok."

AFAIK you need to enter the correct postcode to see proof of delivery, and you say you can see proof of delivery. You are entering your postcode so somehow the system seems to be recognising that as correct while it wasn't the 'delivery address'. That suggests this isn't simply the seller entering an incorrect tracking number into ebay, but that the label has been tampered with or at least, the parcel diverted en route.

Contact report fraud (aka action fraud) and give them all the information royal mail have given you and see if they can get more help from royal mail)

Poppy2012

I have reported to action fraud as advised earlier in this thread and provided reference to EBay. I would be curious to know how this kind of scam is pulled off. How can someone create a replacement code that the tracking is showing as delivered to me but customer services straight away see it was not my (tracking) address. Unfortunately, they would not elaborate but it seemed they might know more as their other suggestion was to ask eBay to re-confirm what address was used for the delivery.

savergrant

I guess there's always been the potential for a scammer to provide a fake tracking number to fool ebay (at first glance anyway). If you bought something off me I could purchase a label but enter a different address, send off a load of valueless junk and put the tracking number against your item. It would show as delivered but on closer inspection it wouldn't accept your postcode to view the proof of delivery. Ebay simple delivery should prevent this, as ebay purchase the label and the seller cannot change the address. However it seems that somehow royal mail labels can be manipulated to add a second address, have the parcel delivered there but still accept the original postcode to show proof of delivery. Whether this is through photoshopping or some redirection I wouldn't like to guess, but eBay could improve security by not giving the seller the buyer's postcode and only issuing a qr code imo.

Poppy2012

After reading on Reddit it looks like a common scam so definitely security should be improved. Advice is to not open INR case but INAD case, wish I knew this earlier. Also, because tracking is showing as left in designated safe place which I have never designated to Royal Mail, onus is still with the seller to prove I have received it, not with me. Not sure why it’s seems other way round.

TimeLord1

Check completed and sold to see if you can find multiple sales of the same item. I think you found a dodgy seller or someone else involved. They done a photoshopped label, leaving the QR and barcode the same, probably hoping something didn't flag it to be rerouted. Because of the Route code unsure how that wouldn't get picked up.

molerat

If you have the GPS co-ordinates you can put that into Google and Maps will come up with an accurate location. You can then get full address and post code and produce a solid case for Ebay. I had a problem with a parcel the other day and using that method showed the drop location right outside the front door of 85 when the parcel was addressed to 81. A good reason for spending the extra 5p for T48 over 2nd class.

savergrant

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81863271#Comment_81863271

Or someone who has suddenly started selling a large number of high value items. It could be a sign that an account has been hacked.

TimeLord1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81864455#Comment_81864455

Yes it won't last long today because they'll demand more information once the sales threshold is passed.

Funnily enough I was looking at an account yesterday that stated Malaysia UK express shipping 🤔 then the avatar changed and location ships from Germany and basically morphed into a new setup.