Chinese Seller Scam - Be Warned

[na$co]

Chinese Seller Scam - Be Warned

How it works

Seller has minimal positive feedback score of around 30 to 40 on very low dollar items.

Seller makes listings of higher dollar items at good but what are now known to me unrealistic prices.

All listings are placed is ebay's "no" Money Back Guarantee categories - Real Estate category, certain Motors categories, or in the Classified Ad format. (Did you know this even existed?)

People buy items (that are even promoted by ebay) that's how I got caught!

Seller sends tracking conformation days later. You wait and wait and either nothing ever arrives or you receive something next to worthless and nothing to do with what you purchased.

You attempt claim only to be told that ebay won't cover it and to contact the contactless seller.

Here's the thing. I alerted ebay about this possible scam 3 weeks ago and the seller was still offering the exact products today. The listings hadn't been removed and certainly never moved into a correct category where it should have been listed. Check it for yourself - all items that are NOT pocket bikes like Furniture, Electrical, Slushie Machines etc are all SCAMS.

What alerted me was a seen a lounge suite offer for $69.99 with FREE delivery to Australia from China.

This one seller  read the feedback.

I feel totally let down by ebay in this case. I reported it, they did nothing. I cannot see how I can get my money back (apart from contacting VISA) and I feel for all the people who have been scammed via this ebay loop hole. Some know now it's a scam but many, many others do not know as yet. The rude shock is on it's way!

[na$co]

Good to see ebay has killed "some" of the seller scams happening in this "Pocket Bikes" category. Unfortunately there are still many others listed. People have been and are still buying from these fraudulent listings. ebay has an obligation to stop these practices and should refund all that have been conned with the help of ebay policies loophole. It is disgusting how long it has taken for action, ebay should be ashamed for this dodging and weaving and get smart.

Also: All customers should be "warned" at checkout if any sale is "not" secure under the the ebay protection "Money Back Guarantee" policy and then it becomes the buyers responsibility should they go ahead.

[springyzone]

I agree with you. I have read of this before, where some sellers deliberately list items in a category they know won't be covered by ebay policy.

As far as I am concerned, if a customer complains about an item or an item not arriving, and ebay is then able to see something totally unsuitable has been placed in one of these 'safe' categories, it should be an automatic violation and reason for ebay to force a refund.

As you suggest, it would also be worthwhile for ebay to flash up on screen a warning at checkout for any item bought in those categories. That shouldn't be a hard thing for them to organise.

I think the Chinese get away with a lot that sellers from Australia could never do, or at least, not do as easily.

Sorry you got caught.

[na$co]

So far this one seller has pull in over $2,000.00 from just the people who have left negative feedback and that wouldn't be a quarter of the sales. The same Chinese "group or person" has opened and had suspended multiple other accounts doing the same thing. That said, there are still other accounts pulling the exact same scam right now. Some I reported many days  ago now.  ebay needs to respond much faster and get on top of this. They also should be refunding money as they have been told of this SCAM now for many, many weeks and failed to stop it.