I got scammed

[jach-6235]

Hi people of eBay,

I am writing this again as I don't know if my first question went through so I am sorry if you are seeing this twice. I saw a listing for a camera that I have always wanted and the price was really good (too good to be true unfortunately) and I jumped on it and bought it. The order went through like normal and got emails from eBay and stuff. I then woke up to and "ORDER UPDATE" email saying that my package had been shipped out. However, 1 hour later I got another email saying that it had arrived "ORDER DELIVERED". I got a little scared but I checked outside and sure enough there was nothing. The seller was from Spain and I don't think it would have arrived in a hour. A couple hours later I get this email: "You've reported you didn’t receive your item". However, I did not and have not put in a request or opened any sort of ticket with eBay even now. I don't know if this was the scammer's doing but I got quite scared when I read that. Again, I have not opened up any sort of request but when I look at my eBay account there is an active request on this item. That email came in at 12:10pm today just for reference. What was more suspicious was that the seller spammed messaged me saying "Hi; you just bought this item today and you opened an item not received case.
I was going to ship the item tomorrow morning . Could YOU please close it ?" at 12:00pm and messaged me 4 times in a 12-12:10pm window. The scammer messaged me about this request even before this quasi-"request" was even sent out. I know you guys will say to go to eBay directly but I got this " If the issue is still unresolved by 8 Jul, you can ask us for help." However, I do not feel comfortable waiting like this for almost a week and I feel like if I do as the scammer says and close the request then maybe that makes me in a worse situation. I am genuinely scared as this is quite a lot of money I have just 'lost' and if there is anything you guys can help me with I will be glad.  If you need more evidence/screenshots then I am happy to cooperate in any way. 

Thank you.

[sugar249]

Do not close the dispute under any circumstance

The rest sounds sus,  but keep it open

[cam-2793]

Send a polite message to seller stating that it is not possible to open an INR case until AFTER the expected delivery date has passed ( coming from Spain to Australia) unless it has been marked as delivered and that you did not open a case.

I don't know how eBay bots work but maybe the case was automatically generated because an item cannot possibly get from Europe to Australia in an hour ( even in the days of Concord!). Maybe they uploaded an old tracking number or some eBay glitch kicked in???

Get onto eBay chat and explain what has happened - if eBay didn't open the case and you didn't, then it might be that your account has been compromised.

The seller can protect themselves by uploading proper tracking within their stated handling time. They should know it's not possible to open a case so quickly, they might be panicky because they are newish. Or because they hit the wrong button somewhere?

While it could be them trying to scam you it might also be a SNAFU (situation normal, all fowled up) of a type that computers excel at.

Definitely strange situation!!!

[cam-2793]

Do not close the case- just because once a case is closed it cannot be reopened . And a scammer will take advantage of that.

[springyzone]

I am with sugar on this, don't close the case under any circumstances.

If you do, you need to realise that you cannot open another case with ebay for this item if you later found you needed to. You would have burnt your bridges.

I was a bit confused by your post. Do you mean you received all these messages the same day you bought the camera?

I was under the impression you could not open an ebay case for item not received until after the estimated due date had arrived.

And I would have thought only you could open a claim for item not received, I have not heard of sellers opening it on behalf of a buyer, but I could be wrong as I am not a seller these days.

In any case, if an ebay claim has been opened, keep it open & I suspect that if the item has not been received by 8 July, then you had better go ahead immediately and ask ebay to step in and help. You would need to escalate the case, don't just ignore it.

That way, you would very likely get your money back.

If by any chance it isn't a scam and the camera reached you later on, you could always repay the seller then.

But I don't like the sound of the whole thing and if you can get a refund, go for it because one of the troubles with buying from Spain is also that you're not going to get a worthwhile warranty either. 

The price for some things on ebay can sometimes look cheap but it's best to avoid some products, the element of risk is too great.

[davewil1964]

too good to be true unfortunately

There you go.

As others have said, DO NOT close the case unless you get the goods within the timeframe advised. I very much doubt any item will be sent from Spain in a week, given there are 2 sets of Customs to navigate, not to mention transit time.