topic Re: Possible scam in Buying

Possible scam

lacha3561 — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 11:01:09 GMT

I recently purchased two Quorum EDT fragrances in mid July. The seller listed them as not being tracked, which seemed unusual for a domestic (Australian) purchase.

At the beginning of this month, I asked the seller for tracking details. They provided a number and a receipt showing “delivered,” but I never received the items. This strongly suggests fraudulent activity.

This has been my worst experience on eBay so far, and I am concerned other buyers may also be affected. Could you please advise if I am eligible for a refund, and can you investigate or suspend this seller to prevent further scams?

Thank you for and any help,
Lachlan

Re: Possible scam

twyngwyn — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 09:53:59 GMT

Who was the carrier?

Re: Possible scam

twyngwyn — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 10:02:11 GMT

What is the item number?

Re: Possible scam

twyngwyn — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 10:10:59 GMT

2 of these?

https://ebay.us/m/I7q09e

Re: Possible scam

davewil1964 — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 10:39:01 GMT

If you didn't get the items and the seller did not upload tracking to eBay, you would be eligible for a refund under eBay's Money Back Guarantee. Maybe read up on how that works. Although there is a good chance you are outside the MBG window. Maybe read up on how that works.

Naming and shaming or uploading live links is against board policy, so that information is unlikely to be visible for much longer.

The listing twyn included explicitly states 'untracked postage'. Why did you expect tracking? The buyer has all the power in such cases.

Unusual? I send half my items untracked, and I doubt I'm alone.

Re: Possible scam

*casey* — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 11:34:34 GMT

"This has been my worst experience on eBay so far, and I am concerned other buyers may also be affected"

I'm sure other buyers have been affected and will continue to be affected if they're stupid enough to buy

from the seller..... because their feedback is appalling

You should have read the comments in the feedback and hit the back button.

Was the tracking number they gave you uploaded to eBay as if it was, you're probably the victim of a fake tracking scam.

Fake tracking number scam is also mentioned in their feedback.

All of the following applies if the tracking wasn't uploaded to eBay as although it's not impossible to get a refund if fake tracking applies, it's a difficult process.

You only have 30 days after the last estimated delivery date to open an item not received claim through eBay's Money Back Guarantee and you're pobably out of time

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?id=4210

If you paid with Paypal , you have 180 days from payment date to file an item not received claim.

Or as a last resort, you could try a chargeback with your bank

Re: Possible scam

lacha3561 — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 11:37:48 GMT

Thanks for your reply. I understand your points and I’ll definitely read up more on how the Money Back Guarantee works that’s useful advice.

To clarify, my concern wasn’t so much about expecting tracking when the listing stated otherwise, but more about the fact that the seller provided a tracking number and receipt only upon request. Then later I received a “delivered,” even though I never received anything. That’s what raised a red flag for me.

I also didn’t mean to “name and shame”, I was just trying to share my experience so other buyers could be cautious. I’ll make sure to avoid links or direct identifiers in the future to stay within the policy.

I do appreciate your perspective about untracked postage being common. My frustration comes from this particular case, which feels different to me.

Thanks again for the input.

Re: Possible scam

*casey* — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 14:04:50 GMT

"I do appreciate your perspective about untracked postage being common"

Your seller claims to be a business.

Your items come under the Australia Post dangerous, prohibited and and restricted items category.

A business which has a contract with Australia Post would lodge paperwork, have tracking, and package

the items following the strict, specific requirements for this type of item , for safety. By road only.

They could not possibly send these items as domestic, regular untracked letters as shown on the listing.

Re: Possible scam

sandypebbles — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 18:51:45 GMT

Other members can not investigate and we cannot suspend the seller

Buyers can choose not to support these sellers

All the red flags in the world with this seller and yet you went ahead and purchased anyway

Yes, they are a scammer, and all the neg feedbacks warning about this were there, and their feedback is lower than the gutter.

Stop supporting dodgy sellers

Re: Possible scam

springyzone — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 22:03:02 GMT

Yes, you have been scammed, for sure.

I am not even sure how an Australian based seller could send a package that had no type of tracking. Letters yes, but not a parcel. And not perfumes.

Other buyers probably have been affected, as the other boardies on here have mentioned a lot of negative feedback.

On ebay, you only have 30 days after the expected date of delivery in which to open an ebay claim. So if you bought mid July & if the seller is in Australia, then you would have had till mid to late August in which to open a proper claim.

If you bought from overseas, you may still be in time.

But what it means is you never wait & wait if something does not get delivered.

Before your 30 days expires, you open a proper claim, no matter what the seller says, no matter what the seller promises.

You may be out of time. Did you pay with paypal? If so, they have a longer claim period if you have not received an item and you could make a claim through them.

You should still be in time to give negative feedback to the seller. It is how you 'help' other buyers, but it can only help those who help themselves by reading before they buy.

Re: Possible scam

*casey* — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 03:00:05 GMT

There's something very odd / wrong here.

I read an eBay UK announcement earler in the year and more recently an eBay US announcement

stating that for all transactions, this was going to take place - it started yesterday in the US with some transactions backdated.

"eBay automated feedback is automatically added to the seller’s account when a transaction is successfully completed. This positive feedback gives other eBay users confidence in this seller and in our marketplace. We only do this if the following criteria are met:

You didn't leave feedback within 7 days of delivery (as confirmed by tracking)
We can’t see any indication of an issue with the transaction
Tracking shows the item was delivered on time

For buyers

You can still leave your own feedback within 60 days of delivery, in which case the automated feedback will be replaced with yours.

The OP's AU seller is now showing 103 eBay automated feedback

Order completed successfully – tracked and on time

The listings I looked at showed:

Free Australia Post Domestic Regular Letter Untracked

I have no idea what shows to a buyer who wants to override eBay's automated feedback and leave their own so

@lacha3561, I can see you've now left negative feedback for the seller.

Was there any indication that you were overriding eBay's positive automated feedback when you left your negative feedback ?

Re: Possible scam

twyngwyn — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 04:04:07 GMT

and……this seller is away until 14th Sept….so, OP is unlikely to get a response

Re: Possible scam

springyzone — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 23:32:14 GMT

@*casey* wrote:
There's something very odd / wrong here.

I read an eBay UK announcement earler in the year and more recently an eBay US announcement

stating that for all transactions, this was going to take place - it started yesterday in the US with some transactions backdated.

"eBay automated feedback is automatically added to the seller’s account when a transaction is successfully completed. This positive feedback gives other eBay users confidence in this seller and in our marketplace. We only do this if the following criteria are met:
You didn't leave feedback within 7 days of delivery (as confirmed by tracking)
We can’t see any indication of an issue with the transaction
Tracking shows the item was delivered on time
For buyers
You can still leave your own feedback within 60 days of delivery, in which case the automated feedback will be replaced with yours.

The OP's AU seller is now showing 103 eBay automated

I've seen ebay's automated feedback mentioned before but in my opinion (which of course ebay would not care about), 7 days is way too early for them to intervene.

In fact, it is a colossal cheek.

If people have 2 months in which to leave feedback, ebay should not jump in at all till after that.

I know their claim is buyers can override it but I hope it is an easy process & I hope buyers are made aware they can do that.

In the past (fairly distant past) I have had a couple of experiences where I decided not to give feedback at all as I had small issues but decided to let it go. But if I noticed ebay had jumped in, I'd feel I had to intervene. But that's the issue-would all buyers necessarily know it had even happened, unless they looked?

Re: Possible scam

*casey* — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 02:27:44 GMT

Automated feedback has been around for a long time but only for sellers with a feedback score of 10 or less.

Even then, I've seen it given to shonky dropshippers who are now NARU, an iPad scammer who sent used iPads while advertising them as new, and more recently to Chinese scammers who have hijacked low feedback Italian sellers' accounts

With the hijacked accounts, the items exist , sent from AliExpress and hit and miss whether the buyer receives anything, but hijacked by Chinese scammers and not listed by the real account holders.

Earler this year eBay UK and more recently the US, announced that automated feedback would be given to ALL sellers, not just those with under 10 feedback.

The AU seller who is the subject of this thread has now received 113 positive automated feedback which makes no sense at all. Advertised with no tracking and in AU.

Although our boards are quiet, the US forums are FULL of threads from victims of fake tracking scams.

Those scam sellers will initially receive automated positive feedback .

I'd like to know what shows to a buyer when eBay automated feedback has already been given so that's why I asked the OP on the off chance it was relevant.

Re: Possible scam

*casey* — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 03:01:06 GMT

EDIT "Those scam sellers will initially receive automated positive feedback "

IMO, many of those 'fake tracking scam' sellers will initially receive positive eBay automated feedback before buyers realise they've been scammed

Re: Possible scam

springyzone — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 21:01:59 GMT

I'd like to know what shows to a buyer when eBay automated feedback has already been given so that's why I asked the OP on the off chance it was relevant.

IMO, many of those 'fake tracking scam' sellers will initially receive positive eBay automated feedback before buyers realise they've been scammed

I'd like to know too, what shows to a buyer when feedback has already been left and how easy it is to override it. If in fact ebay even makes it clear that they can.

I agree with you that plenty of scam sellers are going to receive false positive feedback this way.

In my opinion, it is a big mistake for ebay to be jumping in a week after delivery of an item.

It barely gives the buyer enough time to open the package and properly try something out, use it a few times to make sure it really is as described and not faulty.

But most of all, feedback is meant to be a guide to other potential buyers. I suspect that some buyers get as far as looking at feedback breakdown but may not actually open the positives to read. I have to admit I am a bit like this, I click on the negatives & neutrals but not always the positives. So if I saw a seller with eg 10 positives this month & no negs anywhere, I'd probably be thinking they looked okay.

And there is the fact a lot of buyers are reasonable people, they will contact a seller if there is a problem, for example an item running late, and they will give a seller more time.

I know feedback is not the be all and end all, but it really would be better if ebay left it till the 2 month mark and only stepped in and gave an ebay positive then.

But I suspect this isn't about giving accurate info to buyers, it is about making sellers look as good as possible as soon as possible.

Re: Possible scam

davewil1964 — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 08:57:42 GMT

I'm certainly not getting automatic positives.

I am lucky to get feedback for 20% of sales.

Re: Possible scam

springyzone — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 19:47:17 GMT

From what i understood, the auto positives applied only to sellers with under 10 feedback but in (was it USA & UK) ebay was rolling it out for all sellers? Or going to?

I don't think it applies in Australia yet because I recently left feedback for a seller after about 3 weeks to a month and I did not have to override anything. Ebay had not intervened.

I would have been annoyed if they had.