topic Re: Fraudulent sellers in Buying

Fraudulent sellers

crammondmusic — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 02:14:31 GMT

Please be aware that there are some fraudulent sellers with women's handbags for auction. I was unfortunate enough to buy 4 as I was getting them for Christmas presents. I have received an email from eBay that sellers accounts have been taken over. They have refunded me one, and one I had not paid for. In hindsight it's clear to see something suspicious. All the sellers are Asian - china. All the sellers have no other sales or ratings history. The four different sellers all sent me the same letter advising postage of the item, with EXACTLY the same wording and English. All the sellers accounts were opened in July or May. On the same days of the month. The difficulty is that you don't realise it's a scam until it passes the due delivery date. By the time you have paid and wait for your item that never arrives the scammer is long gone with your money. If you paid by PayPal it's okay, you have a guarantee of getting your money back. It was just fortunate that the seller realised her account had been hacked and reported it to eBay.

I rang EBay and reported this scam. They said the coincidences in the emails, type of items, being new sellers, no trading history is very suspicious. They are going to investigate each seller I reported. Meanwhile, I am still concerned though that other people are bidding on these items. If you search 'women's shoulder tote bags' and select auction you will see the current suspicious items. Please ladies don't get caught like I did. I don't want anyone else to be disappointed. I tried to post screen shots but it wouldn't let me. Oh, BTW, they have also listed men's briefcases, duffle bags, lap top bags etc. who knows what else.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

rwhi2669 — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 04:59:54 GMT

Sorry to hear about you experience. I had a similar one earlier in the year but I was fortunate that I was just bidding. In this case, it was a seller from India and I could never seem to win a bid. I still had them all on my watch list so suddenly a light bulb went off in my head so did a bit more investigating and found at least 10 yes 10 sellers who had all joined ebay in July or August 2015. They were all in India and some had zero feedback and all were listing the same items at the same time. A lot of the listings were ended by the sellers as being sold or and error in the listing. Consequently I made notes, reported all to ebay and they are still selling. Anyway. to make a long story short, I gave up on purchasing the items. I do hope ebay do something about you scam report but am not confident they will actually do anything. I was cautious before and am even more cautious now about purchasing from overseas. Cheers.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

winterseal_1 — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 06:37:07 GMT

Thank you for posting! I think there should be a sticky link to show all fradulent sellers so new buyers don't get scammed!

The difficulty is that you don't realise it's a scam until it passes the due delivery date! By the time you have paid and wait for your item that never arrives the scammer is long gone with your money!

WOW! You know it too! This same thing happen to me too! They did the same thing to me and took off with 400USD! They said they were from Hong Kong and send return address to that place and everyone on ebay seem to be sending it there! But there were never they upon investigation!

Becareful of buying expensive stuff from Hong Kong or china!

If anyone has postive experience from these places please post!

Have you tried ringing the Police? So they will shut them down for good?

Re: Fraudulent sellers

davewil1964 — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 07:34:17 GMT

What do you think the Australian police can do about a foreign seller?

Did you follow the correct procedures to get your money back?

Why did you think a low feedback (or any, really) Chinese seller (Hong Kong is part of China) would be selling genuine fashion items?

Re: Fraudulent sellers

crammondmusic — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 09:56:46 GMT

I have bought items from Chinese and hing Kong sellers in the past, and they've been fine. But I could kick myself because usually I am cautious and only buy from sellers who have solid sales histories. But I was happy to find items for relatives for Christmas presents, and didn't take a lot of notice of the sellers. Just thinking this is a Christmas job off my list. eBay removed two purchased items and shut down two sellers. One fortunately I hadn't paid for and the other I have logged with PayPal for a refund under their purchase guarantee. For the paid ones that eBay has not removed I've emailed them and advised them of fake sellers and asked them to remove them so I can go thru the process of claiming with PayPal. But it's all just a pain in the butt. It wasn't a lot of money, they were pretty cheap knock offs because we limit how much to spend on each other at Christmas. So not hundreds of dollars thank goodness. But I am concerned that there are still items listed that people are bidding on unaware that they are scams. There should be scam alert list or something. Basically I've already left negative reviews on the items, saying the seller is a scammer and not to buy anything from them. But of course they'll just close up shop and open up as another seller. **bleep**s.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

*tippy*toes* — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 11:57:50 GMT

If the scam sellers have 0 or low feedback, any money paid is held for a minimum of 21 days by PayPal. They don't lift that hold until you have a proven track record. Therefore, you have a better chance of getting the money back from the seller rather than PayPal.

The other thing to consider is that the Chinese are untouchable. They can do and sell whatever they like and eBay refuse to touch them because they bring in the bucks. That said, the Chinese sellers I buy from are awesome. They're not all dodgy. I love my Chinese sellers, but I am very careful what I buy. The things I buy can't be faked.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

imastawka — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 12:02:54 GMT

I've never had a problem with a Chinese seller either.

Apparently, you just have to pick the right ones.

I don't buy cheap knock-offs, so there's one way to pick the right ones.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

*tippy*toes* — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 12:21:35 GMT

Of all the Chinese I've bought from, in the rare event of an issue, they bend over backwards to rectify it. In the last month I had 2 items arrive broken, which is extremely rare. I think the refund arrived before I even hit send on the message! I don't think I've ever given one less than 5 stars. The good ones are genuinely upset when something goes wrong and they want to do whatever to fix it so you'll come back and buy more. In all my years buying, I can honestly say I have never had an issue with a Chinese seller. Then again, I don't buy knock offs or cheap electronics.

The large sized $1 shower caps I buy, the seller has atrocious feedback. I can't complain. My order has always arrived and I got what I paid for. I think in a lot of instances, people pay a few bucks and expect the same quality as you'd get with a few hundred bucks. Then they slam the seller when they get what they pay for. I've lost track of the amount of negs I've seen for Chinese sellers saying their 50c item is really poor quality. Really? I get 4-6 months out of my $1 shower caps. I'm stoked with that! I was getting that out of the $10 ones from the chemist!

Re: Fraudulent sellers

janeababe — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 07:10:24 GMT

OMG... I've got the best chinese seller toooooooo.....

............his chicken chow mein is to die for !

hmmm... think I'm off topic here.... just a tad.

G2G.... I've suddenly got hungry....

Re: Fraudulent sellers

*tippy*toes* — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 08:48:07 GMT

Sei Sun, to die for! The take away a few doors down does awesome home made curry puffs and spring rolls. Chopsticks is yum too. Then there's the dumplings across the road. Makes my spag on toast look reaaaaaly sad. Boo hoo.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

winterseal_1 — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 08:57:05 GMT

Not the autralian police the police from overseas they can deal with the issue if you can't have other options.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

maranock — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 08:59:37 GMT

Good luck with that

Re: Fraudulent sellers

crammondmusic — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 09:09:10 GMT

Yeah I have to say I've been buying from Asia and China sellers for years and never had a problem. In the event that something goes missing or whatever I have always had prompt responses and resolutions. I guess this lulled me into a false sense of security. Thanks for the responses guys. As I said I really just wanted to put it out there in some way so others don't get duped.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

crammondmusic — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 10:06:01 GMT

I'm over this, and getting really annoyed now. eBay have removed all the paid items from my account and are now telling me to wait until after the delivery date (late Nov) and then open 7 claims for refunds! Effectively all they have done is remove the paid items from my account! Firstly I can't see the delivery dates any longer because YOU HAVE REMOVED THEM FROM MY ACCOUNT! So the sent me an email with the item numbers and delivery dates and basically I have to do everything myself. I sent them back this reply:

Thanks for the response. I'm not happy to wait until late November to get my money back! All you have effectively done is remove the items from my eBay account and possibly close the scam seller down. You wouldn't have known it was a scam if I hadn't told you. Now you expect me to wait until Mid November, open 7 cases, then wait a couple more weeks to get my money! eBay needs to be responsible for this. You obviously make it too easy for scammers to set up on your system. Then I do all the work to have it rectified! You have the item numbers, you have removed the items because you are pretty sure they are a scam, so step up and give me my money back!

Sent from my iPad

On 10 Oct 2017, at 11:19 am, customerhelp_au@ebay.com wrote:

eBay
RE: Asking eBay to step in and help SR# 1-131920102659

Hello Sharon,

Thank you for contacting eBay about the items that you bought. I'm sorry that you haven't received the items yet.

Upon checking on your account, the listing were removed because there are chances that the seller violates eBay Policy. But do not worry, you are still be covered by eBay Money Back Guarantee Program.

What I suggest is to contact us or open a request if you cannot received the items after the estimated delivery date. I am going to furnished you the item number with the corresponding estimated delivery dates for your reference.

222661485808 -ETD, Tue, 28 Nov
322794188940 -ETD, Tue, 28 Nov
142523065190 -ETD, Tue, 28 Nov

172893057985 -ETD, Tue, 28 Nov
222660493425 -ETD Tue, 28 Nov
222657232784 -ETD Nov. 15
182791853848 -ETD Nov 28

Thank you for choosing eBay!

Kind regards,

Mirasol A.
eBay Customer Service
[THREAD ID: 1-1OLPTMO5]

Mirasol A.
eBay Customer Service

From:
Sent: 10/9/2017 8:51:04 PM
To:
CC:
Subject: Asking eBay to step in and help

Enter your question / concern
Hi eBay. Please look at my account, crammondmusic. Recently I purchased several items that turn out to be from scam sellers. They have since been removed by you from my account. Your email says to wait until the delivery due date to open a claim, but now that the items have been removed I can't see the delivery due dates or anything to do with the items that appear on my purchase tab. Therefore could you please open a case for each item so I can get a refund on them? I can't open a case as I now have no info available to me about the item. Please advise. Thanks Sharon Matthews

Send a copy to my email address.
on

eBay Document ID: 48292518009
eBay is committed to your privacy. Read our user agreement and privacy notice. Learn how to recognise fake (spoof) emails.

Copyright © 2017 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. eBay and the eBay logo are trademarks of eBay Inc., 2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125.

Honestly, I shouldn't have to do all the work!!!! 👎🏻😡😡😡😡

Re: Fraudulent sellers

stormness_1 — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 00:30:56 GMT

Chinese scammers are getting smarter. In some categories, they're copying entire valid listings, so you wouldn't know unless you'd seen the listing before! These are high-value items, and they string you along going oops, it's bounced back from customs, I'll re-send! Thankfully there is a community of hobbyists who report these as they come up on another forum for members to report, and these listings are getting taken down fairly quickly, but people still inevitably get caught. Ebay needs bots to detect when duplicate listings come from different sellers.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

crammondmusic — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 00:54:15 GMT

They need to take responsibility for what is posted on their site and how apparently easy it is to take over someone's account. It's the Facebook defence. Not our problem. Just heard back from my email. They are doing refunds this week for all 7 items. But had I not kicked up a stink they would have been happy to let me do it all and spend another 6 weeks out of pocket. It wasn't rocket science to a) remove the seller, b) remove the item c) refund the money and d) fix my cart so it stops asking me o pay for the one unpaid item! Come on. Customer service people.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

lyndal1838 — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 03:47:06 GMT

For future reference, if you do not receive an item within a reasonable time NEVER open an ebay dispute to get a refund. They are too slow and cumbersome.

Go straight to a paypal dispute as they can be opened immediately and you get your refund within days.

An ebay dispute is only good for items not as described as it is easier to get a refund of the return shipping.

Also, once you have your refund the item will go back to Unpaid status in your Purchase History....just ignore it until it disappears into archives....or you can hide it yourself if it annoys you by sitting there.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

letscleanupmycupboards — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 03:59:03 GMT

Lyndal that seems like a generalisation of eBay's MBG as it's totally the opposite to what I experienced when I filed a claim for not arrived. I phoned and started the dispute after the Aussie seller told me the post office couldn't track it (and tried to offer me $50 compensation on a $170 item as that's what the post office offered him since I didn't take out insurance). There was only 2-3 days of facilitated communication between seller and I then escalated to a claim and refund a day later.

SNAD return took 20-25 days for me to see a refund so in comparison it was quick.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

lyndal1838 — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 05:00:13 GMT

It sounds to me like the seller refunded you in the INR case rather than wait for the ebay dispute to run it's course. It is always quicker when a seller issues the refund voluntarily.

SNAD is always slow especially if the seller disputes it. You have to wait for the item to be posted back to the seller before the refund is processed.

Re: Fraudulent sellers

letscleanupmycupboards — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 06:05:10 GMT

No they fought it every step of the way Lyndal. Sent a $170 item without signature or insurance and when I asked them to track it they even complained about doing that then maintained it was my fault it was missing. I saw all the communication during the dispute and he carried on to the end even trying to up the ante to $75 and saying if I didn't take that it was the final offer and he would not give me anything.

I was always under the impression that the order for filing disputes was eBay then PayPal then cc chargeback. In case first and second are unsuccessful