topic Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated. in Selling

Vent I Scammed and feeling deflated.

pictishwitch — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 05:03:44 GMT

About 2 weeks ago I had a buyer contact me saying he recently moved and supplied the new address, he mentioned he was having trouble changing his address within ebay ( who doesn't have trouble with ebay) anyway He had paid for the item instantly and messaged straight away he was very nice and quite excited by the item I had no reason not to believe him or suspect anything and when he had received his item left glowing feedback.

Fast forward 2 weeks I get an email from paypal that he had opened a case using unauthorised payment. I contact him via ebay suggesting it may have been a mistake and could he amend it asap he replied Of course it must be because of the address mix up

I waited a few days with nothing happening I contact him again this time no response from him, so I answer the paypal case with the information above including tracking etc and within seconds no real time to review really paypal closes the case in his favour and refunds him the money.

I contacted paypal and their response is I didn't send it to the paypal address for him and to be more careful in future.

Thanks for listening to my vent

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

pictishwitch — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 05:11:47 GMT

My WAS fell out lol

Subject title is meant to say I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.Soz but it did make you look 😉

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

*sparklz* — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 05:17:14 GMT

Sadly you have been taken for a ride.

Never post to any other address other than the one on the paypal payment notice

You should refund them and tell them to change the details before they make the final click to pay.

Call ebay and ask them to read the messages where he has asked to send the item to another address and see if they can take action on his account as this might bring them to the attention of ebay to see if they are doing this to other sellers.

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

pictishwitch — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 05:32:33 GMT

Yes lesson learnt Thank you I will contact ebay

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

clarry100 — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 06:18:30 GMT

I would also add a follow-up comment to feedback you left for the buyer which can warn other sellers he has done this.

Don't mention anything about cases being raised as this is a policy breach and he could have the FB comment removed.

Just stick to plain facts. I think if another seller saw this they would know what it meant.

Maybe someone else might suggest better wording.

Something like:

<UID> provided an alternate mailing address via messaging (date).

Where <UID> = the user's ID so that its not hidden by ebay. Means all others can see his user name too.

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

crazyplacecostumes — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 06:43:20 GMT

I used to change it willy nilly but haven't since we got our first chargeback via Paypal. I don't care if it's a $10 item or a $2000 item. No deal.

Now I send them a lovely message saying that due to Paypal rules, I can only send to the address on the payment. I give them the option of sending it to that address, or refund / cancelling and they can redo.

8/10 come back and tell me just to ship it to the same address

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

clarry100 — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 06:45:37 GMT

Yes *sparklz* if PayPal can see a history of the buyer doing things to other sellers this can turn the case more into the seller's favour.

Several months ago now (before this MBG thing) we had a buyer raise a PayPal case against us saying that the 8x 2-metre lengths of material they bought were all half a metre short. We knew that was incorrect as we use a template to do the measutrements. We could understand if we made an error on one of them but not all eight.

Anyway we asked them to look at messages between this buyer and other sellers for any similar pattern.

All they would say was that the buyer has some history and that there would be some action taken against their account.

We had sent with regular mail so no tracking. Normally we would have lost simply on that basis alone but they closed the case NO FAULT.

That meant the the buyer still got their refund (which just encourages them to scam) but we did not lose our money either.

Even PayPal said that this refund would encourage the scammer but this was the only way they could close the case without us losing our money. Just because we used regular mail.

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

digital*ghost — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 07:26:44 GMT

@clarry100 wrote:

Several months ago now (before this MBG thing) we had a buyer raise a PayPal case against us saying that the 8x 2-metre lengths of material they bought were all half a metre short.

We had sent with regular mail so no tracking. Normally we would have lost simply on that basis alone but they closed the case NO FAULT.

That meant the the buyer still got their refund (which just encourages them to scam) but we did not lose our money either.

Even PayPal said that this refund would encourage the scammer but this was the only way they could close the case without us losing our money. Just because we used regular mail.

I'm not sure I understand why the postage method was an issue - if the buyer claimed INAD, then they acknowledge they have received a package, so postage method / proof of post shouldn't have even entered the equation, it should have been just a matter of defending the INAD claim. o_O (Just thought it strange if the PayPal CS reps had mentioned it as having a bearing on the case).

@mamannola - if your tracking info shows the package was delivered to the address the buyer requested, I would be A) sending them an official letter of demand for repayment, and B) reporting them for online fraud (action should be taken against them if they do not resend payment within a certain timeframe).

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

pictishwitch — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 08:16:24 GMT

Thank you all very good advice

it may have been only $38 but Im keen to chase it , its become the principal of the whole thing ... a scam is a scam is a scam!

digital*ghost -who would I report him too for online fraud? I do have tracking confirmation and all correspondences with him

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

thecatspjs — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 08:19:34 GMT

You can report them through the ACORN (Australia Cybercrime Online Reporting Network) government website http://www.acorn.gov.au/

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

thecatspjs — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 08:29:56 GMT

I would also report them to eBay for having false or missing contact information

"Falsifying or omitting contact information such as a member’s name, address, and/or telephone number when registering on eBay is not permitted. It is also not permitted to use fax or disconnected numbers as a telephone number.

If you believe an eBay member is using false contact information, please report it using the Customer Support link at the bottom of this page."

The report link is below:

http://contact.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactUs&wftype=2005&rcode=IV%25P10054&subject=False or Missing Contact Informatio

At a minimum it may serve to put a flag on their account (though one can only live in hope)

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

thecatspjs — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 08:36:42 GMT

I will add to that the eBay policy also notes that Paypal have a similar policy.

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/identity-false.html

"PayPal users - you should also be aware that PayPal may apply similar sanctions for false or missing contact information".

I would make a phone call to Paypal to report the member for misrepresenting their address in this transanction on Paypal. . May make no difference, but also may place a flag on the users account. who knows.....

Re: Vent I WAS Scammed and feeling deflated.

clarry100 — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 08:46:28 GMT

I tried to argue exactly that point at the time with the paypal CSR too DG. Who, incidentally, was in USA.

But according to him, because we had used regular mail without tracking that precluded him from finding 100% in our favour. He wanted to based on the evidence in front of him but said due to paypal process he could not.

So the next best thing he could offer was NO FAULT, which still left a bad taste in my mouth as the scamming buyer got their item and a refund as well.

But it seems they had some kind of history on their account I was not privvy to (all he would say was he could see some history) so this one would have been recorded on their account too.

I have since checked their ebay account and it is still active, so nothing has happened there. But of course they are on all our special lists.

The buyer also left us a bunch of NEGs at the time that ebay would not remove because the case was not found 100% in our favour. NO FAULT was not good enough for them to remove the NEGs despite speaking with a supervisor (twice).

Even tho once again the paypal CSR said that in his opinion the NEGs should be removed by ebay as he thought that we had done nothing wrong (apart from mailing without tracking).

This was the very same CSR, by the way, who explained to me that taking a photograph of the cancelled stamps/address over the counter at the PO would have sufficed in this case. With such a photo he would have awarded to us 100%.

Anyway this one is off the rearward radar now for us as we are on a 3-month evaluation period.

Re: Vent I Scammed and feeling deflated.

phorum_junkie* — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 23:04:15 GMT

As experienced a seller as you are how could you possibly not know that you only have seller protection if you send to the address on the Paypal transaction page? The buyer would not have to change any of their ebay info other than clicking on the link in checkout and entering the address they wanted the item posted to, that would then be the only address which Paypal would have. If they had asked me to send to a different address I would have informed them that I would have to refund them and they would have to go through checkout again.