Hi, I got stung by one of these fake sellers. Thought it was too good to be true & it was.
I bought a 6 kw generator for $750 with free postage & paid with PayPal, 2 days later an email from EBay to say that the listing had been withdrawn because it was fraudulent & that I should contact the seller, Well that is just great, EBay does not seem to have any option to claim for fraudulent listings & I was not able to contact the sellor as there was no longer any reference to the sale as the listing had dissapeared from my purchase list too.
Thankfully I was able to contact PayPal & lodge a claim with them but once again PayPal said that I would have to contact the seller & would have to wait 10 days for a response!
In the end I got my money back so apart from the innconvenience of being out of pocket for 10 days no harm done.
THANK YOU PAYPAL.
I went back to the EBay listings to buy another as I really nead a generator. I noticed at least 10 listings that were too good to be true.
1. The generator was at least $1000 cheaper than other reputable sellers.
2. The seller was plagerizing reputable sellers advertising.
3.The sellers history showed that they had never sold anything before & only purchased a few minor items.
The generator is the only item they have for sale.
I saved them all to my watch list & clicked on "report item" for each one, which appears just above the sellers description to the right.
You get a box with 3 options. you have to choose Report catagory before the next option is selectable.
1. Report catagory, Listing practises is the correct choice.
2. Reason for report, choose "fraudulent listing activities"
3. Detailed reason, choose " you suspect listing is fraudulent"
4. click submit
EBay will not contact you to verify your report but the listings do dissapear.
whithin 12 hrs (often sooner) the listings dissapeared, confirming that they were indeed fraudulent.
I corresponded with a few of the reputable sellers to point ou that their listings were being plagerized.
One replied that this has been going on for several years & that EBay doesn't have a clue & sent me a link to a site that describes this scam as a credit card laundering.
It goes like this :- A seller sets up a legitimate EBay a/c buys a couple of items to make it look more legitimate.
They then create a listing of an item like a "generator" which is very cheap with free postage or very cheap postage but still a substantial price.
If you buy it then they (may or may not) buy the same item from a reputable seller using either a fake or stolen credit card & if you are lucky you'll still get the item but the reputable seller will be the loser.
My advise...on EBay if it appears too good to be true it most likely is, I have checked a few other catagories such as white goods, fridges, washing machines etc & the same practises are going on there too
Only ever pay with PayPal or you will do your dough!
Currently I go through generator listings daily & report all the obvious frauds, don't have time to go through all the other catagories but you can rest assured that this practise is rife throughout.
I am appauled that EBay (my favourite shop) does not have a clue as I find at least 6 fraudulent listings daily.
BUYER BEWARE.
