I purchased an item but was informed later that package was returned by request of sender

[ghost_au]

Bid for and paid for an item including freight but Tracking information later showed that "package returned by request"  What the heck !

[papermoon.lady]

I think we need more information in order to help.

Where is the seller located?

When did you buy the item?

Which postal service did the seller use? To my knowledge, Australia Post does not return parcels to the sender at their request.

Does the tracking look legit or is it possibly fake?

Have you contacted the seller?

How is their feedback?

[countessalmirena]

This may be an example of fraudulent card use by someone in the buying process. It’s been posted about on these boards; this is how I think it goes.

1. The buyer buys the item from the “seller” on eBay or Amazon or similar. This seller is fraudulent, but the buyer doesn’t know that;

2. The fraudulent seller doesn’t actually own the item. Instead, although he receives the buyer’s payment, he places an order for the item from a genuine seller using someone else’s stolen credit card details but the actual buyer’s name and address;

2. The genuine seller will post off the purchased item, but if they discover - before the item’s delivered - that the payment was not authorised, they may be able to call AP or the courier and have the parcel intercepted/returned;

3. The buyer in that case is left out of pocket unless they realise what’s happened and make a claim;

4. The fraudulent seller usually reaps the payments from the buyer, as long as they can get the payments transferred to them. If the parcel is not intercepted and is marked as “delivered”, no problem. It’s a highly lucrative scam known as triangulation fraud.

The buyer will probably never know that they were part of this fraud, if the genuine merchant makes no attempt to have the item returned while in transit. However, their name and address will no doubt be flagged by the genuine seller and by the issuing bank of the fraudulently used card.