on 27-07-202011:38 AM - last edited on 27-07-202012:18 PM by gewens
I expect that this post will be removed by Ebay.....I would appreciate your feed back as victims of these scams. I am $92.50 out of pocket and Ebay refuse to give me a refund. I purchased dog foodworthAU $92.50 from Ebay vendor. The goods were delivered to my local post office via a third party, who I had no knowledge of, and did not order from. This third party rang my post office and told them to NOT TO RELEASE THE GOODS, AND RETURN THEM. In the main, because they were told that the payment was unauthorised. Ebay vendor appears to be triangulation scammer . I paid funds to Ebay vendor and in turn the dog food was ordered YOUR vendor to the third-party vendor located in SHAILER PARK, QLDwith a stolen credit card, (triangulation scam) but nonetheless they were not the goods I ordered.
The fact that the third party vendor requested my post office to return the goods before I got them is not my fault, and has nothing to do with me. It is a direct result of your vendor generating justifiable suspicion in the mind of the third party vendor.
To summarise, the third party vendor located in SHAILER PARK, QLDinstructed the post office to return the goods to them because the cardEbay vendor used was not an authorised transaction. Presumably because they believed that ultimately their bank would reverse the payment to them. The post office made this clear to me, which also made me suspicious. In any event, the third party vendor did not want the goods released, and I did not did not receive them. In the tracking you can clearly see the package was sent to my local Post office and then sent back to REMOVED located in SHAILER PARK, QLD.
Under Ebays trading terms they guarantee to refund...fast. So far, all Ebay have done is stall, and hope I will give up and go-away. I wont be doing that.
Please note I have been able to identify another new company operating on triangulation scam which I have repeatedly reported to Ebay to ensure other customers do not become victims, and they are still operating.
My message to you all BEWARE of triangulation scammers.
I don't want you to be $92.50 out of pocket. I consider that unacceptable.
That's where I (or other responders on these boards) can help, by suggesting the responses needed or the steps to take. If necessary, there might be evidence you could bring forward for eBay or PayPal (depending upon through whom you've gone with a dispute) to examine in this context.
But unless we know the answers to most of the questions that I posed, I am concerned that we just can't help you resolve this so that you are made whole (i.e., that you get back your money).
GETTING BACK YOUR MONEY
We can help in giving suggestions to go through the eBay or PayPal (as appropriate) process. That's where the community expertise comes in handy.
We can only do this if we know a little more, as I mentioned.
STOPPING OTHERS FROM FALLING VICTIM TO DROPSHIPPERS WITH SIMILAR M.O.
We can't help with that. For that matter, eBay can't either. eBay can hit sellers abusing the Third party fulfilment policy, but as davewil has said, eBay cannot possibly know preemptively which sellers might be using stolen credit card details, or for that matter which sellers might abuse that Third party fulfilment policy before they are reported for doing so. I won't go into whether or not eBay should be doing more to prevent fraud, because it is what it is. The reporting of bad behaviour is a major element in eBay's "fraud detection". Wishing it weren't so is an exercise in futility.
Hence, you've done what's necessary of you. You reported this seller. Fin. Fini. Fertig.
GOING AFTER SELLERS WHO ARE USING STOLEN CREDIT CARD DATA
The whole "triangulation scheme" is not a battle for you to fight, or for me to fight, or even for eBay to fight. We can't; we're not credit card fraud investigators. You can (and I think should) report this to what used to be called Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN), but is now ReportCyber (under ACSC, Australian Cyber Security Centre). It's part of the Australian Signals Directorate, which is led by the Director-General who is responsible to the Minister of Defence. All cybercrime, whether it's small or large, personal or corporate, should be reported to ACSC.
ACSC is the correct body to deal with the triangulation fraud aspect of this.
❝The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) leads the Australian Government’s efforts to improve cyber security. Our role is to help make Australia the safest place to connect online.
We monitor cyber threats across the globe 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so we can alert Australians early on what to do.
We provide advice and information about how to protect yourself and your business online. When there is a cyber security incident, we provide clear and timely advice to individuals, small to medium business, big business and critical infrastructure operators.
We work with our business, government and academic partners and experts in Australia and overseas to investigate and develop solutions to cyber security threats.
We have a national footprint of Joint Cyber Security Centres where we collaborate with nearly 200 industry, government and academic partners on current cyber security issues. We also work with law enforcement authorities to fight cybercrime.
We are part of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), which has a long history of cyber security excellence.❞
⦿ A personal cyber issue that has happened to you or someone you know
and then you'd select:
⦿ Someone has requested money or deceived you into buying products or services online or to donate to a charity
then, under ❝Was the victim a resident of Australia or visiting Australia at the time the issue occurred?❞
⦿ Yes
and then ...
... continue as relevant by following the prompts.
OR - to shortcut all of this and go straight to the page where you report that you were the victim of an online shopping fraud, this is the direct link.
We have been using this method with a resonable responsive rate of speed for action to occur. You should also use the "Report Listing" feature on the actual listing. ebay now includes "possible fraudulent action" as a cause.
As a footnote: This fraud conduct has been going on for over 5 years that we are aware of on eBay. They, PayPal, C/C gateways all know about and profit from it. That's why you won't see them participate in closing it down.
If spending patterns are out of the ordinary, they contact the credit card owner.
Visa also covers you for unauthorized transactions if $100 or less.
Problem with Falcon is that many credit card owners are bugged out every time Falcon determines some irregular spending pattern.
Falcon puts a stop on the card, and you need to re-activate the card by contacting Visa.
It used to happen to me a lot, and I complained.
Visa then turned off the Falcon notifications for my card so it would not bug me anymore.
I think that by default, all Visa card owners have that Falcon notification thing turned off now.
And you need to contact Visa to turn it on.
Although, I am still covered for unauthorized transactions of $100 or less, if I report them, and that such transactions are verified as unauthorised by Visa.
Originally, Visa card owners also had the facility to stop a payment to a seller, if the owner of the card did not get what they purchased.
I am not sure if that Visa service is still valid, since I have only ever used it once, 4 years ago.
Most people do not even read their terms and conditions for a service they have, so many do not even know what is going on.
It may be wise to review your Visa card terms and conditions, although I have only received 1 terms and conditions updates on my Visa card agreement in the past 5 years.
If you have been "scammed", you should still file a complaint of fraud with the Police.
Also, contact the ACCC and report the seller(s) for unethical business practices.
If you perceive that eBay has not complied by their legal agreement with you regarding refunds, you may also take that up with the ACCC.
If you have performed all the actions you possibly can through ebay, Paypal and your Credit Card service provider in order to resolve the "scam", then;
Seriously, you are better off seeking professional Legal Counsel regarding these issues rather than filtering through endless comments.
Most of the people here in this forum cannot act on your behalf and can only try to help from what they know from experience.
Sometimes we need more than experience, we need brute legal action, and at the very least not become complacent that you were taken.
What was the status message on the tracking information?
If it read something like "returned to sender/not picked up" or something to that effect, then eBay will not refund you.
eBay terms and Conditions firmly express that if the buyer does not pick up the goods from the Post Office, no refund is applicable.
Unfortunately unethical sellers take advantage of that eBay Policy.
If you are certain that the delivery was stopped at the Post Office, and that the sender requested the item returned, then you must obtain evidence directly from the Post Office, preferably by email.
Do not rely on phone communications, you must acquire verifiable evidence that you can present.
Then what you must do is contact eBay, and request that the case be reopened, or reviewed using the new evidence to explain what happened.
The evidence must clearly show that the tracking information is incorrect/flawed, and that a resolution center decision was based on a flawed representation of the matter on behalf of the seller.
If the seller retracted the delivery, it is the sellers responsibility.
The buyer does not have any liability for the carriage of the goods in question.
And as such, in your case, the buyer is only liable (under eBay policy) if the goods in question are not picked up from the Post Office.
However, the buyer is not responsible for misrepresentation of tracking information by the carrier, or the sender of the goods.
The delivery contract is between the sender and the Carriage of goods service provider(s).
We have been using this method with a resonable responsive rate of speed for action to occur. You should also use the "Report Listing" feature on the actual listing. ebay now includes "possible fraudulent action" as a cause.
As a footnote: This fraud conduct has been going on for over 5 years that we are aware of on eBay. They, PayPal, C/C gateways all know about and profit from it. That's why you won't see them participate in closing it down.
