@digital*ghost wrote:I had the same reaction to "stealing report" as soon as I read it. I mean, maybe it's not his area but these things have official names and a police officer is much more likely to use "industry jargon" than something your average citizen might come up with (which is more likely to be "theft report" IMO, but cops usually use a generic phrase like "incident report").
If an official report has been made, there will be a case number - I'd ask for that.
Secondly, what kind of weight would the box have with the contents removed? Australia Post aren't always as on the ball as you'd hope, but if a package has been tampered with in tranist and it's obvious in one way or another (damage to the outer packaging, unusually light or obviously empty parcel etc), they will usually reseal the package and include a letter about the incident, with advice on who to contact etc.
You would be surprised the lengths people will go to for perceived believability and empathy. I had someone contact me claiming they never got the item. Before I could respond, they sent another message claiming they had received the package, but the contents had been stolen in transit, so I started asking some questions...
After my little round of questions, their story was that the package had been retreived by police (apparently the theif had a lot of stolen packages in their possession), but was empty, so it was handed off to Australia Post as it was no longer evidence in their investigation, and was then subsequently delivered by Australia Post, but included a letter from the police explaining the situation. I kept asking for the case number, in the end after repeated requests, they sent through a photo of a typed letter that (allegedly) corroborated their story.
I wasn't done yet, though - I contacted the police and asked if it was a genuine letter; disappointingly they refused to confirm or deny "no comment, for privacy reasons" was basically their reply. However, i also contacted Australia Post, gave them the full details of what the buyer was claiming, and they were just immediately "yeah....absolutely nothing like that has happened".
The kicker? The item value (including postage) was under $10 and it was sent untracked.
Also had a few scammers tell me they were lawyers, or a justice of the peace, it's meant to be shorthand for "I'm a fine, upstanding pillar of the community, and / or law-abiding citizen, I wouldn't even dream of jaywalking", lol.
By all means work with them and I hope all of the suspicions here turn out to be off the mark, but just be wary of this one, and take as many measures as you can to dispute their claim if / when they try to make one.
Thanks Digi, I love your work! I will need to step up the pressure I feel on this a little. I have been awaiting the outcome of the AP query but I think I need to take a more proactive approach here. Thanks for the great input as always.
The weight of this parcel was 1.6kg and certainly a buyer would probably notice as soon as it was handed over and they realised what the item should be. On the disclosing they were a Police officer this came after I politely requested they report to the Police as it may identofy a pattern in the area. I will see what unfolds over the next few days but yes it is quite suspicious this one.
It is strange that the delivery driver (huge assumption here but not sure how well CCTV'D AP sorting centres are) would steal the contents but then delivery the parcel knowing it was SOD.
@curraone wrote:I'm sorry but this advice sounds all wrong.
First, the OP can see an investigation has been opened
Second, it is my understanding that if the item shows delivered, it is up to the buyer to query Aust Post, which they have done.
From the OP's original post, it looks like a dispute has not been opened yet, in any case.
My advice? Wait and see.
Indeed I can certainly see that 'Customer enquiry lodged' as shown in the tracking image below. It is does seem a very strange way of going about getting an INR 'freebie' if it is a scam because essentially they are blaming AP staff and it would be easier you would think to blame me the seller. So who knows what the 'truth' is, all I can say for sure is that the item was in the box as I have to weigh every item as very few are the same and I often have different packing materials inside as well as different box sizes and weights.
