Fake eBay buyer accounts out for revenge?

[sparklyaustralia]

Hi all, I sell fashion jewellery and last night, all of a sudden I noticed that one of my popular items on eBay,  sold nearly 18 separate transactions to 15 different people (its popular but not THAT popular), almost all of the buyers from Mexico, almost all of them bought only this one item, almost all of them had their eBay accounts created yesterday and almost all of them bought within a few minutes from each other.. I'm concerned that these accounts are fake created specifically to give me negative feedback and ask for refunds once the items are sent .. here's the strange part, they all actually paid via PayPal and I received all the funds and when I escalated to eBay and PayPal they agreed it does seem suspicious but if these buyers bought and paid then I'm requested to ship out the items .. the other main issue is that my items are very cheap and I'm unable to offer tracking on them so they can very easily claim they never received ... I think it might be someone out for revenge or a competitor .. thoughts anyone?

[sparklyaustralia]

Good luck Donna! Do share your findings, thoughts etc please

[digital*ghost]

If the eBay rep you spoke to agreed that this is suspicious, and you're really not comfortable sending the items, you could try reporting the buyers for buying with the intent to disrupt the listing, and cite the conversation you had with the eBay rep if need be. Perhaps try pulling all their contact details and see if there's any anomalies, check the name of the buyer against the name and address of the recipient on the PayPal notification etc - if they're fake accounts, you'll probably also be able to report them for false contact information, all of which will help either remove the members, and/or remove the negs if they leave any. 

[2106greencat]

Sorry JHOS - kneejerk reply when I read the OP and did not realise you had already given good advice before I bounced on in 🙂

[donnashuggy]

Will do, only a few of mine have paid.

[digital*ghost]

Well... there was an explosion of replies. Only a couple were there when I started typing - sounds like it's an organised thing, so eBay will hopefully naru the members. 

[sparklyaustralia]

Thanks 2106greencat, I already have reference numbers from both PayPal and eBay, interestingly enough one of them - before I noticed any of this - kept emailing me (outside of the eBay messaging system) asking how will i send the items, which carrier, tracking number if any, I gave them the same information as the one in my listing that all the items can only be offered so cheap only by not offering tracking ... unfortunately Australia Post is so damn expensive, there's no way I can justify sending an item that costs $9.99 via Registered Post International that costs $27!

[donnashuggy]

I will wait  to hear back from eBay before posting, but I have a vague memory that there have been a few of them this week to Mexico. Loads to Russia too.

We could just block Mexico for the time being I suppose.

[sparklyaustralia]

@digital*ghost, I checked their PayPal and eBay details, all seems legit, same name and address on both, they don't even live close to each other, different provinces in Mexico - I even checked a couple of the addresses on Google Earth ... But you mentioned I could report the buyers with the intent of disrupting the listing, how can I do that?

[digital*ghost]

Here's the link to the help page on Unwelcome and Malicious buying: http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/unwelcome-buying.html

There's a link there to report a buyer for bidding with the intention to disrupt, when you click to expand 'Some Examples'.

[2106greencat]

You need to start charging for this stuff digi :-x

That's most likely the hundreth time I have copied and pasted your info