What can you do to protect yourself from fraudulent buyers?

[caj1704]

A buyer purchased something from me and left me great feedback after she received the item. Over 2 months later she reported the transaction as a fraudulent one on her credit card. Paypal say they are disputing on my behalf but they have removed the payment plus the bank fee of $15 from my account.

[clarry100]

Chargeback...

We lost one of these fraudulent usage cases a few months back and so also did another seller in our same category to the same buyer at about the same time.

It seems there is very little you can do to protect yourself from this kinda thing. The seller always loses.

You can't refuse to accept credit cards as by default when you accept PayPal you also accept any credit card a buyer may wish to attach to their account.

It also happens of course with B&M stores.

The whole system is flawed in favour of the buyer and if you sell then you really have to self protect against this kind of thing it seems. Embedd the protection into each and every price and put that bit aside each week/month to draw on if/when required.

It looks like the financial instutions (card providers) never hold the card holders (buyers) accountable for this.

[dylan11235813]

I had a couple of these recently, for the first one the order had not even been sent so I refunded. I was also unable to open an unpaid item dispute against the buyer for some reason. The second was about 2 months since the sale with no tracking or anything (large letter)

The reason for the chargeback is unauthorised use.  Should I be reporting the ebay members to the police or ebay as they are still registered users? Do the banks actually do anything? What information would be required  for the bank to find in favour of  a seller? Isn't it the banks fault for not having enough safety checks in place for there service? I had nothing to do with the payment process, the bank allowed it and paypal facilitated it.

[robinsonmarineparts]

Yes, report it to ebay, and if need be report it to the Police, if the Police get enough of these cases they may just do something about it.

After all it is computer fraud and paypal are protecting these criminals.

Paypal need to be held accountable, not us the sellers.

[designerarticles]

you could tell the buyer that you've informed the online fraud squad as it's come up as a chargeback due to unauthorised transaction and they might reconsider if they are just trying to scam you.

[jensmanchester-australia]

To protect yourself you need to ensure you are covered under the Paypal Seller Protection policy particularly for more expensive items or for items which are more at risk.

If you are not covered under the Paypal Seller protection policy the best thing to do is to admit liability (even though that is not accurate) as by doing this it usually avoids the $15.00 extra fee being charged.

[clarry100]

Well since we always use large letter to mail out items this would put us 100% in the wrong at all times I guess, since these have no proof of anything mail-wise.

Even tho going by feedback given by the buyer at the time it was clear that they had actually received the item.

So you think if we just said "yes its all our fault" and dont ask them to fight it they may not charge the $15 fee? That would be like admitting we did the fraudulent usage.

Anyway in our particular case we contacted the buyer and asked what was going on and requested that they re-imburse our losses incl the fee.

To our surprise they actually responded apologetically and asked for our bank account details. We provided that and they deposited the money. So we ended not out of pocket at all. But the case was still found against us tho.

We asked for an explanation of what happened but the buyer declined to explain.

The other seller who was stung by the same buyer at the time then tried this too. But the buyer never responded to them. Mind you their amout was over $300. Our was only $23.

[thecatspjs]

Might sound harsh, but If the other seller did not get or retain proof of post to be covered by seller protection for goods worth $300 more fool them.

Unless of course it was a pick up item paid for via paypal then they'd be best to head straight to see their local Mr Plod (or Ms Plod) for the matter to be investigated further as possible fraud.

[davewil1964]

---

@thecatspjs wrote:

Might sound harsh, but If the other seller did not get or retain proof of post to be covered by seller protection for goods worth $300 more fool them.

Unless of course it was a pick up item paid for via paypal then they'd be best to head straight to see their local Mr Plod (or Ms Plod) for the matter to be investigated further as possible fraud.

---

Highly unlikely. I seem to remember you strongly advocating Paypal payment for pickup items, so how COULD it be fraudulent?

[thecatspjs]

I have never posted that pick up with paypal payment is not without risk.   Please stop inferring I have posted otherwise on such matters that are very inaccurate and do not reflect actual advice or opinion that I have posted.

Offering safe payment is eBay policy, and a preference of some buyers including myself for a range of reasons.

No transaction on eBay is not without risk. Its business.