Multiple hacked accounst selling ADATA SU800 512GB SSDs

[ronbaby]

Less than a week ago, I went looking for a good deal on some ADATA SU800 SSDs.  Well, long story short, someone was selling a bunch of the 512GB version of this SSD for a price that was about 1/4 of the current retail.  I tried to buy two of them.  A day or so later I get a message from eBay that tells me that the sale was fradulent, that I sould open a case, and I'll get a refund, which I did.

Now, today, I go looking for the same thing again, a good deal on an ADATA SU800, and sure enough, now there is some new goofball who is again selling a whole bunch of these things for less than 1/4 of current retail.  It seems pretty obvious that this is just some jerk who has hacked multiple eBay accounts and is hoping to cash out somehow.

I dutifully reported the issue to eBay.  (I'm not dumb enough to try again to purchase from what looks like the same fraud artist.)  But this all really does make me wonder... How in the heck is this **bleep** hoping to cash out?  Unlike last time, this time hit looks like he is using a hacked account that actually has already sold three things (and gotten positive feedback) about a year ago.  In this case, will Paypal send him the money without placing a hold on it, like the would for a brand new account?  If so, who ends up holding the bag?  eBay?  Paypal? The buyers?  Just curious.

Anyway, I hope someone catches this S.O.B.

[mudshark61369 · Accepted solution]

@ronbaby,

  "...Unlike last time, this time hit looks like he is using a hacked account that actually has already sold three things (and gotten positive feedback) about a year ago".

You have to check everything on a profile page to spot a possibly hi-jacked account.  In most cases you will find any Selling feedback is over a year old, and not for the type of item that is currently listed.  There could be a couple of feedback received in the last year, but they were for purchases, not sales.  The ebay account information is usually retrieved from lost, stolen, sold or discarded devices that had stored info on them. The info might possibly purchased on the dark web, with info on how to reinstate the account with a new password if the info was not saved on a device, along with stolen personal info used to create a bank account.

"In this case, will Paypal send him the money without placing a hold on it, like the would for a brand new account?".

PayPal's hold is placed on all new or returning (after 1 year of no sales) sellers accounts.  The only reason they would not put the hold in place is if a new account was seeded with enough money for a long enough period of time, so that the hold would not be enforced.

The reason for the purchases or possible fake sales, is to reinstate the ebay account's feedback number (which go to (0) after a year of no activity) and to verify the PayPal account, which was created using stolen Identification to create a bank account then a Paypal account.   Once the scammer sells enough of the scam item they almost empty out the Paypal balance, just as the first item not received cases, or negative feedback start coming in.  Unfortunately, because of the shipping delays most shipping services are experiencing, they have longer to sell the items, before ebay starts to step in when INR disputes are opened.

"If so, who ends up holding the bag? eBay? Paypal? The buyers? Just curious"

It is eBay who has to eat the loss when this type of scam is perpetrated. Sometimes the buyer if they do not know how the money back guarantee works.  They and PayPal can try to go after the "seller" but because they likely emptied the bank account used to fund the PayPal account after transferring the money from PayPal to it, the trail goes cold.  

The scams are successful because almost everyone has a little larceny in them.  Some hope to cash in on a seller's pricing mistake. Others see a possible steal and all common sense flies right out the window. 

[ronbaby]

Update:

Either my report or else some other hopeful buyers who didn't get their stuff, or some eBay AI algorithm kicekd in after more than a day (but less than 2, I think) and the auction is gone now. Hopefully all the victims got their money back, like I did on my purchase from the earlier auction.

If I remember, I'll have to try looking again for ultra cheap ADATA SU800 SSDs in another day or two, to see if the scam artist makes yet another appearance.

[91928gt]

There are hundreds - maybe thousands of these "SOB's" scamming on eBay at the moment (see the screen shot below). They look legit, even to the seasoned eBay user. And SSD's aren't the only thing. It's pretty much everything that's new and in demand.
I think that like most scammers, you do it in volume, hoping that if you throw enough excrement at the wall, some will stick. And for all of those buyers who don't go through the process of requesting a refund from a suspended account, eBay keeps the money. Not intentionally, but by default. So by not having adequate screening for new accounts, or by not addressing security holes, and by not providing an immediate refund to victims of known scams, I can only imagine there's considerable profit on the part of eBay when a victim doesn't take action to get their refund.
So who's the real scammer here?

[angwjea]

 be thankful if your scammer is shipping in  the usa  . i got scammed by one in china  for 90 bucks and the scam hes running is    on the fake bogus package which has tracking so he will get paid    . try to send it back to china 50 bucks maybe ?  he just today deleted all his listings  after the negative feedback starts to roll in. it will take over a month to be refunded and thats if i even get refunded . ebay is not a safe place anymore to buy from . the scammers are getting more better all the time and ebay is not keeping up .  theres no way to even report them besides calling them  and i heard there call centers are closed