Does reporting a buyer do anything?

[jmhazlett]

I sold an Item on Sept. 2nd.   Due to Hurricane Harvey we were having some mail delays so on Sept 7th I message the buyer that the item was shipped and they should recieve it soon.   No reply.  On Sept 11th the item is delivered. I go ahead and leave positive feedback.  On Sept 12th the buyer open a Paypal dispute claiming an unauthorized purchase.   After checking his feedback I see he buys a lot of the same items I sell so I find it hard to believe he did not make this purchase.   After doing a little detective work and contacting some of his former sellers I find he has pulled this trick before.  I know this is a common scam and  I hope I have seller protection from Paypal.   Does reporting this buyer do any good at all or is Ebay going to allow this individual to keep scamming people.

[luckythewinner]

As with most things on eBay, I doubt any one report would do anything. But if there were enough reports it's possible that eBay would shut his account down.

Whether that would stop him from using a different email address to create a new account is not clear. 

[honestabe411]

Yes. Report asap on eBay and PayPal. 

[retrose1]

I believe that ebay puts them into a file and doesn't look at them until a seller calls their attention to the buyers actions OR what I think is even more important to ebay - the buyer costs ebay money.

The more the buyer has, the more ebay might be apt to find for a smart persistant seller.  Scammers buy a lot more than an honest buyer, so it appears that ebay will let them get away with a lot more because it;s good for ebay's bottom line.

BUT if you really want to do something about the buyer, file reports wit the Post Office against the buyer for using the mail to fraud AND the buyers local police dept for internet fraud.  And since you are in contact with the buyers other victimsm urge them to do it too.  A flurry of reported scammy activity against a scammer might get one or both of the authortities n the move against the scammer. 

[jmhazlett]

Thanks for all the feedback.  Apparently this guy went on a shopping spree labor day week and made over 20 purchases from what I can see.  All the same kind of item.  He might be able to claim his account was hacked except for the fact he left positive feedback for about half of these purchases. Maybe he maxed out his card and decided he didn't want to pay for the rest - Who knows!  I guess I have been fortunate in that this is the first time I have run into this.

[dhbookds]

Not sure what the scam to you is........  If paypal authorized shipping and you shipped to the address they approved, they will take the hit on an unauthorized claim.  All you have to do is fill in the tracking number...which I presume you have.  When a card is hacked, cc companies will question all recent purchases.   If the holder doesn't recognize one, they will put a stop on the payment until everything is straightened out.  I've never heard of one that hit the seller under the above circumstances.  As one who has been thru unauthorized use as a buyer several times, it's very possible to make a mistake identifying the purchases on a cold call telling you your card has been hacked. 

That said, buyer could be trying to scam the cc company....with paypal in the middle, but no real way to tell from our end.

But to your question....... reporting a buyer needs to be done.  We may never know the results, but it certainly can't hurt to get problems with a buyer "on file"......

[tunicaslot]

Sorry for what happened to you. I can only say from personal experience that in instances where there may be the probability of a scam - Ebay CS has definitely looked at the reports sent in by sellers - I've had 2 closed in my favor because of that.

The scammers may buy more - but ignoring too many shenanigans from these people is not in Ebay's best interest - word spreads, it takes up CS reps time dealing with the calls from sellers and alienates both buyers and sellers.

[starroute-us]

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@jmhazlett wrote:

I sold an Item on Sept. 2nd.   Due to Hurricane Harvey we were having some mail delays so on Sept 7th I message the buyer that the item was shipped and they should recieve it soon.   No reply.  On Sept 11th the item is delivered. I go ahead and leave positive feedback.  On Sept 12th the buyer open a Paypal dispute claiming an unauthorized purchase.   After checking his feedback I see he buys a lot of the same items I sell so I find it hard to believe he did not make this purchase.   After doing a little detective work and contacting some of his former sellers I find he has pulled this trick before.  I know this is a common scam and  I hope I have seller protection from Paypal.   Does reporting this buyer do any good at all or is Ebay going to allow this individual to keep scamming people.

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Make sure to respond to and win the case for unauthorized use first.

You only need proof of shipping to the address shown in the PP transaction details page.

Upload the tracking and call PP, ask to have your funds released and case closed in your favor. You are covered under PP seller protection.

PP can see if the person has been making several separate claims of unauthorized use and can pass that along to the CC companies involved.

Ebay reporting maybe does something, although if the buyers CC company receives too many claims of unauthorized use that the buyer loses, they will take care of the problem.

[jmhazlett]

I have uploaded the tracking information to Paypal so I guess I will have to wait and see what happens.  According to Paypal policy I should be covered but in the meantime my funds are tied up.

[luckythewinner]

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@jmhazlett wrote:

He might be able to claim his account was hacked except for the fact he left positive feedback for about half of these purchases.

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Are you saying the person who hacked the eBay account is incapable of using the hacked account to leave feedback?

[missjen831]

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@jmhazlett wrote:

I have uploaded the tracking information to Paypal so I guess I will have to wait and see what happens.  According to Paypal policy I should be covered but in the meantime my funds are tied up.

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Call paypal now and tell them to release the funds....remind them of the seller protection policy and insist they follow it.