A.) recognizing and acknowledging this is a serious problem on the platform and B.) creating new policies and procedures to combat it falls directly on Trust and Safety
@valueaddedresource
Public facing "recognizing and acknowledging" ongoing fraud, especially, with this issue has not been something eBay seems to want to do.
Instead, it appears that after all these years eBay would still prefer to rely on their old mantra of basically repeating "tracking shows delivered" end of story whether you are a buyer or seller victim. I suppose as far as eBay saving money it works so long as the victim, after repeated appeals/denials, simply gives up and goes away. As far as I can tell, this is still the front line response used by eBay today.
It is still eBay's "go to response" if you are a victim as a buyer or a seller, and in the short term it seems to still be serving them well. I have compared it to 'ignoring the elephant in the room" approach.
In the not so distant past, there was a website that did provide (viewable by anyone) tracking information with regard to origin, size, weight, and THE ACTUAL STREET ADDRESS where the parcel was delivered. The information was available for most every carrier except USPS, and for a while there things were looking up a bit for the victims. They had (if they bothered to come to the boards) access to the information they needed and could not obtain from the carriers in general). Even Ray Charles (who was blind and now dead) could see what was going on, and there appeared to at least assistance available through eBay's social media portals. I thought FINALLY A BREAKTHOUGH for victims.....but noooo, the information was removed from that website.
Buyers that are victims still have redress for their problem once they are informed and convinced to give up the insistence that their problem is NOT merely 'item not received', but rather a fake tracking scam issue. They can DO a credit card chargeback and get their money back so long as they do not insist and stick with INR. Sellers still have to rely on convincing eBay whose program of "denial" works more efficiently due to controlling the money.
Putting up a "policy page" on what to do if you are a victim of a fake tracking issue would require an admission that it is a problem here, and providing help procedures may decrease somewhat the effectiveness (for eBay) of the old sorry you lose "because tracking shows you received this item" since victims had a real plan to follow and would expect redress.
Though it is not quite as bad as it used to be for victims, it was disheartening to see a published response from a social media rep that told the victim that a hand written note from their Post Master stating the parcel was not addressed to or delivered to the victim was not acceptable. It needed to be type written, so the decision stands. I hope that was a "one off" from a newbie CS, but still concerned with "you have exhausted the number of allowed appeals so the decision stands" which has appeared more than once.
The fake return scam where the actual ebay generated return label is altered seems to be a scheme more prevalent with "international" buyers, and by default those that use Freight Forwarders. It is not likely that a buyer who is actually in "somewhereistan" would fear the wrath of the US Postal Inspectors for the altered label component in the scam when they send that 'cheap trinket' or empty envelope to the local CVS or gas station in the sellers zipcode to falsify the return.
"Tracking shows you received this item" (even if you didn't) so the decision stands."
