Watch Out for the Buy Get One Free Drop Ship Scam

[blue_bath]

This scam takes advantage of ebay's fraud friendly return policy.

Here is how it works.

Scammer is selling on website or marketplace.

They get an order for ONE product cost $150.

They order TWO from from you as a lower priced seller (say $120 - total 240) and have you ship it to their customer.

They open a return on Ebay for 2 products

They tell customer they accidentally shipped TWO, and ask them to return one and give them the ebay label. They hope you will give a full refund - and not notice the short ship, but even if you do....

You get back ONE product, and it is prob in terrible shape like any return, so you are effectively getting back nothing.  Ebay will only allow you to refund 50%, so the scammer is still ahead.
Redflags - shipping address phone is an Amazon Relay #. Ship to name is not on any public records related to the address.
So far this year we have had two incidents like this one here and one on another MP. The trend towards requiring fractional refunds in all cases is just another way that MP are encouraging cyber shoplifting.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

This is why I review all my buyers profile / feedback, Google the address, and will ship with signature required when I think needed.

The pocket change for signature required outweighs the stress and drama. 

I will also take photos of the packing process at times and the complete package just to have some ammunition if needed and I always get a receipt from USPS that shows the weight of package. 

Sellers always need to keep their guard up. We never meet and greet the buyer. Transactions are electronic and this process is getting worse in very many ways in our life. 

[adkhighker]

The scam would be a lot more clear if by "They" in each sentence you are referring to the scammer or their customer.

[richard1rst]

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@blue_bath wrote:

This scam takes advantage of ebay's fraud friendly return policy.

Here is how it works.

Scammer is selling on website or marketplace.

They get an order for ONE product cost $150.

They order TWO from from you as a lower priced seller (say $120 - total 240) and have you ship it to their customer.

They open a return on Ebay for 2 products

They tell customer they accidentally shipped TWO, and ask them to return one and give them the ebay label. They hope you will give a full refund - and not notice the short ship, but even if you do....

You get back ONE product, and it is prob in terrible shape like any return, so you are effectively getting back nothing.  Ebay will only allow you to refund 50%, so the scammer is still ahead.
Redflags - shipping address phone is an Amazon Relay #. Ship to name is not on any public records related to the address.
So far this year we have had two incidents like this one here and one on another MP. The trend towards requiring fractional refunds in all cases is just another way that MP are encouraging cyber shoplifting.

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Your whole convoluted made up scam just doesn’t hold water.

1: The scammer sells something for $150.00

2: The scammer then orders 2 from some other eBay seller (“you”) for a total of $240.00

at this point the scammer is $90 in the hole

3: “They open a return for 2 products” - WHO opens the return? The scammer or the recipient? And to where is the product returned?

You say “They tell customer they accidentally shipped TWO, and ask them to return one”. That precludes the only way that this works - i.e. the scammer and the recipient are in cahoots. (’Cause if they were in cahoots they wouldn’t have to tell the customer anything - they would already know what to do).

So the recipient returns one and (maybe) gets a refund, If someone buys 2 and only returns one then they are automatically only due a 50% refund. If the item is damaged then it is 50% off the price of ONE not off the total price.

So recipient winds up with one item at a net cost of $90.00 ($150 less your $60 refund)

But at this point the scammer is still $90.00 in the hole.

It’s a wash. Where is the profit in that?

That seems like a lot of maybes and what ifs for no pay out. Why wouldn’t the scammer just use that effort to scam a $1000 phone?

Back to the drawing board.

[blue_bath]

They is the scammer.  Their customer is really not even important except that they are also a victim. In my case I told the manufacturer to revoke the lifetime warranty.

[blue_bath]

It all the scammer. The recipient is an Amazon Customer in this case.

I think the scammer is working on the hope, which is not unreasonable, that a larger seller, which we appear to be, might not notice they where short shipped or some sellers might not feel it is worth fighting over $100 especially as more and more MP penalize sellers for not be scammer friendly.

So it may be a wash in this case, but if they seller does it 20 times, and gets away with it 5 times they are coming out ahead.

The only way the scammer might get hurt if is too many end users decide to keep the 2nd product which they legally could do.

Scamming is often a numbers game of stealing a small amount from a lot of people knowing that law enforcement will only investigate large crimes.

[blue_bath]

As for $1,000 phone. Aren't more more traceable, serialized, and $1000 is felony level in many areas? The scammer prob does not even know that there faucets are serial# since almost no one in that line serializes their products.