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Scam sellers from China
Bought an item from China, appears to be a scam, seller says they are sending it through Mexico to get to the US, the tracking number shows Florida as the destination but I live in California.
Feels like a scam. My question is, how does the seller benefit? Do they get the payment and then disappear?
4 comments
comics-scifi-collectibles
Mentor5 months ago@gh342000 I helped another buyer recently with the same exact scam of shipping from China to Mexico to the wrong US state. They have received a refund.
There are a couple of posts that you may find helpful>>
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/Seller-told-on-himself-it-seems/td-p/35607234
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/INR-issue-Help/td-p/35605916
eburtonlab
Mentor5 months ago@gh342000
What kind of feedback does the seller have for selling? How long has the seller been selling?
Unless the seller can provide tracking that shows delivery to your zip code you should be able to file and win an "item not received" case if nothing shows up. If the seller provides tracking that appears to show delivery to your area but nothing arrives you will likely have to deal with "false tracking", but wait until you see what the tracking shows and what if anything arrives.
There are different kinds of scams; some work better than others. Not all are profitable for the scammer, but scammers can keep scamming even if few of the scams pay off for them.
In general, you can avoid a lot of headaches by choosing to purchase only from established sellers that have recent and past positive feedback as a seller for selling items in the same category that you intend to buy. If someone is selling a dozen apple watches, but has no feedback, or only has feedback as a buyer, or only has feedback for selling dress patterns or fishing lures (actual examples I have seen), perhaps wait until they have a track record of positive feedback for selling electronics before you buy from them.
You might miss out on a good deal from a new seller once in a while, and nothing can guarantee that you won't still run into an issue anyway, but you can avoid a lot of potential problems by choosing to do business with established sellers. Anyone can put together a listing that looks nice -- it is not hard at all to simply copy an existing listing -- but it is much harder to create a history of consistent sales and positive feedback.
For more experienced sellers, you can learn a lot about the sort of seller you are dealing with by checking the seller's feedback page to see where the seller is registered and to notice if the seller has any negative feedback. If you see negatives indicated in the table of recent feedback, you can choose to exclusively see each type of comment by clicking on the numbers shown in the table. Reading negative or neutral comments can often tell you if a seller has a pattern of problems with items not matching the descriptions, canceled orders, late deliveries or item location misrepresentation.
If a seller has a pattern of too many serious negatives -- or just not enough positive history -- it is often better to find another seller with a better track record to do business with.
gh342000
OP5 months agoThey are a new seller with a 0 rating. No feedback. I had bid and one the auction, it auto paid on my credit card, which is all fine. Then the drama started with tracking numbers, etc. I filed with eBay and then the seller came back with "I am a Christian and a moral person, please cancel the dispute". Ya, no.
But what I am curious about is, how does a scammer benefit, it seems that as a new seller, especially in a foreign country, that eBay/Paypal would not give them the money until the package is delivered. Is the gaming of the system to hold off the dispute until enough time passes that they get paid and then disappear?
eburtonlab
Mentor5 months agoBut what I am curious about is, how does a scammer benefit, it seems that as a new seller, especially in a foreign country, that eBay/Paypal would not give them the money until the package is delivered.
Some scammers can obtain false tracking numbers that appear to show delivery to the buyer but that are actually for another delivery to someone else in the buyer's general area.
Not every scam works; scammers play the odds and list lots of scam items hoping to get away with some profit before eBay shuts them down. Just because buyers can get a refund does not always mean the money was successfully clawed back from the scammer; some refunds come from eBay or from credit card issuers, in which case they are paid for by other legitimate users in the form of higher fees.