Scammed Help

Question

I have just been scamme don ebay shipment. I ONLY have this confirmed by contacting the post office and getting the address the seller sent my package to AND the weight of the package so he could produce a delivered tracking number for ebay to look at in my zip code.

I ordered a huge truck grill and the package sent was only 4oz. Basically sent an empty box to an address in my area.

EBAY already refused my appeal because he / she produced that tracking confirmation.

I don't know what to do. I have no parts and am out $302. I have the email from the postal service PROVING the delivery location and the weight shipped. I need help and NOBODY will help me.

house*of*paws · Answer

Hi @tleih00

If you paid with a credit card â€¦ phone your credit card company and ask for their Fraud Department. Tell them you are the victim of the â€˜Fake tracking number scamâ€™ and have proof of that from USPS. Request a chargeback.

eBay has been slow to institute policies that deal with this very common scam unfortunately.

eburtonlab · Answer

@tleih00

If tracking shows delivery but nothing arrives:

If the buyer can obtain some hard copy documentation (email is not good enough) that says that the package was not delivered to the buyer's address or something that shows the weight or size of the package cannot possibly correspond to the ordered item, or the shipping date precedes the order, then the buyer may be able to contact eBay via social media direct message, provide that documentation to eBay and get help with "false tracking".

https://x.com/askebay

https://www.facebook.com/ebay

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

With "false tracking" if you go through a standard automated "item not received" case, on the other hand, you will lose the case because the seller can provide tracking that appears to show delivery. If you then appeal, you may have some additional options at that point. It appears that eBay has added a new appeal option regarding "delivery to another address", but I do not know how effective that is compared to contacting eBay via social media with documentation and explicitly mentioning "false tracking", which seems to work provided you can obtain the necessary documentation.

If you are unable to get help through eBay, you may have recourse through your payment method, though you should probably exhaust all your eBay options first since once you go through your payment method, eBay will no longer help with that transaction.

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.