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So many fake accounts anymore, right?
I’ve been on ebay for 20+ years. Never before have I seen so many FAKE accounts. Like the phone calls meant to swindle just 1 person for a big ticket item. In eBay world they open a case and eBay issues a refund, but still lets these accounts flood the market. For example: I search something relatively niche, vintage midcentury Italian light sconces. A few real come up, but so do many “modern replicas.†A “new†one comes into my feed, offered by a seller established in 2018, with one sale, feedback positive, comments minimal, normal. Next sale is 2023, “never received item, not at all what it was presented as, disappointed buyer.†At best, negative feedback, at worst, neutral, the buyer probably reluctant to criticize a seller they now see has odd history. Sold 2 things in 5 years. Next item sold, glowing feedback, literally over-the-top praise. The whole situation is now suspicious. Feedback history (3). Feedback rating 100%. Sellers other items include weird items from high end items, 1,2,3,4 thousand dollars and other one-of-a-kind items, but they are selling them with opportunity to buy in multiples, 1, 2 save 3%, 3 save 5%. But it’s a one-of-a-kind (OOAK) thing, like how do you sell 5 not mass produced pocket watches. It’s not a thing, at least not what the photo represents. This isn’t Oriental Trading Company where you but 1,12, or 100 pencil toppers. It’s eBay, and that is ONE WATCH.
There are SO many aged accounts (opened 2018, never used but once) revived with SHADY merchandise and I, a savvy buyer, cannot get them to stop coming up in my searches. THEN in my “watched item†list, I am inundated with OTHER listing I KNOW I did NOT “add to wish list†but filling my “ending soon†feed…like 10! Vintage midcentury modern Italian light sconces, all replicas, all from out of the country, all with huge price tags, ALL from sellers with robo generated names and (3) +/- item sales. No. Then I DELETE ALL of these weird, not watched items, ONLY TO FIND MYSELF loaded up again next time with 10 more, like I caught a VIRUS that keeps replicating fake sales AND draws to me more fakes when I conduct other very narrow searches like “il Milano square plates.†Lo and behold, some creepy (3) account has it in a foreign country. No, no way they are selling a box in India of something we bought in TJMaxx in America. This kind of fraud is creeping up all over, and while we seasoned ebayers know better to vette, other one-time users are getting taken. There is a swath of scammers infiltrating our platform, and I’m angry it seems ebay is ignoring it. One of those feedback (3) sellers came across today, in an UNCHOSEN Vintage Midcentury Modern Italian light sconces came up as a “verified business†per eBay. With 1 old positive sale, one negative sale, and steeply priced items that are no way being shipped from India “for free.†THIS IS FAKE.
Anyone else getting this? I’m kind of furious because eBay is an institution that should be able to tease this garbage out. Maintain its integrity. Not pass on its loss claims to me in seller fees.
Something is not right and I don’t like it. How do I directly report this to eBay. I mean it is truly ruining it for me.
eburtonlab
Mentor2 years agoThere are SO many aged accounts (opened 2018, never used but once) revived with SHADY merchandise and I, a savvy buyer, cannot get them to stop coming up in my searches.
If you set your search customization to display seller information in the search results, it is fairly simple to see which sellers have feedback and which do not, and then skip over any sellers in your search results that do not meet whatever feedback number or percentage you decide is your minimum for consideration.
If a seller meets your minimum criteria, then you can open the listing to examine the item in detail or go to the seller's feedback page and determine if the seller has received feedback for selling similar items or not.