eBay Seller Continually Threatening to Kill Me Over THIER Counterfeit Stamps (eBay took down)
Hey. So I made a foolish mistake of buying a ton of stamps on discount on eBay (about $3,000 worth) and then found out several days after receiving the stamps that they were counterfeit. (1) eBay took down all the listings I bought from, (2) found out the stamps came from China - WINIT ship, (3) stamps don't sell for half of USPS price, and (4) I came to the eBay forums to ask.
Immediately after trying to return the stamps, the seller sent me death threats through WhatsApp. Repeatedly sending me my full name and address. Saying *I'm* scamming him/her. That I better close my return request. etc. I reported to the local police (they can't do anything though since seller is overseas). I reported to USPS. I reported to my bank. I reported to eBay who told me they can't do anything cause the seller messaged me through WhatsApp and not eBay.
The chargeback is under investigation by my bank and the seller is still threatening to kill me. Threatening for a month now. What do you all suggest I do? I hate these sellers and I'm ready to take them down. FYI, I still have these counterfeit stamps. I'm waiting to see if the USPIS wants to take the counterfeit stamps or not.
Unavailable member
·3 years agoIgnore all the messages.... don't even read them.
Your seller is in China so I doubt he will make good on his threats. Threats are just words.
Whatever whatsapp is I would block the seller if that thing has the capability. Or get rid of whatsapp or what ever it is. How did they manage to find you there I will never know.
ms.rodriguez*
·3 years agoDon't exchange phone numbers or emails with anyone. Please come back and let us know how this ends. Definitely contact WHATSUP and report the threats. Finally, if the price is too good, you know that there is something wrong. Maybe it's time for ebay to limit the amount of stamps that can be sold on ebay unless the seller is the USPS which by the way, has several Ebay accounts. Ebay does help this fraud by allowing these sellers to sell large quantities of stamps. They are also found on Facebook. I keep reporting those ads and they still reappear a day or two later.
I hope you get your refund. Please come back and let us know.
yummchocolates
OP3 years agoBank had refunded me Day 1, but the death threats literally never stopped. My biggest concern is what to do to get the death threats to stop & who I could report to, though I've reached out to local police and government already. I'm pretty sure this seller is a serial scammer on eBay - those repeat stamp listings via multiple eBay accounts might be the same person. They claim they're located in UK, use a phone number based in China, but maybe all of that is covered by a VPN? or something.
Unfortunately, all my information (phone number, email, name, address) was already given to the seller when I made the purchase. Never thought I'd encounter problems trying to get packages to my address but now I know. I have a whole new "identity" set up so that no one's ever threatening to burn my house down ever again, and so that no one even knows my **bleep** name! If someone is crazy enough to burn something down, it's the PO Box at the USPS!
eBay actually was diligent about taking down those stamp listings. That's how I got the first suspicion I had bought something fake. eBay took the listings down few days after I purchased them!
kensgiftshop
·3 years agoHow did they get your WhatsApp information?
stephenmorgan
·3 years agoIf a person has WhatsApp on their phone, anyone who is in their contact list that has WhatsApp will be identified by WhatsApp. So all a person needs to do is enter your name and phone number into their contacts and it will tell if they too have WhatsApp.
I have WhatsApp on my computer so I often message people on my computer but it is thru and to their WhatsApp phone account.
yummchocolates
OP3 years agoYes, this. I was shocked when I got the message with my full name and address. Then realized, I'm never ever supplying my real name, address, and phone number ever again. This scammer is experienced and I never realized privacy was this important, even if it's just random online purchases
simba6
·3 years agoDiscount postage stamps? At some point too good to be true has to come into play.
I would report it to law enforcement as it sounds serious.
dirk12955
·3 years agoDiscounted postage has been a thing since forever.
Discounted "Forever" stamps were also a thing until the crooks noticed, and started
printing fakes to sell on ebay and other selling sites.
When (Apparently) the Chinese sellers got involved it totally got out of hand
and the price wars started.
I'm not convinced the USPS employees have the capabilities to tell real from fake. I know
many fakes have been sold into the market place and probably used as postage.
But, I've never heard or read of the USPS picking out an envelope and stopping
it from going thru the system because of a fake forever stamp.
itscalledapostingid
·3 years agoThere have been several community posts from people who actually used the fake forever stamps and had their letters returned. They were rubber stamped/marked as counterfeit by the USPS. I guess the shocking part is that's apparently the only action the USPS took...although they probably do record the address it was mailed from in case it becomes a pattern. Machines are catching them not people.
yummchocolates
OP3 years agoYes, I'm not too sure how the fake stamps are being detected by the USPS directly. I saw a few videos informing us about how fake stamps look. But the USPS definitely can detect fakes because mail does get sent back to us saying "this is counterfeit postage/stamp". I remember at some point, some USPS locations even thought "Mercari" postage was fake and sent someone to question me at my home because I was regularly getting a lot of Mercari packages, and the "Mercari" postage was constantly being questioned during the transit to me. (Like the packages were literally thrown backwards to the senders too and then Mercari got into a big issue with me cause they thought I was the problem)
Side note, my local USPS was willing to bring the case of the fake stamps to a higher up but that plan got thwarted due to the holidays. Haven't heard anything and it's probably cause they're off
albertabrightalberta
·3 years ago@yummchocolates
Why are you starting multiple threads on the same topic? The responses are going to be the same!
yummchocolates
OP3 years agoI thought I had posted the other thread in the wrong forum? I think I saw it was categorized under some kind of "EBay Mentorship" thing? I don't even know how to get back to that to delete it LOL