Ebay's Buyer Protection Is a JOKE
On Nov 20th 2025 my ebay account was hacked. Hackers charged items to my credit card until I shut down the card.
Called Ebay 0n 11/20/2025 and was immediately told to call my credit card company. As I have been told on every subsequent call. Guess what? Transaction between PayPal and Bank is not fraudulent because you set up and agreed to that relationship. when eBay links to PayPal with a hacked account, the subsequent transactions are considered not fraud by the credit card.
Call PayPal.... Same story "Call your credit card company" . Tell them what the credit card company says, they say "file an appeal and call eBay". Appeal denied... Call PayPal..."Call eBay"
Notice of delivery received.... UPS shows a pic of someone else's house.
Contact seller, chahud25 asking where they sent it? No reply
Call UPS, they will only talk to shipper. Tells me its not shipped to my town. But refuses to give address.
go to file item not received on ebay, site tells me I cant because the item is in dispute.
Call UPS every month and every time the following happens "Call your credit card company" so I take a new approach. I say "I have buyer protection and want to exercise that" They tell me they will refund the item in 3-5 days. Rince and repeat.
Every time I call I start from scratch. "I see no open cases" they read the notes then "oh I see.... "Call your bank" Eventually telling me that once you call your bank you no longer have buyer protection. Every time I get a supervisor on the phone they tell me they will refund the money in 3-5 days if the seller does not respond.
They finally stopped telling me to call my bank and tell me they "legally cannot contact the seller" I would like them to site the federal state or local code that prevents them from calling one of their sellers for violating policy.
So buyer protection is a lie, when you tell them what happened last call they tell you thats not possible and people need to be retrained. At least the last one didnt tell me to call my bank.
Guess what.... Seller no longer on ebay.
mudshark61369
·5 months ago@mhgrabo1 ,
I know this was buried in my long winded last reply, so I will ask it again. Did you look up an ebay customer service number on line and call it, or did you use the Contact Us button and receive call backs from eBay reps?
If you did receive call backs, the regular phone/chat reps are not ebay employees they work for a hired 3rd party call/chat center. They respond to issues by looking up and reading responses from a play book, which doesn't cover all situations. They are also known to give out bad advice when they can't answer questions by reading the book. You may have originally spoken to someone who knew what they were doing when you spoke to a Security center rep, but in this case I doubt it, otherwise they would have paid attention to the fact that you did not purchase the stamps.
If you called your card provider before contacting ebay, which it seems you did you should have been told then that you no longer had any eBay protections instead of;
"Rest assured, I'll be taking care of the issue and provide with the possible solution".
Since the sale took place over 90 days ago we cannot look up the item by the ebay item number you provided, and since you say the seller is no longer a registered user, meaning they were kicked off of ebay. (sellers cannot close their account until at least 60 days after their last transaction) we can't check them out either. The best any of us can do now is to tell you if you have a problem again, and are not sure what to do about it, come back to these boards and post about the problem, before you take any actions. You can post ebay item numbers, but cannot mention a seller's username.
We may not be ebay employees but many of us know from long experience on these boards what the policies are and what to do to best to get them to work for you, if possible.
"Play book! We don need no stinkin' play book"
Sorry for the paraphrased movie quote.
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoThis gets funnier. eBay finally sent me something in writing. when I responded with the issues surrounding the customer service reaction they send me this...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Mark,
Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Service regarding the item (226531546121) “US FLAGS FOREVER STAMPS Stickers Memorable Forever Stamps*100 Pcs（1 Roll)*2”. My name is Kasiram, and I will assist you with the best possible option to get your issue resolved. (not the item in dispute and not even something I ever purchased )
Here are the details I was able to capture so far:
Rest assured, I'll be taking care of the issue and provide with the possible solution.
Mark, after a quick research I am able to find that there is a payment dispute opened in this case and we regret to hear the unsatisfactory outcome of the dispute that was filed with your financial institution.
After thoroughly reviewing the details we found that your seller has provided evidence of successful delivery to your location. (NO they provided a tracking number that shows it was delivered to someone elses house) If you still feel this decision was unjustified then we highly recommend that you reach out to your courier and request them to submit an official documentation that confirms that the delivery was not made to your address. Done, UPS advised I contact the shipper and they will ONLY provide the tracking information that confirms its delivery with a photo of the package.
Once this information has been obtained you may contact your financial institution and submit an appeal by submitting this new evidence. Mastercard insists, there is NO fraud between PayPal and them. And pints the finger at eBay
We are positive that there will be a satisfactory resolution and the decision made can be rectified. Moving further we recommend that you open a case within eBay instead of a dispute as we provide all buyers with a 30 day money back guarantee from the day of the estimated delivery. Funny how in the same email they tell me to contact my credit card company. The process voids your rights under this 30 day money back guaranty...
To know more about buyer protection program please refer to this link-
Once a dispute has been filed with your funding source then eBay losses any authorization with regards to the transaction and therefore we are unable make any changes in order to reverse the outcome. We therefore hope that this information shared would help you in future.
I am positive that the information was helpful. I appreciate you for continued business with us. Thank you for contacting eBay. Have a good day.
Kind Regards,
Kasiram S.
eBay Customer Service
mudshark61369
·5 months ago@mhgrabo1 ,
"Unfortunately for me,. my credit card company denied my case...Twice... They pointed the finger at ebay".
If your card provider denied your claim twice, you either did not provide enough proof of a fraudulent purchase, or you misdescribed what happened. When an item is paid for on ebay no seller ever sees how the payment was made. They are just notified that a payment was received, No account or card information is ever shared with them. If there is even a hint of members account login or financial info having gotten out we all would have been notified.
Going back to your original post: "On Nov 20th 2025 my ebay account was hacked. Hackers charged items to my credit card until I shut down the card".
If your ebay account was used to make unauthorized purchases using your saved credit card and your PayPal account. Someone did indeed get your eBay and PayPal login information. However, they did not get it from either of the sites. Prior to the 20th did you misplace, let someone use, or leave your device on, while logged in to ebay unattended? If you have ebay set up to automatically take you to PayPal at check out all they would need is your ebay username and password. If the answer is yes to any of those questions, you allowed the hack. If you have ebay's app enabled on a device and did not set up one of the additional security measures anyone could have gotten into your account by opening the app.
A hack could also happen if you logged into ebay from a semi public wi-fi at a coffee shop, Hotel or any other place that provides internet access, even if it has a changes daily login code. If you manually logged in to eBay/PayPal using a 3rd party wi-fi internet connection there are ways for hackers to steal that info while you are using the connection.
Ebay claims buyer protection, but gives you advice that voids the buyer protection".
eBay's buyer protections are not the same thing as unauthorized use protection. The Money Back Guarantee, only protects you from problems for purchase items not being as described reasons. they protect you from item not received in some but not all cases. If someone did hack your account(s) they may have added a new address to it, did you check that?
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoI Misspoke when I said "On Nov 20th 2025 my ebay account was hacked. Hackers charged items to my credit card until I shut down the card". PayPal was used. eBay has PayPal listed on my account as the authorized payment method. PayPal then charges either the linked bank account, the balance or the credit cart. Whichever is "default" In this case it was my credit card. Mastercard sites that agreement for payment as not fraudulent and points the finger at eBay. My PayPal and eBay have different usernames and passwords. Only eBay was hacked. I do not have the eBay app. My passwords are changed regularly, and new passwords are in accordance to ebays password complexity requirements. eBay is not logged in on any device except the home computer in an alarmed house with a 100 pound rottie inside. I haven't used eBay for any purchases outside my home. Since my OP was about ebays buyer protection and customer interaction, I do appreciate the security assessment.
eBay requires a payment method on file. Saying I allowed the hack is like saying the guy who broke into the front door of my house was allowed by me to access my Netflix because it was logged in on my TV.
I fully understand that eBay's buyer protections are not the same thing as unauthorized use protection. That is why my initial interactions with ebay were dealing with a hacked account. My transition to buyer protection was started by a supervisor who told me I would be getting a refund because the seller was unresponsive. The purchase records indicate it was shipped to my address. The tracking information shows it was delivered to a different address. UPS would only tell me it was NOT my address. the seller either fat fingered the address to an entirely different street or town or the seller is involved. As the seller deleted their account, I have my suspicions.
mudshark61369
·5 months ago@mhgrabo1 ,
"The purchase records indicate it was shipped to my address. The tracking information shows it was delivered to a different address. UPS would only tell me it was NOT my address. the seller either fat fingered the address to an entirely different street or town or the seller is involved. As the seller deleted their account, I have my suspicions".
So there was no "HACK" after all. Your use of that word and not mentioning until your last post that the item was sent to a different address, had all of us who replied going in a different direction than we needed to. We all missed/skipped over " UPS shows a pic of someone else's house".
What you have described is generally known as the Fake Tracking scam. Something is sent with tracking to an address in your zip code that is not yours. You reported that you did not receive the item, but ebay sided with the seller because of the Delivered scan in your zip code. You, your card provider, bank and ebay cannot get access to the actual delivery address because of Federal postal privacy regulations.
Those regulations limit access to a shipping label's address to the sender and named recipient. UPS employees will not give you the actual delivery address because your name is not on the label. eBay, your card provider and PayPal cannot access the info because, they are not the sender, so they can only go by what the delivery scan says. Though PayPal does have a differently worded option for filing a dispute than Item Not Received. Something like "was shipped to the wrong address". I do not know the exact wording because I have yet to run into the problem.
I do not believe anyone has asked so far; If you called ebay using a phone number you found online, or if you used the Contact us button at the bottom of an ebay page and requested a call back. If you called a number you found online, you never spoke to anyone connected to ebay. If you did receive a call back and used the word Hacked, you had that rep going in the same direction as the responders to this topic did. Once you filed a dispute with PayPal or your card provider, you voided your Money Back Guarantee protections.
You may still be able to file again with your card provider but do not use the word "hacked". Your card provider will need proof of your allegation, and that is very difficult to get and may be impossible now because UPS only keeps actual tracking info for 120 days/ 4 months, then they recycle the tracking number. If the original tracking info is no longer available you will not be able to get the proof you need to get PayPal or your card provider to issue a refund.
To find out how you can try to get the UPS info, you need to file a charge back, if the tracking info is still available on the UPS site. Open the link below and click on Go To Best Answer, to find out how you can try to get the info you need.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/Fake-Tracking-Scam-Advice/m-p/35551042#M548491
To try and avoid this from happening to you again on ebay, you need to check each seller's feedback profile page before buying from one no matter what their feedback percentage is. Look for the common signs of a scam, Low to very good to be true prices, Sellers with very low feedback numbers, selling expensive items. Info on a listing page that is contradictory Ex: brand name given in a title, but in the item specifics where it says Brand -- Unknown, another brand name, or the space is blank. Item location in the U.S. but a long estimated delivery time frame....
Getting to a feedback profile page takes several clicks now.
On an item's listing page in the upper right under the seller's username and feedback number you will see 3 buttons
Clicking on their percentage of positives is one way to get to their profile the other is further down the listing page where you see the seller's username in a large font. Under it will be a few comments, and under that a ( See All Feedback) button. Click on it. Either way On the page that opens you will see the following line above some comments.
Click on the switch back to classic view. In the upper left is the seller's country or registry, and below that is a box with the number's of neutral and negative feedback a seller has received. those numbers can be clicked on to read only those comments and the seller's replies if any. Under the box are buttons to see All feedback, As a buyer / Seller /Left for others. You want to see their selling feedback, because a seller can have a fair number of feedback and even a 100% rating but all for buying at least in the last year. Sellers who have no selling feedback or have received none in over a year often run into problems so you should avoid buying from them, until you have more experience.
When you click on the As a seller button just above the first comments on the right is a box w/
[Most Relevant v ] click on that to see their [Most Recent] feedback.
You can click on the numbers of Neutral and Negative feedback a seller has received to read only those comments. People who were caught by the fake tracking scam but did not file an lose disputes, may have left comments like never received it, was not delivered to me/my address... etc.
Feedback percentages can be misleading the rule of thumb is not to buy from high feedback number sellers who have a 98.6% or lower percentage. A seller with low feedback number can have a lower percentage for receiving just one negative. Some very high volume sellers can have hundreds of negative and neutral comments, but have a percentage over 99%.
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoeBay acknowledges the account was "taken over" (their terminology) on Nov 20 and restored my control to the account and also changed the username for some reason. The term "Hacked" is more generally used but eBay prefers different terminology. Doesn't change the facts.
It is unfortunate that you all missed "UPS shows a pic of someone else's house"... Its kind of key...
"What you have described is generally known as the Fake Tracking scam. Something is sent with tracking to an address in your zip code that is not yours. You reported that you did not receive the item, but ebay sided with the seller because of the Delivered scan in your zip code. You, your card provider, bank and ebay
cannot get access to the actual delivery address because of Federal postal privacy regulations." Thank you for this information. I agree I hit a brick wall with UPS. Once the seller provided the tracking number PayPal walked away even though its not my house in the picture. UPS would only tell me it was NOT my address.
When my account was hacked (Taken over" I called eBay security and got an answer in minutes. after asking me some security questions, they restored my access where I removed any financial account connections. They then transferred me to a different department at eBay where I was advised to call my credit card company and file a claim. I followed their instructions. Each subsequent call to eBay was done with the chat feature where you ask for them to call back but each time I referenced the "order number" Each time they would ask what the problem was as if I never called before. I would ask them to take a moment and review the record and then they would tell me to call my credit card company. I would then ask for a supervisor. That is where they would tell me what actions they would take.
Thank you for the suggestions. Aside from eBay now telling me they will review the records and retrain all their supervisors for telling me I can expect a refund in 3-5 days, they have now begun to correspond with me in writing.
My OP represents that ebay offers you a buyer protection policy but immediately instructs you in a way that voids it.
house*of*paws
·5 months agoHi @mhgrabo1
When someone puts an unauthorized charge on our credit card … the appropriate response is to notify the Fraud Department of our CC company. They will take all necessary action to protect our account without costing us any money. They will contact any companies that the criminal interacted with.
If our eBay account was hacked in the process of someone making fraudulent credit card transactions … then we need to contact eBay’s Security Center (link at bottom of screen) to help get our account back to normal.
It sounds like you are seeking help from the wrong places. You are seeking ‘buyer protection’ when you aren’t the buyer! You are the victim of a hack, which is handled by your CC company.
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoI agree I am not the buyer I am the victim. eBay security was my first call and their first words were instructing me to call the credit card company.
Unfortunately for me,. my credit card company denied my case...Twice... They pointed the finger at ebay. Ebay claims buyer protection, but gives you advice that voids the buyer protection.
house*of*paws
·5 months ago@mhgrabo1
I recommend you contact your credit card company again … this time requesting to be transferred to their Fraud Department.
Tell the agent that unauthorized charges have been put on your credit card, which you would appreciate being removed.. THEN … you answer whatever questions they ask you. [DO NOT volunteer any information about eBay or PayPal. The agent can see those details themselves.]
Again, you DID NOT buy anything from eBay … so you have no protection from eBay as a buyer. Continually bringing up eBay’s ‘buyer protection’ is as irrelevant as citing PayPal’s ‘buyer protection’. You need the ‘buyer protection’ of your credit card company alone.
12345jamesstamps
·5 months agoWhenever anyone or any company uses your debit or credit card that you don't agree with the charge you do a dispute with the bank or debit credit card.
This can be done even online if you have online banking...I mean, how do you pay your monthly bill to your credit card?
You go directly to your banking institution.
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoNot sure I understand the point or relevance.
growshareandgive
·5 months agoWe’ve experienced a very similar situation on the seller side. A buyer contacted us from a different account claiming they had lost access to their original account which had placed the order, and asked to cancel their order. Fortunately, this happened before the item was shipped, so after carefully verifying the order details with them to confirm it was legitimate, we issued a full refund.
That said, in a situation like that, it’s easy to see how a seller could take advantage of the buyers circumstance if they chose to since the buyer would be unable to report the INR. It really highlights a gap in the system where account security issues can put buyers in a vulnerable position.
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoWith the fact that the seller is not responsive, they sent it to a different address and deleted their account as soon as ebay stepped in tells me they are probably the ones who hacked the account. The chances that someone hacked the account AND the seller ships it to the wrong address at the same time are slim to non.
lakefor94
·5 months ago@mhgrabo1
Fraud purchases to a legit credit card are a slam dunk for the buyer.
I would have no problem getting something/anything like that cleared up in a hurry.
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoPlease elaborate
ryry-jj
·5 months agoEverything goes south real fast when your account gets hacked...how it gets hacked, that's the starting point....
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoEven more interesting is when the seller, redirects the shipment to another address then once eBay "intervenes" they delete their account. By the way, when I try to delete my account, I get an error stating there is an active dispute and I can't. A "dispute" that eBay customer service says "Does not exist" but then the subsequent supervisor sites all the dates I called.
kalyoth
·5 months agoDeletion of account - doesn't mean what you think it means. It means closure of the account. ebay has active access to every transaction made in either direction from the account & can manage funds to & from accounts still based upon the history & sources on file as a banking processor.
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoThanks. But does not change anything. Just pointing out how a corrupt seller can delete their account but a victim buyer gets the runaround and cant.
tobaccocardyahoo
·5 months agoImmediately when I see a credit card and PayPal used for an Ebay transaction, I see the potential for finger pointing and evasion of responsibility.
If the credit card was other than Mastercard and Visa or issued in a country other than the USA, I see confusion and uncertainty.
More detail might help clarify what is happening.
roccotacodad54
·5 months agoActually eBay buyer protection is excellent if one knows how to use it and the workarounds.
There are some scenarios where it's deficient though as in The False Tracking Scam for instance.
There are many on these forums that will help you.
As christworks opined an INAD case would have made this far easier. No way for you to know that with a hacked account so come here before you do anything for future problems.
There's alot of very savvy buyers and sellers here to help.
The knowledge I've gained reading threads on here a has no doubt prevented many bad experiences when buying for me.
Luck to you.............................
kalyoth
·5 months agoYou can get around the false tracking scam - Item Not as Described - you ship back copies of the paperwork stating delivery arrived elsewhere from the shipper. Refund upon delivery.
bonanza125
·5 months agoYour issue is with your credit card company which someone without your permission used your card to buy things with. Ebay's buyers protection is if an item is not described or not received. That's not the problem you are having. You need to dispute the charges with your credit card company. If they decline then there is nothing you can do then which gives folks a prime example that when disputing charges there are no guarantees. So your claim Ebay's buyer protection is a joke doesn't apply to your case.
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoIncorrect. No one used my credit card. they used PayPal.
Try this analogy.
You check into a hotel that has a minibar .. You sign an agreement upon checking stating you will pay your rooms bill with the credit card on file. You have express checkout and go home. During your stay, a homeless guy, or the guy in the room next door, or the housekeeper access your room and remove a six pack of beer from the mini bar. You don't see the charges until you get the emailed bill from the hotel. Will your credit card company remove the charges from your bill? Absolutely not. The transaction between the hotel and the credit card company was consensual by a signed agreement. You call the hotel who "investigates" the transaction.
My claim Ebay's buyer protection is a joke, does apply because I followed eBays instructions. Only to be told by subsequent supervisors that the information given to me by previous supervisors was not only wrong, But it voids my buyer protection.
bonanza125
·5 months ago@mhgrabo1
I am not incorrect. To start off you brought up your credit card company in your original post so I was responding to that. They used Paypal which had your credit card on file correct? That's still using your credit card via Paypal platform. The fact is your credit card company issued you the credit. Not Paypal, Not Ebay. They are the only ones who can do anything. Now if Ebay wanted to give you a courtesy credit or even the hotel which you described then that's on them but they aren't obligated. If that were the case you would've gotten it which you didn't so you are here being told the cold hard facts. Now you can believe whatever you want to believe but this is just how the situation works.
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoWell if you worked for the credit card company, perhaps you would make a different decision than the bank made. The bank after denying my claim 45 days later added the charges back. I appealed, and coordinated with Paypal, and again they refused the claim because it was an issue between eBay and Paypal. These are the hard facts I am dealing with.
christworks
·5 months ago@mhgrabo1 Once you get your bank or credit card involved, eBay cannot do anything. It appears you filed an INR after you had contacted Paypal/credit card/bank. I'm also not clear in what timeframe you opened the INR. You only have 30 days from the delivery date. Also, an INR was the wrong type of claim to open. You should have opened an INAD. That would have forced the seller to respond and send you a shipping label or you could have had eBay step in, assuming it was within 30-days of delivery.
mhgrabo1
OP5 months agoSo when my account was hacked, I immediately called both PayPal and The Bank. Both instructed me to contact my credit card company. eBay locked my accounts ability to make any transactions but restored my access. I followed eBay's instructions. My credit card company (A Mastercard by the way), credited my account and began their investigations. That decision came 45 days later. They instructed me that the transaction between PayPal and the bank is NOT fraudulent and that the Fraud occurred within the eBay ecommerce platform.
PayPal says their disputes take 75 days
I contacted eBay on the 45th day and was told to contact the credit card company. FYI, they begin every single discussion the same way as does PayPal. eBay customer service reps also state there is no active claim/dispute in their system. After the supervisor gets on the phone and reads the history, they then see that there is a dispute and tell me they will intervene with the seller on my behalf and if that seller does NOT respond, the refund will automatically occur. Next time I call they say they see no case and then when I get a sup on the phone they tell me they see that, but that's not right, I should file an INR.
several cycles of the same story later, when I start to make a claim that this is all irrelevant, and that I am covered under buyer protection, they now tell me that buyer protection is void the minute I contact my bank. AKA the moment I did what they told me to do.
It kind of reminds me of this case where a town send a homeowner a certified letter telling them to "immediately remove a dead tree" then they fine him $8000 for removing a tree without a permit.