eBay and the Law
Summary: grann-4629 initiated a discussion about handling scams on eBay and the effectiveness of involving law enforcement or legal professionals, especially for minor cases under $500. Respondents provided mixed opinions, with some highlighting the challenges of involving police or the FBI for minor scams and stressing the importance of larger, aggregated cases for federal action. Others shared personal experiences where legal steps led to resolution, such as contacting lawyers or pursuing claims through IC3 reports. The conversation included historical perspectives on eBay's buyer protection and the evolution of online selling platforms. Several participants mentioned that success rates with lawyers and using credit card protections have improved buyer outcomes over time.
There are many posts in this forum and others about contacting the law when eBay appears to not care about a member being scammed.
Those that recommend contacting a lawyer, I completely disregard.
However, I am curious about those who recommend contacting the police or FBI and those who have actually done it, especially when it involves a minor scam ... say less than $500.
Do members actually contact the law about an eBay issue and what, if any, kind of success do they achieve?
theteamsetguy
·2 hours ago · Edited@grann-4629 ,
I don’t know why you are totally disregarding the posts that recommend lawyering up. You will have more success with a lawyer than getting the police to do anything especially under $600 transactions. They have more important things to deal with than civil matters between eBay buyer and sellers.
babyers88
·2 hours agoa couple decades ago it was possible, not anymore unless you are completely inept.
that's why ebay is now required by law now to "vett" sellers, ya a small timer could sell a few items and run, but ebay has the buyer covered. But otherwise a seller that is selling larger quantities of items, high end products, high priced items, etc
has to be fully vetted. Could they work around that sure, but there not going to last long.
That's also why you see people moaning and groaning about payments being held even if they have been here since day 1, the algorithm catches the infrequent seller or unusual selling patterns. If you are selling things and not shipping them ebay catches on, the risk has been reduced.
if someone is selling knockoff's once enough people have reported them that's all it's over.
louiserb2
·1 week agoMy personnel experience, though it dates back to 2002 with an eBay purchase that never arrived, I think is still relevant here. The eBay scammer was basically selling electronic equipment that he never physically had. So I was one of many people fleeced out of several hundred dollars. When I informed eBay, they themselves had nothing to do remedying the situation nor did I receive any kind of refund. However, with the number of cases, I was approached by the FBI, flown out from NY to CA to give evidence at trial against the seller. I still never got a refund. Point being, I never found out whether eBay requested FBI/Federal intervention or not. This is a case of online wire fraud, which will involve the FED, eBay are not Law Enforcement, but if you don't reach out to Law Enforcement, don't expect anything to be done about it. So the question, should I have been advised by eBay to go seek an attorney or approach Law Enforcement has some value because you do need to know if the person scamming you is currently under investigation; if they are then your own case has a lot of weight .
tools*
·2 days agoAs long as you use a credit card, you can't be scammed as a buyer on eBay.
louiserb2
·2 days agoI think your being a bit pedantic here, the point of the story, how ever you wish to call the event, in my mind I was "scammed" out of money for a product that never existed.
tools*
·Aug 6, 2026 at 7:10 PMYou can certainly be scammed as a seller, but not as a buyer if you always pay with a credit card.
soh.maryl
·Aug 6, 2026 at 8:16 PMAt the time that this happened to you, was the Money Back Guarantee for buyers not available on eBay?
louiserb2
·Aug 6, 2026 at 9:51 PMI honestly don't remember. I got a free trip from New York and accommodation to go to court in Seattle for my troubles so I guess I made good lol.
grand-and-glorious-purpose
·Aug 6, 2026 at 8:50 PMYou don't even need that.
All seller scams on ebay require the buyers direct help to succeed.
louiserb2
·Aug 6, 2026 at 9:54 PMReally? I have an item for sale, here's the picture, its listed on eBay, so come buy it, pay me through eBay. I'm not going to send you anything because I never owned it in the first place. Explain to me how I, the buyer helped the scammer?
grand-and-glorious-purpose
·yesterday at 4:06 PMReally.
You are helping the seller scam you by not knowing the MBG.
Go read it now.
louiserb2
·yesterday at 7:38 PMWell, that didn't apply back in 2002 or if it did, eBay didn't offer or provide any assistance in getting my money back. Maybe that's not the case now
lacemaker3
·yesterday at 8:12 PM · Edited@tools* , you're right now, but not back then, in the wild early days of eBay.
Credit card payments were not very common on eBay in 2002. eBay had it's own payment service called Billpoint, but it wasn't widely used. Many sellers did not accept credit card payments until several years later. @louiserb2 's experience was not unique.
PayPal went public in 2002, and was acquired by eBay shortly after (July 2002). I'm not sure when it started being available on eBay (replacing Billpoint). Even then, sellers were not required to accept online payments, and many did not. I started selling around 2006, and I did not accept PayPal for several years.
Before then, I received (and sent) payment as money orders (MO) from the USPS. They were the only way a seller could be sure they would not be scammed. Buyers bought them at the post office, and mailed them to the seller. When I made a sale, I would package the item, write the buyer's address on it, and keep it in my car. I would check my PO box, and when I received the MO from the buyer, I would take it to the mail clerk, they would look up the MO number to make sure it was legit, and then give me cash for it. Then I would pay for the postage and send the package off.
I got a PayPal account around then, and starting sending payments that way (to avoid having to pay the fee for the MO) but I didn't start to accept PayPal until maybe 2007 or 2008. There was a fee for accepting a credit card payment, but other types of payments were free for the seller. You didn't have to accept credit cards unless you wanted to.
A few years after that, eBay started requiring sellers to accept PayPal, and to accept credit cards. A lot of sellers quit selling at that point. There was a boycott, at one point, which was well publicized and discussed in the eBay Discussion Boards (which were hosted and run by eBay employees at the time), but the boycott didn't achieve anything.
At that point, there was no eBay buyer protection, and the PayPal buyer protection had a value limit on it. Around 2007, I used PayPal to send payment to a seller in the UK, and was scammed with an item that was never delivered. I never got any tracking (it was not really available for mail from the UK at that time) and the PayPal limit meant that I only got about half of my money back.
tools*
·3 hours agoI've been here since 1998, so I lived through thousands of transactions with money orders, Billpoint, and Paypal.
stephenmorgan
·1 hour ago · EditedSimilar happened to myself except the FBI contacted me about stolen property I purchased off eBay. Person made a plea deal so I did not have to go to NY and testify.
Also happened with the USPS that they wanted to fly me to NY to testify about being ripped off from someone. Same thing happened, they made a plea deal a few days before trial so I did not have to go.
After enough complaints, crimes are investigated.
mam98031
·1 week agoThere are places to report various different types of problems that happen on the internet, not just specific to Ebay. Not all the problems that sellers experience here can be handled by Ebay nor any other site that is similar to Ebay. Nor does Ebay promise or say that they can. I know many sellers would like it if they did, but that is on a seller's wish list and simply isn't reality.
For example. If a buyer purchases something from you and wants to return it. What you get back is something other than you originally shipped. There are times Ebay can help, but there are other resources. If you used USPS as your carrier, then it is Mail Fraud, which is a FEDERAL crime and can be reported to the Postmaster General.
https://www.uspis.gov/report
@bgt_masters_of_tiki_d shared a great link for everyone to save too.
Other links that can come in handy from time to time.
https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/mail-internet-or-telephone-order-merchandise-rule
https://fraud.org/
https://www.justice.gov/
https://www.usacops.com/
https://www.fdic.gov/consumer-resource-center/consumer-complaint-process
https://www.usa.gov/state-attorney-general
https://justicedirect.com/post/chargeback-fraud
A little light reading, LOL. But some valuable resources. I hope some will save the links.
tools*
·2 days agoMost of these agencies have been or are in the process of being dismantled or corrupted. The FBI has lost so many agents, the Justice Department is now a private law firm, the FTC now works for billionaire donors, etc.
I wouldn't expect much of a response to a tiny consumer problem these days.
grand-and-glorious-purpose
·Aug 6, 2026 at 8:51 PMNot for a couple of years anyway
bonanza125
·1 week agoThe police will just tell you that it is a civil matter and to contact Ebay. They don't deal in civil matters only criminal. Unless Ebay presses fraud charges against a member there is nothing the police will do. People who come into this forum and say they will be contacting the police good luck. You would be wasting your time.
bgt_masters_of_tiki_d
·1 week agoI have a 100% success rate for ebay refunding me when a buyer flat out steals the item from me. In the past it was an incident report with my local police but now all I had to do was file an ic3.gov fraud report and then show ebay the report. Many years ago I got taken for over $1000 from a guy in CA (considered felony theft) and I used ic3.gov and a detective was actually assigned to the case. It took 9 months but it did finally get resolved.
The biggest issue you might have now is actually getting ahold of someone on ebay. I always did it through facebook and before that it wasn't difficult to talk to an actual US based rep on the phone. You basically can't do either anymore.
adamcartwright
·1 week agoVery good to hear.
If you don't mind sharing, what were the facts of your case.
bgt_masters_of_tiki_d
·2 days agoSorry for the late reply. These new boards are obnoxious to navigate now so I don't come back much to see if anyone responded to my posts. It was quite awhile ago and not ebay related. It was on a sports card website. Basically guy never sent what they were supposed to. I believe it was a trade/cash deal and since it was over $1000 it met the felony threshold so it was taken more seriously. I recall it taking about 9 months, In the end I had the choice of having the guy arrested (detective said guy was dead to rights and would do jail time) or accepting agreed upon restitution. Since I was unloading most of my collection to buy a house we needed the funds. Even with a detective contacting them, the thief still wasn't taking it very serious.
They actually had the nerve to send me a check (agreed upon restitution), then cancel it before it cleared. They messed up because it was in his wife's name so the detective went after her as well for wire fraud or something along those lines. It got settled quickly after that. Everything was via emails and messages so there was quite a paper trail.
adamcartwright
·2 days agoWow -- what a story. I'm really glad that IC3 is taking these cases seriously -- the felonies, at least.
Yes, this forum is not user-friendly. When I saw the notification that you had replied to my comment, I clicked on it, and just saw your reply on the page all alone. There is no context of showing it with the comment to which it replied. So then I have to go back to the discussion to find my comment and read it before I read your reply.
The old system had so much better functionality.
kibble-net
·1 week agoI think small claims court is going to be more fruitful than expecting police to investigate this sort of matter on your behalf.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 week agoAS @eoma689485 suggests authorities will use the data in the report to support a larger effort with broader scope to be worth the efforts.
As for contacting as lawyer. some lawyers will readily send a demand letter to an online petty thief. Some of those petty thieves will soil their underwear on the receipt of the letter, and make restitution. Some of those lawyers who are used to dealing with small businesses charge a reasonable fee for sending the letter, and sometimes this long shot bet, pays off.
eoma689485
·1 week ago · EditedLocal Jurisdictions - You can file a report, but most local Police consider it a low priority misdemeanor. You will get a report to show your payment source if you care to.
Federal - You can file a report, but the FBI does not investigate individual $500 losses. Instead, their database uses algorithms to aggregate matching names, bank accounts, and addresses. Those can open an investigation, for example, If a scammer cons 100 people out of $300 each, the FBI links the cases into a $30,000 federal grand larceny case and hopefully can make an arrest.
louiserb2
·Aug 6, 2026 at 9:59 PMThat's what happened in my 2002 case, I went to court to give evidence of wire transfer and online fraud. The defendant had racked up a lot of fake sales.
worldcoinauctions
·1 week agoDoes it show under Orders Awaiting Shipment? If it does, it's sold, ship it. If it doesn't just don't worry about it.