How to report fraud

[jhii2300]

Help! I purchased a coffee grinder, i got the item, my account was charged the correct amount ($132) but now I'm getting calls from a coffee grinder store that I had ordered this item from their website, paid $195 for the item and now i'm trying to dispute the payment. This has got to be a scam. Its not me that is out the money but this poor coffee grinder place is screwed. This is just wrong. How can I fix this?

[inceptions]

@jhii2300 

A couple of things going on here:

1. Why did you pay the coffee grinder store again if you already paid? (They couldn't charge your account as they would have no access to your payment information, nor does the eBay seller.) Did you actually see a second charge on your credit card account that is for a different amount than the first? What is the item #?

2. If the seller dropshipped the item from a retailer, that is a policy violation. You can report the violation here:

https://www.ebay.com/help/action?topicid=4022

[eburtonlab]

Possibly your eBay seller was involved in a triangulation scam, taking money from you, then paying to have the item shipped to you from the coffee grinder store by using a stolen credit card number, which the cardholder is now disputing.

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/triangulation-fraud/

[inceptions]

@eburtonlab 

But the coffee grinder store would not have access to the OP's cc # in order to charge him, right? (Unless the OP actually personally paid the coffee grinder store.)

What I'm wondering is if the OP is seeing a pending and actual charge and isn't factoring sales tax and shipping compared to the item price on the listing.

[eburtonlab]

But the coffee grinder store would not have access to the OP's cc # in order to charge him, right? (Unless the OP actually personally paid the coffee grinder store.)

If this is indeed a triangulation scam, then the OP purchased from an eBay seller on eBay in the normal way. The seller (or someone acting on behalf of the seller -- such as a fraudulent drop-shipping operation) took the OP's name and shipping address and placed a non-eBay order directly with the coffee grinder store online, to be shipped directly to the OP, but paid for with someone else's credit card (not the OP's, and likely not the seller's).

Most likely this was done more than once with different addresses and different credit card numbers, and the coffee grinder store is noticing lots of suspicious transactions where the credit card holders are claiming unauthorized use of the cards long after the shipments were delivered.

Since the coffee grinder store (CGS) does not know who the eBay seller is, the CGS is contacting the recipient of the order -- the OP -- that is the only contact info the CGS has for the order. The CGS does not know who the eBay seller is, or who the credit card holder is -- and likely assumed that they were all the same person until very recently.

The triangulation scam is often effective because none of the affected parties has all the information needed to combat it, and it is often not apparent that a scam has even taken place until someone somewhere notices an unexplained credit card charge and disputes it.

[inceptions]

@eburtonlab 

All of that makes sense, and I understand why the CGS contacted the OP. 

But I'm trying to understand how the OP was charged twice as no one had his credit card # (unless he paid for the grinder himself, for the second time, when he was contacted by the CGS).  Am I missing something obvious?

[eburtonlab]

But I'm trying to understand how the OP was charged twice as no one had his credit card #

The OP was not charged twice, though I can see where you might think that from reading the original post.

The OP is saying that the CGS called, accusing the OP of disputing a $195 payment that was not made by the OP at all; the payment was actually made by the triangulation scammer on behalf of the OP, presumably with a stolen credit card. The actual cardholder now is disputing that payment, not the OP.

[inceptions]

@eburtonlab 

The OP wrote, "now I'm trying to dispute the payment," which is what may have steered me in the wrong direction. I think I was taking the OP's story too literally. Unfortunately, he/she hasn't posted back to clear anything up.

The triangulation scam makes sense here, and I think you have come to the correct conclusions.

Thanks for helping me see where I went wrong. 😊