I have almost been scammed!

[annie96740]

I post this because I don’t want this to happen to another eBay buyer. Recently I bought a really beautiful Prada bag from an eBay seller in Brazil. The post office tracking said package delivered but to my surprise it was not in my mailbox. So, I went to my local post office to enquire and found out that this EBay seller in Brazil somehow managed to use a tracking number of someone else’s package and tie it to my shipping address. I obtained a copy of the shipping label from the post office. The shipping label has the same tracking number provided by this EBay seller in Brazil but the sender/recipient are retail stores in my town, and the package was mailed locally and not from Brazil. I talked to the recipient who is the manager of the store. She said the package delivered to her is something she ordered for her shop from a store on the other side of town and has no handbag in it. Luckily, I was able to obtain a copy of the shipping label to prove that even though the post office tracking showed package was delivered, it was NOT delivered to me or to my address. I was finally  able to get my money back. This whole thing appeared to be a scammed. Please beware! Do other eBay buyers have similar experience?

[gosimus]

@annie96740 

< Do other eBay buyers have similar experience? >    

Similar stories are posted on these boards dozens, maybe hundreds, of times.  Not all their stories have the [eventually] happy ending yours has.  Good work chasing down all the documentation.  

[ms.rodriguez*]

see if you can post a negative to that seller.  Do NOT mention ebay helped you get a refund.  Write something that will destroy their sales..  "Seller is a scammer. He used a fake tracking #.  I never got my item."

[annie96740]

The last time I checked, the listing of this EBay seller in Brazil was deleted and this seller was suspended. However, the seller can use new identity to scam again. Hence my post. I was really worried I couldn’t get my money back. I would not have if I hadn’t obtained the shipping label to prove my case. Once tracking confirmed delivery, i don’t think eBay buyers will have much recourse unless you have proof to the contrary. I have been bidding on eBay for almost 20 years mostly as a buyer. It is the time this happened to me. I was shocked!

[ittybitnot]

 Do other eBay buyers have similar experience?

@annie96740 

Yes, it happens and is being reported here more often.  It even has a name:  FAKE TRACKING SCAM

It is used both by unsavory sellers to show proof of delivery, and by scamming buyers to show false proof of a return.  

Since the processes are basically automated almost any sort of "delivered" notification will satisfy eBay bots and first tier customer service be the victim a buyer or a seller.  You are very fortunate to have obtained the documentation you needed in order to override the eBay system.  Though I am sorry you did not get your bag, I am, as well as others here,  thrilled you got your money back!!!! 

[tekkwhiz]

I am not sure if this would be helpful, but I am signed up on USPS to "Informed Delivery" and when someone ships something to me with a tracking number, I can actually see that immediately in my account. (In other words, I don't need to even put the tracking number in, since USPS automatically identifies my address as the destination for that package!) In the case you're describing, that package would have never shown up in your Informed Delivery.

I had a similar thing happen to a friend of mine, and the package showed it was delivered but the town was wrong, it was a nearby town. I was helping and was able to dispute this shipment successfully for her. 

Unfortunately it appears a seller can just insert any tracking number of a package which was delivered in your town, they probably just find discarded boxes? Sounds like the seller wasn't even from Brazil, it's a fake account, more likely someone in your town, or a seller in Brazil using a "mule" to supply tracking numbers?

Another thing to consider is that buying high end brands online is risky because they are highly sought after which is very attractive to scammers who prey on people who try to get a great deal. The products might be counterfeits or simply never arrive at all. The problem goes beyond eBay, in fact there are thousands of fake websites that appear to be real stores but when you check carefully they are just fake websites set up to trick you into putting in your payment for the scammers. (Even if they list some address, if you enter it into Google maps/streets, you will find there is no such building or business there at all!) This is why eBay and Amazon are getting so much business, it's hard to know what to trust online thanks to all the scammers!

Hope this is helpful, and glad to hear you got your money back!

[annie96740]

Thank you all very much for your very helpful response. Hopefully our posts will help bring more awareness to buyers, as well as eBay to rid of scammers. I used to buy with confidence thinking if sellers don’t send items or items not as described, I’ll get my money back. I never have thought scammers can fake tracking! This incident is an eye opener, I’ll definitely be extra cautious  especially if a seller has no feedback or the listing location is overseas. I’m extremely lucky to get my money back this time. A lesson learned. Thank you again for all of your support.

[tekkwhiz]

The best thing about shopping on eBay is that sellers have a detailed feedback history! This makes it very easy to stay away from possible scammers. It's disappointing that a lot of buyers neglect to give a feedback rating these days, people used to do this far more often in the past, so it's hard for new sellers to gain some good feedbacks but it is still possible, just slower. However if I'm shopping for something and I see something that seems too good to be true (generally a very low price) and the seller has a 0 feeback history, and just signed up a short time ago, that's a huge giveaway that it's a scammer. Sometimes they are able to "sell" for a short time till they are caught. I really do my best to buy from sellers with an excellent rating and a decent feedback history. If you stick with this rule, you'll always be fine, except for honest mistakes which can happen. (This is even better than Amazon where there are plenty of totally fake reviews on items, and seller feedback is more cryptic and hard to ascertain. In fact there are many more scammers there, setting up fake accounts, gotta be very careful there to buy from sellers who didn't just open up an account yesterday lol)

[annie96740]

So true, I always leave detailed feedback. It’s good eBay allows more words now in feedback so I can explain why the sellers deserve either a 5 star positive or 1 star negative. Before this fake tracking incident, I was much less skeptical, I thought I should give sellers who are  just starting out with 0 feedback a chance to build up a business. We all have to start somewhere. After what happened, I won’t buy from a seller without feedback especially if the location is overseas. I believe faking a post office tracking is mail fraud, and it should be reported to the postal inspection.

[tekkwhiz]

Thank you! Yes I make it a point to always leave feedback since sellers, in particular, really need it more than ever, although there are also buyers who are scammers, so everyone needs feedback, this is what makes eBay such a desirable marketplace. Yeah there are sellers who are pretty new and may not have feedback but you can also tell by maybe buying history, or how long they've been members, what items they are offering. In general sellers are buyers first, so almost every legit seller will have some feedbacks for their previous purchases. Also depends what the item is. If it's a new and popular item, priced very attractively, generally much lower than others, and the seller has no feedback at all and just signed up within the past few weeks, it's clear it's not for real. International is always more risky, unless it's a huge seller with many feedbacks. These big Chinese sellers are legit, and items tend to take at minimum 2 weeks, and up to even 8 weeks, and on average about 20 to 30 days.

Absolutely, fake post office tracking is mail fraud, but I guess every case would require a lot of investigation since these scammers are probably hiding behind stolen accounts and what not.

Anyway I found another discussion with 19 replies about this very same fake tracking issue, and this also happens with UPS as well. Seems the main problem is that tracking numbers are not specific enough to a particular address when you check them, I guess due to privacy, anybody can get a tracking number and enter it, and this can be more difficult to resolve when this happens. But as I said in the beginning, if you are signed up to Informed Delivery, and someone ships you something with USPS, if they buy the shipping online, as they should, like in the eBay system, it will show in your USPS account! Just another way to protect yourself.

This is the other discussion of this: Beware of fake tracking number scam - The eBay Community

[annie96740]

It’s excellent advice about signing up for informed delivery. When this scammer mailed me the bag, the post office tracking did show that it was coming to my town and my zip code. It did not show the recipient’s complete address (for obvious reasons), and I thought it was coming to me because the zip code was correct. The scammer figured out to use a recipient living in the same town with the same zip code. Would the informed delivery be able to show that the package I s coming to my address and not just the zip code? Thanks again.

[simba6]

That is the classic fake tracking number scam.  You just send a cheap item to another address in the same zip code.  eBay has known about it for years but taken no action.  Always pay be credit card for the added protection.

[tekkwhiz]

Exactly, yeah that's the whole idea. Just plugging in a tracking number doesn't show the address it's going to, obviously for privacy/security reasons, however when you have a USPS account and you are signed up to Informed Delivery, this shows you, and only you, all the mail that's coming to your exact address! It will show you scans of letters that were sorted with your address, and if someone ships you a tracked package it will also show you that you're due to receive a package in the packages tab. As I was saying earlier, you don't even need to insert a tracking number, it will just show in your account! So if it's a scam and it wasn't shipped to you, it would never show up in your Informed Delivery at all. I think that would make good evidence that the tracking number that was given to you, wasn't for you at all!

Yes, absolutely, a scammer would certainly try to provide eBay with a tracking number that would show your town, but one more important thing to keep in mind is that sellers on eBay almost always generate the shipping label within the sale itself, which means that they don't need to "provide" a tracking number to eBay, it's already part of the "purchase shipping label" workflow! The only time a seller would be "providing a tracking number" would be when they are avoiding the eBay shipping workflow, and are going elsewhere to obtain a shipping label, or stamps. When you print a label to send the item to the customer, the label automatically has the buyer's name and address on it already, the seller doesn't need to do anything. A scammer would avoid generating a label on eBay, they would indicate they shipped the item and there would be no tracking, or the tracking would be added later. Sure sometimes it's a very small seller who hardly ever sells anything, and they don't know the technology, say, they don't have a printer or they don't know how to use their smartphone to get a QR Code to go to the post office or shipping center and have them print the label for them. It happens, but that's why it's safer to buy from more experienced sellers who know how to ship properly using the easy eBay workflow.

[tekkwhiz]

Of course eBay knows about this, but they don't want to make it harder for honest sellers to ship things. No need to worry, eBay wants to make sure buyers are satisfied and when something like this happens and you contact eBay support, they take it seriously. Remember that eBay is always on the lookout for fraudulent sellers and when something happens they consider the reputation of the seller and the buyer as well. There are also buyers who are scammers and will receive an item and claim it wasn't received. This is why as a seller you should always use the preferred eBay workflow and purchase your shipping label on eBay, so there won't be any questions as to whether you shipped the item to the correct person or not.

Sometimes packages can get stolen as well, that presents another problem, but as I say, eBay considers the reputation of the parties involved. Heck I had a package stolen by the mailman himself! But in that case the seller was happy to just send me a replacement!

Anyway, if you get scammed this way, eBay will refund your money and close the seller's account when you let them know. Scammers don't do this type of thing just once, they will be doing it to others as well, so they can't play innocent. Yeah it's always smart to use a credit card, and they will also refund your money if you have made an attempt to resolve the issue and weren't successful. But it's best to be safe and carefully vet the seller before you buy anything, and make sure it's a real deal and not a scam. If it looks too good to be true, it's a scam.

[annie96740]

Thank you for spending the time to explain. Certainly, Informed Delivery is something eBay buyers should consider signing up for.  Buyers will also have more protection and feel safer if EBay requires the tracking label  and tracking number be automatically generated within the EBay system for the specific transaction. This way the package will have to be mailed to the buyer of the transaction. What I don’t understand is how the scammer managed to find someone else’ tracking number which happened to be the same town and zip of the buyer to enter manually into the EBay system?