@srinsler,
"One thing mentioned was tracking numbers from sellers.
If they bother to provide one, it might have a NONEXISTANT destination, so the post office would send it back".
If the tracking information states not deliverable as addressed, or cannot be delivered, address does not exist, etc.. You can file an Item Not Received (INR) dispute.
" If the return address is also NONEXISTANT, the product goes someplace, but is not necessarily retrieveable... That is done to enable the scamming seller to tell ebay that the product was lost by the Post Office''.
The return address would not come into play once tracking shows the item could not be delivered. The issue would the be between the seller and the P.O.. It would not affect an ebay or PayPal dispute.
"I received an anonymous tracking number in my email account (without a message from the seller in my ebay account)".
If a tracking number is not uploaded to the ebay listing or PayPal transaction details. The number sent to you cannot be considered by either company as proof of delivery.
"To avoid this package from getting lost, I called my post office. They were able to tell me the destination address - which wasn't my house and was actually NONEXISTANT.
I registered an online account with the post office, signed in and was able to CHANGE the destination to be HELD at my local post office.
Then I was able to go pick it up when they told me it had arrived.
And NO, it wasn't the item I purchased on ebay".
Having an item held for pick up, will cause a delivery scan to be entered, so you could not use INR as a reason for a dispute. However, you could get a postal employee to witness the shipping information was not your address if you took a copy of the transaction from ebay. You could also open a postal fraud dispute if you received an envelope, when a box should have been received. Again, if the tracking was not uploaded, within the seller's handling time, it wouldn't matter what you received or where it was addressed.
" I can't be sure who sent this and if it was from the scammer seller or not, but at least I didn't have to worry about the seller arguing about my claim and delaying my refund, which ebay promptly arranged. Hope that is helpful to someone".
Some of the info has been posted many times usually on topics with a title like "tracking shows delivery but I didn't receive it". Not all of your info would help though in some situations.
"I recently foolishly purchased something too good to be true. I recognized that this might be a scam...".
If you thought this might be a scam, why did you make the purchase? This sort of thing does happen, but it would not happen if people would use their common sense, or listen to their inner voice telling them this is too good to be true in the first place. There is nothing ebay can do to fix human nature though.
"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FOOLPROOF, BECAUSE FOOLS ARE SO DARNED INGENIOUS!" (unknown)
