Massive number of scams by sellers

[modepfd]

What has happened to eBay?

I've been away from the service for several years because I was out of the country.  Now that I'm back, I'm trying to go back to my old routine of buying stuff off of eBay.  But, there are a massive amount of scams by sellers listing products as brand new when they are clearly not brand new.  I've been trying to buy a phone and have so far won 5 auctions and each auction was either cancelled by the seller after I had paid for it (funds were returned to me so I didn't lose any money) or when I received the product, it was very easy to see the phone wasn't new.  Another variation to the scam, and the one I'm finding most often, is sellers listing phones as brand new when they're actually refurbished phones - the phones come in original, sealed packaging but is actually a refurbished phone, not a new phone.  These days, the price difference between a refurbished phone and new phone is around $100 for the type of phone I'm trying to buy.  So if a buyer doesn't know how to verify  if the phone is new by looking at the model number, they will have been scammed into paying far too much for their phone.

I'm almost at a point now where I have to abandon eBay because this is taking too much time.

[ed8108]

Unfortunately some dishonest individuals are selling not only on ebay but most everywhere else. Sad, that ethical behavior may be less common these days.

[bonjourami]

Two bad phone purchases is hardly 'massive'. Perhaps you need to vet your sellers a little better. The phone from China speaks for itself..and I would have been hesitant to purchase that phone from a newbie seller with no feedback on phone sales.

[sweetpieces4you]

If Its Not New it's Not New !! I should Saw a Show on TV that Phone Thefts are Up So Much Its unbelievable !! And stolen phones from the USA are being shipped to Foreign Countries where They have people that hack the phones and then Sell Them as New to Store Owners in these Countries !! And They are Getting Busted !! Because the Hacker can't Remove Everything on The Phone !! But the FBI Can !! 😎

[beez5720]

It depends on what you buy and who you buy from.  The only way scammers can survive is if there are fools who believe them.

[doortek · Accepted solution]

"because this is taking too much time." .... as yourself, I searched for a phone and after seemingly hours of weeding through the various descriptions that appeared subjective, if not purposely confusing, purchased new with a warranty inside a 'real' store that always seems to have a deal on something. The sales person transferred all data, unlocked my old phone, registered and hooked up new in 15 minutes.

[doortek]

"Fools?" .... hundreds, if not thousands of new sellers arrive each day and why there is a third variable with scammers, or with idiot sellers and that is eBay Guarantee.

But, if you 'abuse' it, which is up to someone with a higher pay scale, eBay will give you the boot instead of the scammers. "You should have known that it was too cheap for the description" or "too many returns for not as described" when purchasing at an auction is not appropriate reasoning for the buyer, but at the top, it is all about profits. Buying four or five phones and returning under eBay Guarantee is 'guaranteed' borderline...  🙂

[beez5720]

@doortek
You fell for some stupid scam, didn't you?

[doortek]

Not this week... 🙂  .... If you buy enough on eBay, you are going to have issues. Like I tell eBay, if not for eBay Guarantee, there would be no Asian sellers and about half of the US sellers would be on probation.

[babe4days123]

A lot of sellers are resellers and have no inventory. So once you buy from them and then they go to purchase it from another site to ship to you directly. That's when they notice either the price increased (they sold too cheap and no profit for them), item is no longer available or item is out of stock. Then your order is cancelled. There's an increase is seller's also selling returns that they buy a pallet worth of **bleep** for pennies on the dollar and resell them as New. Then there's the reburbished stuff they sell as New making big money off of buyers. On eBay I bought a used 14k bracelet. It was marked 14k, but years later I went to sell it they filed some gold off and hit another metal. I was very upset! Then we eBay first started I bought a diamond ring set for $1,000. The seller kept my money and never shipped and tried to sell it to everyone that bidded even though I won the bid. Back then you could communicate with other buyers bidding and I was ask if I had changed my mind because the seller told them I did. Right after I mailed my Post Office Money Orders that the seller insisted on.  I found out later that the post office will not cancel a money order for any reason. Because after I mailed off the money orders I saw eBay had suspended the seller. Omg, I contacted the seller and was reassured he would ship my ring set. Well, he never did and I had to get with the post office and file a report that I was scammed and paid for an item that was never shipped. This is different from a missing package report and more serious. The deadbeat seller got scared and shipped my ring. It was real gold, but the stones were CZ and I had no protection through eBay back then and I lost $1000. Then the other scams the sellers do is send an item that is already damaged and try to say it was damaged in shipping. You know it's a lie when the broken pieces aren't in the box. Another time I bought 2 expensive wall lamps. Heavy thick metal lamps and they arrived with one having about 3 inches from the tip curved inward. It appeared the pre-existing damage was caused from falling from the wall when it was hung up by someone. Because it would take a lot of force to bend something like this. The seller was sneaking because in the listing it stated mint condition. The photos where sneaky because the angle she tried to photograph them. Before I bought them I did notice how one appeared shorter and now I knew it was because of the curved damaged tip to one of them. The seller also tried to package it real **bleep** in a tiny box 6 inches deep and 20 long and it barely fit with very little packing protection hoping the glass bulb covers would break and she could really say damaged in shipping, but the box also had zero damage to it and the glass arrived in perfect condition even though she used one sheet of paper in box to packaged the glass bulb covers. I provided my proof by showing my pictures and the seller knew then she couldn't deny it any longer because it was clear she lied about the condition and purposely tried to photograph them in a certain way. She had also used a motorhome park address when she shipped it to me and she needed me to ship it back quickly because she didn't live there and shipped it from there while she was passing through....just sneaky. Even a great feedback seller has tried to pull a fast one. I bought a stove top grill and a extension tube. I got a tiny box that contained only the extension tube. I was told she shipped two separate boxes connected together and that the second box must be lost in shipping. I asked how were they connected and it took way too long to respond and then I was told the 2 boxes were taped together and shipped. Well, I photograhed every inch of the retail box I received for the extension ring and there were no signs that any extra tape was ever on the box or was ripped from the box. The box only had tape on the flaps to seal the box that the manufacturer had done. What a pain in the butt when they pull **bleep** like this! eBay has always been a hit or miss with honesty on both the sellers and buyers part from what I have read on this site.

[babe4days123]

A lot of sellers are resellers and have no inventory. So once you buy from them and then they go to purchase it from another site to ship to you directly. That's when they notice either the price increased (they sold too cheap and no profit for them), item is no longer available or item is out of stock. Then your order is cancelled. There's an increase is seller's also selling returns that they buy a pallet worth of **bleep** for pennies on the dollar and resell them as New. Then there's the reburbished stuff they sell as New making big money off of buyers. On eBay I bought a used 14k bracelet. It was marked 14k and looked like it to anyone, but years later I went to sell it they filed some 14k gold off and hit another metal. It suprised them too at how authentic it looked. I was very upset because the theives are getting really good at ripping people off by making anything look authentic! Then whe eBay first started I bought a diamond ring set for $1,000. The seller kept my money and never shipped and tried to sell it to everyone that bidded even though I won the bid. Back then you could communicate with other buyers bidding and I was ask if I had changed my mind because the seller told them I did. Right after I mailed my Post Office Money Orders that the seller insisted on.  I found out later that the post office will not cancel a money order for any reason. Because after I mailed off the money orders I saw eBay had suspended the seller. Omg, I contacted the seller and was reassured he would ship my ring set. Well, he never did and I had to get with the post office and file a report that I was scammed and paid for an item that was never shipped. This is different from a missing package report and more serious. The deadbeat seller got scared and shipped my ring. It was real gold, but the stones were CZ and I had no protection through eBay back then and I lost $1000. Then the other scams the sellers do is send an item that is already damaged and try to say it was damaged in shipping. You know it's a lie when the broken pieces aren't in the box. Another time I bought 2 expensive wall lamps. Heavy thick metal lamps and they arrived with one having about 3 inches from the tip curved inward. It appeared the pre-existing damage was caused from falling from the wall when it was hung up by someone. Because it would take a lot of force to bend something like this. The seller was sneaking because in the listing it stated mint condition. The photos where sneaky because the angle she tried to photograph them. Before I bought them I did notice how one appeared shorter and now I knew it was because of the curved damaged tip to one of them. The seller also tried to package it real **bleep** in a tiny box 6 inches deep and 20 long and it barely fit with very little packing protection hoping the glass bulb covers would break and she could really say damaged in shipping, but the box also had zero damage to it and the glass arrived in perfect condition even though she used one sheet of paper in box to packaged the glass bulb covers. I provided my proof by showing my pictures and the seller knew then she couldn't deny it any longer because it was clear she lied about the condition and purposely tried to photograph them in a certain way. She had also used a motorhome park address when she shipped it to me and she needed me to ship it back quickly because she didn't live there and shipped it from there while she was passing through....just sneaky. Even a great feedback seller has tried to pull a fast one. I bought a stove top grill and a extension tube. I got a tiny box that contained only the extension tube. I was told she shipped two separate boxes connected together and that the second box must be lost in shipping. I asked how were they connected and it took way too long to respond and then I was told the 2 boxes were taped together and shipped. Well, I photograhed every inch of the retail box I received for the extension ring and there were no signs that any extra tape was ever on the box or was ripped from the box. The box only had tape on the flaps to seal the box that the manufacturer had done. What a pain in the butt when they pull **bleep** like this! eBay has always been a hit or miss with honesty on both the sellers and buyers part from what I have read and experienced.

[mudshark61369]

@modepfd,

  "I've been trying to buy a phone and have so far won 5 auctions and each auction was either cancelled by the seller after I had paid for it (funds were returned to me so I didn't lose any money)".

Did you check the feedback profile of those sellers before buying from them?  It is possible they were new sellers who ran into PayPal's 21 day hold on payments.  Their account shows the payment marked as Pending, so they do not think the money is there yet. The hold can also be placed on sellers who have not sold in more than a year, or who sell something much higher than the average cost of their previous sales. 

  "Another variation to the scam, and the one I'm finding most often, is sellers listing phones as brand new when they're actually refurbished phones - the phones come in original, sealed packaging but is actually a refurbished phone, not a new phone".

Sellers should not be listing those phones as new if they are refurbished.  Again checking a sellers feedback profile and clicking on the numbers of non-positive feedback they have to read only those comments can usually tell you if they do that often. You could also message sellers and ask if the phone they have listed are refurbished or not.

One thing to keep in mind is when a Mfr's phone stops being sold in stores, because of newer models being released, that they get sold to resellers who are not Authorized Dealers. Therefore, the original Mfr's warranty is no longer in effect. At least a Mfr. refurbished phone has a warranty, and is better tested than phones coming out of the factory.

[modepfd]

Thank you for the reply.  You are correct and usually I only buy from sellers who are active and have a good number of previous sales and an excellent rating.  But, even these high rating sellers I've found are engaged in such practices.

It's not difficult to avoid being scammed but the problem is that there is a lot of noise - too many transactions that are fraudulent and it takes too much time to message sellers to verify their products.  I might as well buy from somewhere else.  Many sellers don't even respond - so yes, you don't buy from sellers who don't respond but all this takes extra time in having to track who emails were sent to and who replied or didn't.  Who wants to do this?

There are 2 things eBay can do to help with this:  (i) for iPhones (can't speak for other phones), one of the fields a seller should have to fill in to sell the iPhone should be the model number that they should copy off the box/phone; this way, one can quickly tell if the phone is new (new phone model numbers begin with "M," etc.) and it would make it far more difficult for sellers to claim a phone is new when the model number they're putting in the auction listing clearly indicates it's a refurb, etc.; (ii) there should be a selection category for such types of fraud on the report an auction page; the current options can't be used for such cases and you're forced to manually call customer support to report the problem which probably does nothing.