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Anyone have a package rerouted then get a unauthorized chargeback? HELP FRAUD

Recently we just sold an expensive laptop on here, trust me we know the risks but we thought we took every bit of precaution but I guess that was not enough. So we sell the laptop and ship it promptly (with DIRECT SIGNATURE REQUIRED). Three days after its delivered we get a chargeback notice from PayPal stating that the buyer opened up an "unauthorized charge" claim with their bank.  When we called PayPal the gentlemen over the phone was super nice and was totally grieving with us and seemed to genuinely feel bad, he said since its unauthorized and that we followed protocol by shipping the package promptly that we should be good and if the chargeback is ruled in the customer's favor by their bank that PayPal will take the hit. Though here is the issue, the package was rerouted to an address nearly 2 hours away from the buyer (yes the scammer was able to convince FedEx to reroute it despite direct signature requirement). At first we thought the original owner of the eBay account committed the fraud but its a lady that owns a business and she seemed very eager to help us find out who did this.

 

The problem here is we're very afraid PayPal will screw us over and tell us that since the package was rerouted that it will screw with the the whole "seller protection" program, We had one PayPal rep even tell us this but another told us to not to worry that since the package was delivered somewhere close to the buyer that it can still help us out in our case. The original owner of the eBay account has her business address as the shipping address to where the laptop was originally shipped to so we believe that the original account owner is telling the truth by using the logic of "who would commit fraud using their business name". Anyways, we got the address of where the laptop ended up at from FedEx, we got the phone number and name of the person who lives at that address and even called them, they answered, when they found out we were calling to confront about the frauded merchandise they started franticly yelling that they have nothing to do with this and that they do not know what we are talking about and kept hanging up, yes, it was very suspicious and obvious. 

 

Just need some insight on how fellow sellers would handle something like this, I've already put a tip to CrimeStoppers in the scammer's jurisdiction and the original owner of the eBay account we sold the laptop to stated that she's going to fill out a police report. All this and honestly, I don't think the scammer is willing to just ship the item back, talking to him on the phone he sounds like your average American, meaning this isn't no nigerian scammer, the scammer is domestic. We even told the scammer and so did the original owner of the eBay account (we shared the scammer's number with her) that the police will be contacted and this doesn't seem to phase them, they probably think it was just some sort of "scare tactic" but this isn't, we are honestly considering filling out the police report online in the next day or so on our end the original eBayer told us she already did it on her end.

 

Any advice will be helpful. Thank you.

Message 1 of 22
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Re: Anyone have a package rerouted then get a unauthorized chargeback? HELP FRAUD

Learned a lot from this experience. Yes its ultimately the bank''s decision (since the chargeback is thru them) but PayPal will defend you but you have to help them and send them as much info you have as possible. In our case the buyer told their bank they never authorized the transaction and when we spoke to PayPal they said the transaction is covered under their "seller protection" program since its not the seller's fault if the transaction wasn't authorized, and sure enough their word was good. My best guess is PayPal takes the burn on these types of cases.

Message 16 of 22
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Re: Anyone have a package rerouted then get a unauthorized chargeback? HELP FRAUD


@famo_famo_5 wrote:

 

A helpful tip, save your shipping receipt! On the receipt it showed where the item was addressed to go to, don't know if this is what helped us the most but we did send that over to PayPal to prove to them that our full intention was to ship to the address PayPal/eBay provided to us. Its scary though that despite DIRECT SIGNATURE requirement the conman was able to convince FedEx to redirect the package. 


When you get an unauthorized use claim PayPal has a standard procedure for response.  Give them the tracking number that shows you shipped to the zip code on the payment transaction details Ship To address.

 

That's it.

 

Anything beyond that, such as your notice of redirect, doesn't matter.  Just give them the original tracking.

 

The really helpful hint is for all sellers to read both eBay's and PayPal's seller protection policies.  The details on what you need to be covered are spelled out pretty clearly in PayPal's SPP.

Message 17 of 22
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Re: Anyone have a package rerouted then get a unauthorized chargeback? HELP FRAUD

That's the scary part. We even had a "DIRECT SIGNATURE" restriction on the package, meaning (according to FedEx) only the someone at the address it was shipped  to is to sign for it, we don't know how the scammer was able to reroute it. Unless the buyer is in on it.. but it was hard to tell if she was in on it since she answered our phone call and was willing to cooperate with us in every step to figure out what happened. 

 

Its solved though, thank God paypal emailed us today saying the money is released since we were protected under "seller protection."

Message 18 of 22
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Re: Anyone have a package rerouted then get a unauthorized chargeback? HELP FRAUD


@famo_famo_5 wrote:

Thank God! Just got the email from PayPal today saying they're covering it. Of course it sucks that someone frauded an item, and of course all we care about is getting to keep our money but just the very thought that a fraud was committed on our watch just makes us angry. 

 

 

A helpful tip, save your shipping receipt! On the receipt it showed where the item was addressed to go to, don't know if this is what helped us the most but we did send that over to PayPal to prove to them that our full intention was to ship to the address PayPal/eBay provided to us. Its scary though that despite DIRECT SIGNATURE requirement the conman was able to convince FedEx to redirect the package. 


Color me cynical but I doubt very much the buyer's account was "hacked".

 

It was a good try though.

Reality is the leading cause of stress.
Message 19 of 22
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Re: Anyone have a package rerouted then get a unauthorized chargeback? HELP FRAUD


@famo_famo_5 wrote:

That's the scary part. We even had a "DIRECT SIGNATURE" restriction on the package, meaning (according to FedEx) only the someone at the address it was shipped  to is to sign for it, we don't know how the scammer was able to reroute it. Unless the buyer is in on it.. but it was hard to tell if she was in on it since she answered our phone call and was willing to cooperate with us in every step to figure out what happened. 

 

Its solved though, thank God paypal emailed us today saying the money is released since we were protected under "seller protection."


Even a direct signature can be rerouted.  Now if it’s rerouted to a fed ex pick up place they are supposed to show id.   If they reroute to another personal address I don’t know 

“Birth certificates show that you were born. Death certificates show that you died. Photographs show that you have lived.” -Unknown
Message 20 of 22
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Re: Anyone have a package rerouted then get a unauthorized chargeback? HELP FRAUD

"Color me cynical but I doubt very much the buyer's account was "hacked"."

That was always in the back of our heads too. We'll never forget this incident because it was very scary and really, really p*ssed us off to say the least. Like we didn't want to implicate the business because who'd be dumb enough to commit fraud under their business name, that's a recipe to hurt a business with bad reviews, etc but at the same time its like **bleep** the chargeback was indeed filed very promptly. Above all thank God we were able to recover our money though. We were also very appreciative of those PayPal reps over the phone that genuinely sympathized with us and understood the situation.
Message 21 of 22
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Re: Anyone have a package rerouted then get a unauthorized chargeback? HELP FRAUD

The seller claimed her "account was hacked" .. so we were lead to believe the hacker got the tracking number when we shipped it and they called FedEx and convinced them to reroute it elsewhere. What's weird is FedEx and if remembered correctly even at the time when we called Fedex to clarify this the rep over the phone confirmed it, that to reroute a package the caller needs to verify the tracking number by disclosing both addresses on the label as a form of verification. So the fraudster either got an incompetent Fedex employee over the phone or something.

The strange thing is we only got notification from PayPal that the buyer reported unauthorized transaction from the financial institution. They didn't make this claim through PayPal or eBay. But directly to their credit card company, PayPal's email was just letting us know basically with steps on what to do to fight the chargeback.

Just posting this up here as well, if this God forbid happens to someone else, be persistent with PayPal, don't just send the documents online and hope for the best, send the required documents and call, chat, or email PayPal for followups daily. This got us our money back quicker, rather than waiting in fear for however long it would have taken without pestering them.
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