Got a stumper for any sleuths who want to take a crack! I just got a notification that a buyer filed a return, and it's a doozie, total multi-layer cake. Right away you'll notice there are red flags reminiscent of a 'face mask' or 'zip code' type scam, but HOLD. -If you keep looking, that doesn't add up. In fact in some ways it more resembles an INR scam. But in one major way, it doesn't seem a likely scam at all. I mean, if you're gonna commit ANY kind of mail fraud, I wouldn't think it'd be worth it for a $33 item.
Okay, so yes it is new account with what I ASSUMED was a freight forwarder address.
Here's the return reason and photo. Ridiculous closeup, but I know, that doesn't matter.
Now here's where the weird comes in. -According to tracking, this package hasn't even been delivered yet. Says they tried Saturday but the business was closed. I have seen that happen tons of times with freight forwarders, and then the package just gets delivered the following Monday. But it's the middle of the night between Sunday and Monday right now, so ........
Also look at the scans. -How was it out for delivery at 6:10 AM if it didn't even arrive at the post office until over 5 hours later???
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
The buyer's address is ..... not an address. It's woods on a highway. There are (allegedly) some other nearby businesses, but they are also supposedly in those woods, and there's no building structures shown in 'map view', nor is there a driveway, as in, no way to drive ..... into these woods, to go to these businesses. And I certainly don't see anything resembling the industrial park building like what most F.F.'s look like.
So, I can't even guess what that turquoise blue evidence photo is 'of' because I don't see how they could have these earrings in their possession to photograph. And yup, I checked my listing photos to see if they just cropped one of those .... but nope, none of my photos have that framed windowpane light reflection.
Welp I thought this thing was over, but apparently this scammer is REALLY determined to get my $33! Yesterday I went to my account, sighed to see that I still haven't sold anything (I think it has been almost a week now, I'm getting pretty bummed, and I have ANOTHER return on its' way back to me, with no money in my spendable funds to use for it).
And as usual this annoying thing is still at the top of my home page:
I was sick of it and wondered when it would go away. So I decided to ask EFB. Got an interesting but satisfying answer:
Then tonight I went to my homepage, still nothing sold, but then I realized the top of the page was prompts to send offers on items. NO prompt about that return. And I almost shrugged it off, like Chelsey's effort must have worked after all, just with a lag, and the return was now closed. But something made me decide to check and make SURE. So I went to my returns, and sure enough this one is closed ..... but not because eBay closed it, not because the buyer is NARU .... BECAUSE THEY STARTED A CHARGEBACK! And LOOK, it says I don't have to do anything!
So I'm like "Is this a joke? An error? Did Chelsea accidentally pick the wrong reason to close it? -Because I sure as heck did not get any kind of notification that I have a chargeback. It's not on my homescreen, and I didn't get a push notification on my phone! But I go to my messages, and .... sure enough it was last night, about 12 hours after Chelsey tried to close the whole thing.
And according to this, that whole "You don't have to do anything" bit might be incorrect.
I guess it shouldn't surprise me that even a NARU'd buyer can file a chargeback. I mean I could just as likely see them filing one for an item they bought in a store that they are no longer allowed to enter, as long as they have the receipt. And the thing is, this one even has proof of "delivery."
So I have posted the update to EFB. Guess I'll see what Chelsey or whoever answers this time says to do. I am confident that at the very least eBay will do a courtesy refund on my behalf, but I am not satisfied with that. I mean just look at ALL the entities they are defrauding at this point: me, eBay, USPS, and now their own financial institution! FOR $33!!!!
Well the simplest answer would be that the scammer themselves actually wanted the earrings. But it is quite possible that they were advertised on google for even cheaper, and this "buyer" is sort of like a dropshipper who also does these fake returns, so however much they get from the person who orders from them is pure profit. It would be a pretty easy thing to do if you worked right in a freight forwarding facility -you would have the means to ship to everywhere in the world, probably a bulk carrier discount, plenty of packing materials at your fingertips, including to ship back to real sellers as "returns."
If your head is hurting even more, or you think I'm crazy, here I'll show you what I discovered about a year ago:
I googled 'trifari bird brooch' when doing some research. In 'images' I accidentally found "websites" (with weird names -not your usual Etsy, Ruby Lane, 1st Dibs or even small websites with names involving "vintage" or "jewelry" or anything like that). And when I clicked I found they had listings offering insanely rare and valuable old Trifari brooches that would actually be worth hundreds of dollars, priced crazy cheap.
But right away I knew something was really wrong. Besides the too-good-to-be-true prices, the titles weren't very descriptive and each listing had only one photo. Then I realized how DIFFERENT the photos looked, like they were taken by lots of different people. Then I found one that had EBAY watermarked right on it!
So then I used google lens to see if I could find live listings with the exact same photos. Sure enough I found one on Etsy. -So I wrote to that seller to let her see that someone was offering her piece on this "website". btw I put that in quotes because they are only websites in the loosest sense of the word. Each one is here today, gone tomorrow. This ^ one didn't have a whole lot of item categories, some apparel, shoes, sunglasses. The weird thing was they had a search bar but typing 'trifari' or even 'brooch' did NOT give any of these results, even though I know I just saw them on the previous page! -I don't even understand what kind of site they are.
But the vast majority of the ones I lens'ed, had no exact matches. So either google was just failing to find the live listings corresponding to the photos .... or they were not actually for sale anywhere. Actually, now I remember a couple of them were social media posts, just chicks showing off pieces in their collections.
So, these people are probably screwing over both buyers and the sellers, depending on the item.
Well I put my all into this payment dispute. Funny how it didn't say until AFTER I submitted my response that I won't be charged no matter what. (By the way, has anyone ever seen THAT screen before?).
But I really am not satisfied, I hate that I'll have to wait a month to find out what the CC says. I know, I know, they always side with their customer. But maybe for once they could be convinced a customer is trying to USE THEM and they won't put up with it.
I really, really want this little piece of dog poo to bleeeeeed.
Or you know, just lose the case. Maybe lose their bank account.
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Final update:
Welp, I guess the only thing I should be surprised by was how swiftly this was completed (12 days; I've never had one take less than a month before). And no, it doesn't affect my money or anything else, so I still have reason to be proud of the steps I took before this even went to a payment dispute. But I still can't help but be dismayed by the bank's decision, considering all the quantity and quality of evidence I provided to them. If that couldn't convince them that their customer was abusing their protection, what would ? And yeah, it makes me nauseous picturing this scammer seeing the notification and throwing its' fist into the air in triumph, and for all it knows, the money IS coming from me, and that's what I get for resisting in the first place. Ugh. And worse, it has now learned that if Scam Plan A doesn't work, Plan B probably will, and it may even be sharing its' findings on a forum just like I'm doing now, but in its' case a forum for low down chunky worm poo scammers.
Saw your post down below referencing 'trifari bird brooch' and I decided to run a WHOIS search on the site whose photo you featured.
If you think it appropriate and want to take your detective work to the next level, you can report suspicious activity (this site or any site you suspect might be engaged in fraudulent behavior) to the domain name registrar (excerpt below). You can see the full look up page here. These registrars would be happy to hear from you.
