Buyer from Russian Federation keeps buying items using different accounts

[ironbreed]

Over the last 2 days, a buyer from Russia makes single purchases every 20 mins or so using new and different user named accounts.  I know it's the same person because they are using 2 different Oregon shipping addresses.  They have now purchased 19 individual (same) items in different colors using different accounts.  I have been cancelling and blocking each name after they purchase but they just continue to make a new account and make single purchases of the same item.  

I went into my listing and changed all of the prices to crazy amounts to get them to stop.  I don't know if they plan to move on to one of my other listings and continue or not.

I don't know what their intention is of doing this when I keep cancelling every purchase they make to try and deter them from doing this.  It makes no sense

Has anyone else had this same problem before?

[dhbookds]

The Oregon addresses may be reshippers so that doesn't necessarily mean it's the same buyer.  Did they pay using the same real name?  I would call ebay and ask them to check if it's the same person......they can do that......

As to  it happening before.......years ago a buyer could/did buy out whole stores.....but ebay could/did stop them when sellers called. 

[ironbreed]

Yes, 2 different names, (that are hard to pronounce), with only 2 distinct different Oregon shipping addresses. 

Purchasing 19 decals individually, when I give discounts when buying multiple quantities, makes no sense.

Each single decal they buy is $1.85 and they are all newly created accounts with 0 feedbacks.

I changed the price of the $1.85 decal to $185.00 and then they moved on to the next size up which was $2.25

They have done this now 19 times in the last 2 days!  I called eBay twice about this and they were no help.  Told me they cannot tell who these individuals are and told me to block them from making purchases.  Problem is, they keep creating a new account every single time they make a purchase... so it's a never ending process of cancelling and blocking these accounts.  Of course every time I cancel and refund, the money keeps coming out of my accounts payable for the day, and I'm in the negative now.

I now changed all of the prices of all the sizes to ridiculous amounts so they might stop.  They aren't responding when I asked them to stop and after I cancel their purchases either which is also a red flag.

[myescape]

What reason are you using to cancel and why not just ship each item since they paid?

[ironbreed]

I won't mail these since I fear they are just going to claim they never received it. 

These decals are mailed in a stamped envelope since they are only $1.85

eBay is absolutely no help for sellers like me that sell decals and mail them by stamp.  They only have helped those that sell trading cards, stamps, coins and postcards offering "standard envelope" so those can be tracked when mailed 

I've been doing this for 20 years before all the "rule" changes without the tracking requirements.  When I see weird activity like this, my only choice is to cancel BEFORE they just claim they never received it. 

99% of my customers are honest and I take care of the ones that get "lost in the mail" 

This only applies to the small tiny decals that people buy from me.  No one is going to pay $4.00 shipping for a $1.85 sticker

When someone comes along and does what these Russians have been doing, it throws a red flag and I try to protect myself since eBay will just simply give them their money back since there's no tracking.

[px_455]

So you're deciding these things because your spider senses are tingling?

If a buyer has paid it is the seller's obligation to ship the order.

You can't just keep cancelling orders from paying buyers, eaby will in some order take a dim view of that.

[ironbreed]

You must be out of touch.  I did what eBay told me to do.   They agreed that this was suspicious activity and said to cancel and block these transactions.  Why the rudeness?

[fashunu4eeuh]

It is quite possible you are canceling legit sales. Resellers often purchase goods for their overseas clients. They may not be interested in bulk discounts if each item is being shipped individually. Take into consideration that at this price point, fraud is very unlikely.

While the buying pattern of this customer is curious, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it is a scam attempt. Have you reached out to the buyer? Rather than cancel, i would contact them to allay your concerns.

As for the advice given by eBay customer service, they often say what is expedient, not what is actually informed direction.

[vintage-camerastuff]

You have never dealt with Russian buyers.  They are notorious for never receiving items and demanding a refund.  ironbreed is correct in canceling these purchases.   This is a scam waiting to happen.

[ironbreed]

Did you read my posts?  There's been no response back from them when I emailed them...Like I said before.  This is when I called eBay and they recommended to cancel and block these transactions.  I did that, but they kept creating new accounts and were able to continue purchasing the same individual items all over again.  That's when I raised the prices to stop them.  It took almost an hour to remove and block all of this activity.  I'm tired of screwing around with these scammers as it's DEFINETLY  NOT LEGIT.

[somanypostcards]

This or similar multiple fraudulent purchases by new or inactive old accounts has happened to me also.  Search for the discussion How do I report 19 suspicious sales? for details.  This has been going on for a long time.

One problem is that eBay monitors buyers.  They need to monitor the ship to person and address, as that is where the beneficiary of fraud can be tracked.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-report-19-suspicious-sales/m-p/31742515

[somanypostcards]

Here's another link to a later bout of fraudulent purchases:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/18-Suspicious-Sales-Today-No-Easy-Way-to-Report-Fraud/m-p/3182...

[katzrul15]

Our chargeback scams were all Russian Federation freight forwarder sales minus 1.

All of those IDs are now NARU.

If this persists, I would reach out to e-Bay on social media (facebook for business) and ask for assistance. 

https://facebook.com/eBayForBusiness

[ironbreed]

So, I found out from eBay fraud dept. that these Russian trolls are making low purchases to try and see if they work, so they can use these accounts to make large purchases in the future to defraud sellers down the road.  They can't really control all of this activity with the use of hacking and VPNs.  So, sellers BEWARE and keep your street smarts.  If you see unusual buying activity, then you might want to cancel and block them to protect yourself from being part of this.  Especially when they don't respond to your emails and keep making purchases with different accounts every 15-20 mins.

[px_455]

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@vintage-camerastuff wrote:

You have never dealt with Russian buyers.  They are notorious for never receiving items and demanding a refund.  ironbreed is correct in canceling these purchases.   This is a scam waiting to happen.

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It's to a USA address!

The heck is the problem, if they don't receive their item, you have tracking?

Dang it  this isn't about me, and it's not you against me or you disagree with my opinion.

This thread doesn't belong to me, it is merely my opinion.

Don't care to bicker, it distracts from the thread.

Thank you.