Buyer having items sent to different addresses possible fraud

[fun.in.the.sun]

I have had this buyer buy the SAME item over and over, but send to different addresses.  I contacted ebay since this just seems weird.   They said it looked fine.  Okay so fast forward a month or so and I receive a phone call from a person who I had sent one of these items to.  She took a few hours tracking me down off the internet... which is scary in itself..... but necessary, to tell me she never ordered this item.  I asked if she had an ebay account and she said she did.  I told her to change the password on that and her paypal if she had one (since most of us still have one even though ebay took payments over).  I then contacted ebay again and said they really really need to look into this.  IS THIS BUYER seeing if the address they have matches up to the credit card they have?  Will they then, after seeing it is delivered, charge a larger amount?  I tried contacting the FTC, but this poodle is done jumping through hoops.  2 people I talked to just don't know what I should do.   SOOOOO if you are experiencing this, please report it to ebay.   The other sellers listed who gave feedback also have a bunch of items purchased in a row from this buyer.  I am suspecting the same thing.  I would be nice if we could all work together to nail this person if they are a fraud, which, if a person didn't order something... how did they have their credit card?  Sorry to ramble but I wanted to put this out there if other sellers have this problem.  I know we are protected under the seller protection policy, yes, but I am not getting any replies from the "buyer" so  I want to block them but I also want to put a note in each package asking if the person ordered it and if not, check their credit card for a charge.   Yet, who is paying me to investigate?  lol. I want to help if the "buyer" is unaware, but  I also don't want to be part of his scheme.  Thoughts?

[donsdetour]

Hmm Block the buyer now.

I dont see how any one is making money off of this mess. but best to just stop it.

[richard1rst]

I have a few buyers who routinely buy from me and on each order they give a different address. Basically they are using me as their warehouse. I know eBay frowns on this but I have never had a problem with any of them. So I am quite happy to take the orders.

On the flip side, I have occasionally seen something offered that I know a friend or relative might like so I buy it and send it to them as a birthday/Christmas/other holiday gift.

In and of itself it is not a problem.

As for the one case where the recipient didn't know anything about it I would suggest that someone sent them a gift (as mentioned above) BUT failed to tell them it was coming. So when they received it they had no idea why it showed up. That blame falls on the giver for not giving them a heads up. I always send a note "Watch for a coming package".

[katzrul15]

BBL and research why your product pricing is so readily viable to drop-ship for other sellers??

[eburtonlab]

IS THIS BUYER seeing if the address they have matches up to the credit card they have?

eBay sellers will ship to whatever address is provided with the payment, so placing an order through eBay is not a good way to match addresses with credit cards, though that may be a method to see if a credit card is still valid.

if a person didn't order something... how did they have their credit card?

You have no way of knowing whose credit card was used, and you have no particular reason to suspect it belonged to the recipient of the package.

In the past there have been cases where different accounts were used to make similar low-value purchases -- likely as a way to test if the accounts or payment methods were valid. But there is no need to use an actual address associated with the account for that, and many reasons not to.

See this thread for some discussion of this sort of thing involving different accounts making the same purchase:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/More-suspicious-purchases-likely-unauthorized-use-of-buyer/m-p...

[collectfest]

I only ship to the address eBay tells me to ship.

[luckythewinner · Accepted solution]

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@fun.in.the.sun wrote:

 Thoughts?

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So to sum up ... about a month ago:

• a buyer bought multiple items
• had them shipped to multiple addresses
• you got paid for all of them
• the buyer has not filed any disputes
• one of the recipients got something she was not expecting

It sounds to me like someone using you as a drop shipping source made a mistake and gave you the wrong address for one of the packages.

[yuzuha]

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@richard1rst wrote:

As for the one case where the recipient didn't know anything about it I would suggest that someone sent them a gift (as mentioned above) BUT failed to tell them it was coming. So when they received it they had no idea why it showed up. That blame falls on the giver for not giving them a heads up. I always send a note "Watch for a coming package".

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This was my first thought, as it's something that happens fairly often in my friend circle-- someone will get someone else a surprise gift and then forget to mention that it's on the way. Fortunately we're all used to it enough by now that it doesn't get any more than a "WHO SENT ME THE [X]?" in our Discord chat, but it's easy to see how that can happen.

[donsdetour]

Gave this some thought: You have a person taking you listings and selling them else were.

Then they purchase yours and ship to their purchaser.

Or they send out a whole lot of gifts........

Still best to block em from purchasing from you.

[richard1rst]

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@donsdetour wrote:

Gave this some thought: You have a person taking you listings and selling them else were.

Then they purchase yours and ship to their purchaser.

Or they send out a whole lot of gifts........

Still best to block em from purchasing from you.

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????????

The OP is making a bunch of sales they would not otherwise make. In the absence of any proof of real fraud - Why in the world would you want to shut that off?

I have a military hat I sell:

(I also have it in Air Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guard).

I got a note from a woman veteran who thanked me for offering it as she was getting tired of the (her words “ignorant misogynists”). While out wearing a regular "Marine Veteran" cap strangers would approach her and ask what unit her HUSBAND served in. 

So she bought the cap and wore it to her military club meeting and was beseeched with request from her woman friends that they wanted one too.  Suddenly I got a ton of orders from her, all going to different addresses. Why in the world would I want to block that???????

Then they started buying this one for their husbands:

Can you say GOLD MINE !!!!!

[fun.in.the.sun]

Hello, thank you for taking the time to reply.  So I did block them.  Next thing I know, it happens again with another buyer…. Same thing, 2 different addresses.  AND SAME sellers…. Myself and several others!  I did contact them individually and they are just as perplexed as I am.  So I marked it up $2 just to see what would happen.  I hope it stops.  Bummer is my buyers probably won’t buy it now.  

[fun.in.the.sun]

As far as the person who didn’t order it.  She doesn’t have a fish tank.  Odd gift.  I thought I had explained that. Sorry

[fun.in.the.sun]

BBL?  That product is no different than any of my others.  Thanks for taking the time to reply

[fun.in.the.sun]

Well yeah I do too

[fun.in.the.sun]

That is what I was thinking a month ago.  You are probably right about the lady.