Buyer scammer how to fight it?

[bids-man]

I sell retro computers. Sold the kit(motherboard+cpu+ram+heatsink) to a buyer in the USA. I carried out pre-sale diagnostics and it did not reveal any problems in the working capacity of the motherboard, processor, RAM and cpu fan. Confirming screenshots of the monitor screen for checking the RAM and the system boot are given in the lot description. I have already sold several of these kits and there were no problems with these boards, CPU and RAM.

After receiving the goods, the buyer immediately opened a request for a refund, arguing that none of the items sent were working.
In my attempts to clarify the situation, he speaks in general phrases and did not provide either photos, videos or any information to understand what he is doing. He even made a mistake in the testimony asserting first one, and then the other.
At the same time, the buyer has a similar computer board for sale and I realized that he a scammer. In this way, he takes away goods and money and resells them.
How to deal with this? Request ebay about fraudulent actions of the buyer did not give anything. I have little time left.

reference to the sold kit

[kds99]

I think I would first ask him to return the item, but if you have more time, a more experienced seller may give you a more nuanced answer.

[bids-man]

Return shipping cost is very expensive. It makes no sense to me to do this.

[nkmipgolf]

Mayby he knows that and yes, most likely a scammer. Can't even leave bad feedback as eBay will remove it. 

[gracieallen01]

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@bids-man wrote:

Return shipping cost is very expensive. It makes no sense to me to do this.

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Of course not.  That is how the buyer/re-seller makes his/her money - gets the refund from someone that finds it too expensive to require a return so they keep the item(s), as well.

Start with filing complaints - IC3, USPS Postal Inspector, ebay, anybody else you can find to file with.

[gracieallen01]

Be sure to ask the buyer to keep the packaging since the Postal Inspectors may want to examine it.  USPS Postal Inspectors take a dim view of Mail Fraud.

[this*old*attic]

@gracieallen01 

This is common advice on the boards but does anyone have actual first hand knowledge of this doing anything?

They have giant scams like fake inheritances and lottery winnings if the person pays a fee, money laundering, etc.

A single theft of a one online purchase isn’t a blip on the radar.

[gracieallen01]

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@this*old*attic wrote:

@gracieallen01 

This is common advice on the boards but does anyone have actual first hand knowledge of this doing anything?

They have giant scams like fake inheritances and lottery winnings if the person pays a fee, money laundering, etc.

A single theft of a one online purchase isn’t a blip on the radar.

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Well, a lot of the scams being stopped - or hindered - probably aren't commonly publicized because they aren't involving celebrities or famous names.  I have a cousin - much younger than I - who is a postal union steward and, apparently, the reports do make a difference - according to her.

Yes, a single theft isn't much, but if everybody thinks like that, then NOBODY will ever report anything and NOTHING will ever be done.

[bids-man]

The cost of returning from this country to my country is comparable to the selling price.
There is no guarantee that the person will return the goods in the form in which they received it. Discussing a refund with a scammer makes no sense, he will cheat a second time and a third, and you will lose money again and again.

The fact that the buyer can not provide either a photo or a video suggests that he no longer has these products.

[gracieallen01]

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@bids-man wrote:

The cost of returning from this country to my country is comparable to the selling price.
There is no guarantee that the person will return the goods in the form in which they received it. Discussing a refund with a scammer makes no sense, he will cheat a second time and a third, and you will lose money again and again.

The fact that the buyer can not provide either a photo or a video suggests that he no longer has these products.

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You do realize that if nothing is returned, if it can still be stipulated in the claim for refund, then no refund (supposedly).

[this*old*attic]

@gracieallen01 

I come from a more cynical place.

There are online bullying laws - but when my daughter was threatened the police said it was free speech and the school said it was an off campus issue

There are sex crime laws, including endangering someone online, but when I had the nerve to move back into my house 2 years ago - the jerk renters were so mad I didn’t renew the lease that they put explicit ads on Craig’s List with all my contact info inviting unwanted attention. Police insisted no law was broken, I pushed and got a detective moving on it - district attorney declined to file because I had no “damages.”

Sorry, there’s no justice for the small stuff. Waste of time.

[gracieallen01]

@this*old*attic 

Those are things that one should probably take up with an attorney. 

I'm not sure that the seller forum is the place for them and I am certainly not a source of comment or information on any of those types of situation.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi, @bids-man sorry to hear about your troubles. 

While it would be helpful, the buyer does not have to supply photos or evidence of the problem he asserts. It would be a courtesy, not a requirement as part of the Money Back Guarantee. But I need a little more information to be able to adequately advise you on the next steps. 

First, has the buyer opened a Not As Described claim? If he has, there is no way to fight the return. eBay sides with the buyer 95% of the time. If you do not cooperate and try to withhold the refund, eBay will force it and then apply a defect to your account which can negatively affect your selling privileges. However, once the refund is completed, then you will have 30 days in which to appeal the decision by eBay. That is when you will include copies of the reports you have made to the authorities, in addition to your evidence. But all that will hinge on whether or not you receive your items back and then check them. So right now, the truth is you have no way of knowing if the buyer is attempting to defraud you. Yet.

You are selling sensitive electronics from the Russian Federation to the USA. Items can get damaged in transit, especially in international shipping, even with careful packaging. Did the buyer inquire about returning the kit before he opened the [assumed] claim? Since you do not accept returns, was anything said about that? And the fact he is selling similar items is not proof of fraud. Lots of sellers buy on eBay to flip goods. I know you said he contradicted himself, which is not good, but what I am saying is you cannot know for certain if this buyer is a scammer or not. You suspect him, but you will not know until or unless he actually commits an offense.

There is a good deal of risk selling online. And sellers of computer components and the like can find themselves at the mercy of the undesirable elements that sadly exist. There is no way to avoid the risks here, you can only mitigate some of it, such as setting up one's Buyer Requirements to their strictest settings and determining before an item is listed, whether or not one can tolerate losing it. It is important to also have a plan on how shrinkage will be managed. For example, did you buy shipping insurance to protect your interests? Damage in transit would normally be covered. But I do not know what is available to you in your country.

[bids-man]

Hi, fashunu4eeuh I will try to answer.

I do not have a refund in the lots sold. the description of the lot indicates that it is non-refundable. All lots are very carefully checked for workability before I put them up for sale.
If there is even the slightest doubt, I will not put the product on sale on the international market. Financial losses are too high. More than half the cost of the lot is the CPU and it is working. What kind of full compensation can we talk about?

The buyer opened a claim. Negotiations did not lead to anything. I have not received a single intelligible answer. Moreover, the buyer at the beginning described a problem with a plug-in keyboard, hard drives and RAM. Then he apparently forgot and began to claim that he did not connect the hard drives. When I pointed out this discrepancy to him, I began to assert again that the hard drives did not work.
To my inquiries about the keyboard model, hard drive, etc. He did not give an answer and did not provide a photo. There are a lot of incompatible equipment in retro computers.

During the transfer, all this could not go out of order and stop working. I do not believe in this.

I will not accept returns from a person who is lying. I will not give him any money to send back. Then I will lose even more money. The auction policy is clear to me, but I do not have extra money to play such games with scammers.

In my practice, there were several times the purchase of defective goods and each time I provided a photo or video to the seller so that he was convinced that I was telling the truth. Each time I explained in detail the problem that arose with the product and cited the facts. And this is normal.

This is the second time I am losing money at this auction and probably I will soon stop selling here. It makes no sense if the auction supports fraudsters.

[this*old*attic]

Lol Gracie - nice deflection/dismissal.

It is exactly germaine to the conversation - no agency gives a hoot about low level crimes. Agencies are overwhelmed and these things are triaged.

Getting ripped off sellers to file outraged reports with 3 or 4 agencies might help them to feel proactive, but the assurances that it will do any good are naive at best and faux expertise at worst.