Filing a Complaint Against eBay

[julli_9813]

Hi eBay community,

Is there an email address or phone number that I can message to file a complaint against eBay?

I am new to the selling world of eBay and, already, majority of the items that I have sold (awaiting payment) have been buyer scams asking me to contact them through phone or gmail. What recourse do these scam buyers have beyond me “reporting the buyer.” I was hoping this platform would be less inundated with scammers but I guess I was wrong.

[mr_lincoln]

@julli_9813    You have one pair of sneakers for sale ... is that all?

Mr. L

[bbravo65]

...identity thieves, online shopping thieves, seniors medical & security benefits scammers, etc...you name them...every single second someone falls for the bait of "too good to be true"...

...I don't have an account with Facebook, but from my family members, they told me some new tricks to get deeper information for identity theft is posting some "hint" question as a game...this is one of those..."in what year were you graduated high school and how was your grad night which could be so much different than the millennials nowadays?"...don't bother for the entire question, the thieves didn't care about how was your grad-nite, the year you were graduated is the most important element because that is also the same question you could choose for security recovering your password in case you forgot it...the questions can be different as asking for the first name of your pets, which vehicles was your first purchased, your best man or maid of honor on your wedding, your best friend's city, your favorite foods or traveling locations..., anything that could give them the "tools" to break your security protection...

...Filing a Consumer Complaint with USA.gov, Federal Trade Commission/Protecting America's Consumer with FTC.gov, reporting internet crimes with ic3.gov, and Better Business Bureau with BBB.com...these are the common websites to express your concern or report your problem if you were a victim...

[maxine*j]

---

@julli_9813 wrote:

I generally do agree with your sentiment that scammers and untruthful people are everywhere. 

I may have been naive to believe that eBay would have better quality control or verification to dissuade scammers from joining. However, live and learn. 

---

And every store owner wishes he could do more to make keep shoplifters, pickpockets, people tendering counterfeit bills or stolen credit cards, drunks and crazy people, from entering the store.  Alas, they can be discouraged, but they cannot be stopped altogether.

=

[dhbookds]

Best way to avoid alot of the scammers is to list at fixed price with immediate payment required and accept no offers........

Not to say a few "might pay" and then try the games.....but most will avoid listings like that............

[kensgiftshop]

@julli_9813 

Looking at your auctions, you only got 1 bid on them.

Do away with auctions and best offers and list as a fixed price with immediate payment required.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Actually if I was going to run a scam I would pick a BIN item with immediate payment required that way I don't have to wait for the auction to end. Once I get the item file a NAD case, make the seller cover the return shipping cost and send back an empty box on a bunch of rocks. 

    Even less complicated if I am overseas and out of the reach of U.S. law enforcement. 

[inhawaii]

eBay Headquarters

2025 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, California 95125
USA

[creativecrisis]

Take best offer off your listings.

Avoid auctions; use fixed price listings with immediate payment required.

As you know, never communicate with a prospective buyer outside the eBay message system.

Don't list expensive or scam-prone items (e.g., phones, electronics camera equipment, designer goods) until you have some experience and feedback as a seller.

Make sure your listings have detailed descriptions and clear photos so buyers know what they're going to receive.

These practices can help protect you from scammers. Could eBay be doing more? Maybe. But there's no evidence they have any interest in doing so. It's up to sellers to protect themselves.

[julli_9813]

Thanks for advice. I will try this next time. 
 

[tex-421]

There is always snail mail.  Do a Google map search for eBay in San Jose and send them a post card.

[dbfolks166mt]

     You can contact eBay but they will probably do very little anymore than you can get the phone company to stop all the telemarketer and scammer calls you get on your phone. I get at least one call a day from somebody claiming to be Amazon about a purchase I made all of which come through spoofed phone numbers.

     Ebay caters to the buyers and there is little done to validate/verify the buyer is who they claim to be which is a far cry from the scrutiny they apply to the sellers. Buyers can utilize VPN's to alter/change/spoof their IP address, make purchases from a guest account, create multiple ID's that they use and discard at random. They can pay with stolen credit cards, debit cards, hacked PayPal, Google Pay and other methods. Like a lot of the spoofed scamming phone calls you get  lot of this is done from overseas accounts that are outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement. 

     Sad state of affairs but it's the environment you deal with on ecommerce and it's not just eBay although they are one of the prime platforms, because of their size, for scammers to target 

[inhawaii]

Please let ebay headquarters know you want less scammers on this platform.

[albertabrightalberta]

---

@julli_9813 wrote:

Depends on what you mean by “did I fall for these scams.” 

I’ve accepted their offers, which I assumed to be legitimate, then they messaged me to contact them through private email or phone number. So yes, I would say I did fall for it because once I accepted the offer the listing is removed from the search.

---

No, you didn't fall for the scam. When you get an offer, unless it's an established buyer with feedback (left for others) to check, you really don't know whether it's a scammer or simply a new user who joined to find the item you're selling. (That DOES happen!) So accepting an offer doesn't mean you fell for anything - yet.

But the fact that you recognized that the "text me your info" was a red flag, you weren't taken and that's a good thing! 

Again, when anything that has you questioning legitimacy is asked of you, just come back and verify. Often, what appears to be a scam,er at first glance might simply be someone  who doesn't understand ebay. 

As for the offers you accepted, you can either wait out the 4 days and cancel for non-payment or knowing that they won't be paying since you didn't take the bait, you can relist and still give them strikes in 4 days.

[albertabrightalberta]

---

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     Actually if I was going to run a scam I would pick a BIN item with immediate payment required that way I don't have to wait for the auction to end. Once I get the item file a NAD case, make the seller cover the return shipping cost and send back an empty box on a bunch of rocks. 

    Even less complicated if I am overseas and out of the reach of U.S. law enforcement. 

---

Great! Now we have a step-by-step lesson for those scammers who haven't yet figured out how to do it. 😞

[maxine*j]

---

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     Actually if I was going to run a scam I would pick a BIN item with immediate payment required that way I don't have to wait for the auction to end. Once I get the item file a NAD case, make the seller cover the return shipping cost and send back an empty box on a bunch of rocks. 

    Even less complicated if I am overseas and out of the reach of U.S. law enforcement. 

---

Sure, if you want free items you can do this.  But it's labor intensive, requires you to have a legitimate eBay account, a legitimate payment method, a legitimate physical address, an actual outlay of money, and a transaction actually conducted entirely on eBay.

Free items are not what the serious scammers are after.  They're after  money, gift cards, credit card and other financial info, personal info, the lot, and they want it all done off eBay.

=