Fraud

[catchmeifyoucan61]

I had a customer return a sterling silver bracelet - when I opened the box it a different bracelet ( a piece of junk) not the piece I had sold her 

she basically stole my item from

me and had me pay the shipping 

there is no one to call or report this to

where do I go? 
thank you 

[thelongball]

Oh Yes there is as Using the US mail to commit fraud is a federal crime. Report it to your postal inspector. Also let the buyer know to expect a phone call or visit from the authorities. You might see your real one come to you then. 

[jonathanbrightlight]

Sorry this happened.  You can report the buyer here: https://spd.ebay.com/RBASellerHub 

I can't go through the process right now without having a buyer that needs to be reported, but there should be an option in there for making a false claim or abusing the return process if I remember correctly.

Reporting them won't make you whole, but it does get it on record.  eBay has no ability to adjudicate between buyers and sellers in cases like this where it mostly comes down to the word of the seller against the word of the buyer, since they did not see your item while it was in your possession nor in the buyer's possession, nor any of the process of shipping either direction.  But enough reports about the same buyer should definitely make a difference.  You will likely never know if action has been taken against the buyer, but they could lose the ability to file Money Back Guarantee claims or even in some cases be completely suspended from the site.

If the item was valuable enough, pursuing this with the USPIS (US Postal Inspectors Service) or your local police department can be worth it.  You can even potentially go after the buyer in small claims court, and since many of those are handled via video conferencing now, it's not even as much time and effort as it once was.

Edit: and if you haven't yet, definitely put them on your Best Buddies List (or as eBay calls it, the Blocked Buyers List): https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/BuyerBlock  

[pls-consignments]

Just to add to the good advice.... I now photograph and record the opening of all returned items, which can be used as evidence. We live in a different world now with no safeguards and protections. It is no wonder why both Amazon and FedeX now take photos of their deliveries. Not sure about UPS.