eBay

1brigette · ‎01-20-2020

I sold a Iphone 8 and the person sent me emails saying the item was paid. I was just so happy it sold so fast in couple hours . The emails had letter head PayPal so I didn't think much about it. I did check reputation of the buyer which was excellent. So yay I thought. went that night to fedex and sent it. Then the guy started sending me emails after I gave tracking information to him wanting to make sure I sent it, I got to thinking wait a minute so I went to my paypal to make sure it was really paid as fake Paypal form in my email said. I couldn't sleep all night the morning came I started thinking did this man's account get hacked? I search the address information and it was a warehouse. I drove to Fedex they said it is in route to customer , but the fed ex man sent emergency request to stop the driver from delivering the phone. Thankfully It reached the driver on time and I paid for it's return to me.

How often does this happen? Why is it easy to hack someones account? Also does Ebay have the responsibility to recover losses from stolen goods?

eleanor*rigby · ‎01-20-2020

@1brigette wrote:
The emails had letter head PayPal so I didn't think much about it.

I'm sure you've heard of "phishing." It's incredibly easy to fake emails from companies.

@1brigette wrote:
I did check reputation of the buyer which was excellent.

All members who are buyers only have 100% positive feedback. They can't receive any negative feedback.

@1brigette wrote:
I got to thinking wait a minute so I went to my paypal to make sure it was really paid as fake Paypal form in my email said. I couldn't sleep all night the morning came I started thinking did this man's account get hacked?

It's better to think "wait a minute" before you ship your item. Always check your PayPal account directly to confirm that the payment has been received (and cleared, if appropriate).

@1brigette wrote:
How often does this happen?

No one knows how often this happens.

@1brigette wrote:
Why is it easy to hack someones account?

Hacking happens all over the internet all the time. Are you sure it was a hacked account? Scammers troll the sold listings for high-dollar items that have been sold (usually by inexperienced sellers). They then send fake PayPal emails to the sellers. Did you contact the actual member who purchased the item? Did the member ids match? Are you sure the person who emailed you (and to whom you mailed the phone) and the buyer of record are the same person?

@1brigette wrote:
Also does Ebay have the responsibility to recover losses from stolen goods?

No.

bonjourami · ‎01-20-2020

Sounds like a scammer, not a hacker.

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“Never pick a fight with an ugly person. They don’t have anything to lose.” ~Robin Williams

greg213213 · ‎01-20-2020

The account wasn't hacked. This is one of the oldest scams around. The only advice I can give you is to always check your PayPal account for the payment and NEVER ever ship without that payment showing in PayPal.

These types of items are what draws these scammers. The only way to protect yourself is to require immediate payment required. (at least it slows scammers down)

Atleast you were able to get the delivery stopped and you will get your item back.

luckythewinner · ‎01-20-2020

Why is it easy to hack someones account?

Your account was not "hacked". No one intercepted your password, or took advantage of a security loophole to gain access to your account. They simply searched eBay for a sold item they wanted to steal and sent you a message about it. Social engineering scams are amazingly effective because they target the weakest links in the security chain - human beings.

How often does this happen?

There are more than 1 billion listings on eBay, so it happens countless times every day.

does Ebay have the responsibility to recover losses from stolen goods?

Absolutely not - eBay will not give you money just because you gave your item away. If they did, unscrupulous sellers would set up fake transactions for items they do not even have in order to get reimbursed by eBay.

eleanor*rigby · ‎01-20-2020

@luckythewinner wrote:
Why is it easy to hack someones account?
Your account was not "hacked". No one intercepted your password, or took advantage of a security loophole to gain access to your account.

I believe the OP thought her buyer's account had been hacked, not her own account. I'm sure she knows differently now that this is the fourth post to explain it to her.

ittybitnot · ‎01-20-2020

How often does this happen?

Lots of times, every day here. The account was not "hacked". It was opened for the purposes of scamming in the first place. They send the same message to a variety of people selling expensive items.

eBay has not found a way yet to "prevent" these phony eBay messages from being sent to the unsuspecting sellers. They still don't see the need to reinstate the "report" button in the message system either. It is not ebay that gets cheated, they collect the fees when the sellers fall for this anyway.

detroitvintagemodern · ‎01-20-2020

Please make sure to report the buyer! Phones are better sold locally.

eleanor*rigby · ‎01-20-2020

@detroitvintagemodern wrote:
Please make sure to report the buyer! Phones are better sold locally.

It wasn't her buyer who scammed her. It was a third person who came along and wedged a scam in between the OP and her real buyer.

Along with the fact that these scammers don't hang around and continue to use the same member id to scam other people.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎01-20-2020

@1brigette wrote: ... . The emails had letter head PayPal so I didn't think much about it. I did check reputation of the buyer which was excellent. ...

As I hope the other posts have made clear, your buyer's account wasn't hacked, and all buyers have excellent feedback history since sellers cannot leave negative or neutral ratings, nor a negative comment with a positive rating. . Somebody saw that an inexperienced seller had sold a phone and sent you a fake message that seemed to be from PayPal. It's very easy to copy images from another site, such as the PayPal logo and format.

I'm very glad that you got your phone back. Many sellers who fall for this scam aren't so lucky. Often, the scammer sends extra funds so the item can be sent via Express. Sometimes they say it's for a birthday gift (to justify the urgency) and ask that the seller enclose a gift card too. It could have been so much worse!