eBay

sylvan_belle · ‎07-27-2017

I sold a skirt the other day to a buyer.

Not too long after the sale, I received a message from ANOTHER Ebay member, asking me to cancel the sale.

She said she was the sister of the buyer, and that her sister had bought the skirt for her, but that she had recently moved and her sister didn't have her new address. She said she didn't want the skirt to get lost in the mail, so...sorry for the inconvenience, but please cancel the transaction.

Of course, I told her I couldn't do that, that her sister would have to contact me to cancel the sale, and then I would accommodate that request.

I also sent the actual buyer a message, letting her know about the message, and asking her to confirm the address or the cancellation request.

I didn't hear back from her right away, so to meet the shipping metric, I went ahead and mailed it.

I messaged her again, to let her know I was mailing it, and then finally I heard back from her.

She said she had ignored my first message because she thought it was sent in error.

SHe has no sister, and she was upset because she thought someone was trying to steal her skirt by having it sent to a different address.

Of course, I reassured her it was on its way.

BUT, how do I report this inappropriate message?

You used to be able to report by clicking on a button in messages, but now there is no button, and I could find nothing anywhere about reporting inappropriate messages.

Do I have to call? ugh. Is it worth it? Will Ebay even do anything about it???

Also....why would anyone do that? She wasn't even trying to get me to mail it to a different address. She asked me to cancel. I thought, well, maybe she is sending the message to the wrong seller, but the skirt was a unique designer brand, and no similar skirt had sold lately.

Weird....

a_c_green · ‎07-27-2017

I think the scammer was just waiting to see if you'd ask what address she would like you to send it to instead.

Just for yucks, you could ask the scammer what her "sister's" name is. (Of course, you wouldn't actually get an answer, since the scammer would know at that point that you're already suspicious.) I don't think reporting it would go very far, as Customer Service would say that it might have just been a misdirected message, etc. We here know it isn't, as we've discussed these low-level scam redirects here pretty often recently.

sg51 · ‎07-27-2017

BUT, how do I report this inappropriate message?

Ask scammer for the new address.

Send a letter, addressed internally to the police department which is local to that address. But send the letter, as a "courtesy copy", to scammers's address.

In the letter, addressed to the police, detail that fraud attempts seem to emit from that house. Agree that the police probably can't do much for you, but suggest that this information might prove useful for some other investigation of that address which might already be underway. Explain that you understand that most mail fraud is associated with an ongoing criminal operation.

Then send the letter to the fraud address.

a_c_green · ‎07-27-2017

@sg51 wrote:
BUT, how do I report this inappropriate message?

Ask scammer for the new address.

Send a letter, addressed internally to the police department which is local to that address. But send the letter, as a "courtesy copy", to scammers's address.
[...]
Then send the letter to the fraud address.

Well, that's nicely evil. I would definitely send a copy to the Postal Inspectors as well, care of the local post office for that ZIP code. Given that they're probably sending out their scam message attempts in bulk to as many sellers as possible, there may already be a low but steady flow of packages to that address.

a*river*runs*through*it · ‎07-27-2017

It could be a case of the "sister" wanting the skirt for herself. She may have missed the auction or BIN.

Maybe she was hoping you would cancel. Then the "sister" could buy it from you.

sylvan_belle · ‎07-27-2017

Thanks for the suggestions, but I think it would be taking it a little far to try to get the police or the postal inspectors involved. Technically, I would say a crime hasn't even been committed.

I know it's fun to think of poetic justice, but I can say from (very frustrating) experience that the police don't do anything about this kind of thing.

My concern is that there doesn't seem to be an easy way to report this to Ebay. THEY are the ones that should look into it, because apparently she is using their message system to send scammy messages like this, and THEY should shut down her account, keeping their other members safe from scam attempts.

It kind of makes me sad that Ebay keeps taking away convenient, useful features in their user interface, but instead keep adding a lot of irritating "improvements" that aren't useful at all....