How to Report Scammer Who Isn't an Actual Buyer

[greenbrookcoins]

Today I sold an item and received a message from someone asking me to send it to an address other than the buyers registered address.  The person who sent me this message is NOT the buyer so I don't want to report a problem with the buyer, who has done nothing wrong.

There is no option to report these kind of messages in the message center.  There is no option to report this type of behavior through eBay's Customer Service or Security Concern pages.   Now, maybe there is a way to report this without mislabeling it as something else and I've just missed it, but eBay definitely isn't making it easy to report this type of thing as they seem way more concerned about not receiving unsolicited, general emails than they do about eliminating this type of theft via their platform.  

In any case, I expect he's just going to create a new account once this one gets banned but if anyone knows if eBay actually allows us to report this type of thing, I'd love to know how.

[donsdetour]

Yep its a scam to get free stuff:

Blocked bidder list and move on.

As you say they just make a new id if that one gets toasted...

[stephenmorgan · Accepted solution]

If you are sure it is not from your buyer you can report it to spoof@ebay.com

[eburtonlab]

Currently I believe the only way to report this sort of thing is by requesting a chat or call back from customer service.

eBay will most likely close the account long before you get through the various menu options, and the scammer will soon be sending similar messages using a different eBay account if that has not already happened.

Sellers need to be vigilant about not allowing a user to trick the seller into violating eBay policy.

[luckythewinner]

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@greenbrookcoins wrote:

I expect he's just going to create a new account once this one gets banned

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That is exactly what would happen if eBay did get a report and did decide to act.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I had a situation like this not too long ago & I reported it to Ebay on the phone.  It was clearly an account that had been taken over by foreign scammers, which I was able to confirm with a 2 second google search showing me that the uniquely-named buyer, was deceased.  

6 weeks later, they had done nothing 😞  Happened to be on the phone w/Ebay for something else & it was a high level rep & I mentioned how disappointed I was b/c they used to deal with stuff like this immediately & it had been over a month.  She apologized profusely & blamed the pandemic, but the NARU the next day.  

It took 2 phone calls of high level reps & persistence.  Not sure I'd do it again 😞 

[fashunu4eeuh]

eBay has no simple method to report users who have not purchased an item, but have attempted fraud. The problem is that it isn’t very realistic or effective reporting them because  it was an attempt, not an actual crime. 

If you feel strongly that you should report this, i would contact the customer service reps on one of eBay’s social media portals and send a private message.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

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@fashunu4eeuh wrote:

eBay has no simple method to report users who have not purchased an item, but have attempted fraud. The problem is that it isn’t very realistic or effective reporting them because  it was an attempt, not an actual crime. 

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Also, these are very often overseas scammers, which Ebay can do nothing about except close the account & the scammer will just open a new one.  It's a bummer, but I can understand why they don't pursue it.  I am glad they NARU'd mine, as they were bold enough to go after a 20+ year member, with high FB number.  

[greenbrookcoins]

I did this and the scammer’s account was banned within 24 hours.  I also received a mass message informing me that I had been contacted by a fraudulent account.  I am sure that everyone who had been messaged by that account automatically received this message from eBay.  eBay’s message contained instructions and advice.  For example, if you’ve shipped anything to this person, contact the carrier and cancel the shipment/request it’s return.  This was a simple and effective solution.  In addition, eBay was not able to simply ignore the problem.  Everyone who receives such a message from

a scammer should report it to the spoof@ebay.com address.  Thank you.

[ittybitnot]

 as they seem way more concerned about not receiving unsolicited, general emails than they do about eliminating this type of theft via their platform.  

@greenbrookcoins 

I would suspect you are correct.  They removed the "report message" button from the eBay message system a few years ago. You cannot report these people on site anymore either.  Likely there are just too many to be of a practical concern, and they don't want to hear about it. 

@stephenmorgan 

Your suggestion to report to "spoof@ebay" was a good one.  Can you please explain how to forward an inappropriate My eBay message in this fashion?  

[greenbrookcoins]

I put the subject as "User is trying to redirect items he did not buy to New Castle, DE".  I did this because the address in New Castle is so infamous that if you google it, it comes up with dozens of results of people being scammed by sending items to this certain apartment.  Any experienced employee in eBay's fraud department should know about this scam.  The same scam, with the same mailing address, had been attempted on me a couple of years back.  Basically, any time you sell something expensive, there's a chance you will receive a message from this scammer. 

In the body of the email, I just explained the situation and mentioned the ebay username of the scam account.

Hope this helps.