I got scammed. What did I do wrong?

[chblai-23]

I listed my wife's old iPhone 12.   I noticed somebody had used the buy it now feature.  They had zero feedback.

They emailed me to ask me to ship to a different address.   I responded that I would not.  They said the official address was fine.

At this point I was suspicious, but I felt like it was too late because they had already won.  I contacted eBay to let them know of this suspicious event.  I think I filled out a form of some kind.

I sent the iPhone with tracking and insurance.

I checked my eBay account again and it said the buyer had initiated a return.   They claimed the phone was constantly shutting itself off.   Of course this is not true, this was my wife's every day phone, it was working perfectly.  But the return was already initiated.  By the way, it was "returned" from a completely different city than I sent it to.

I got a notice that the phone was delivered to my door.  I immediately looked, there was nothing at my house anywhere.

I immediately contacted eBay again.   They responded that they can see it was delivered, and to wait for the outcome.

The outcome was that they gave the buyer $700 from my PayPal account.

I have 2 more iPhones to sell.  What can I do to prevent this from happening again?

[shag182]

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@chblai-23 wrote:

Ok, any ideas about what I can do with 2 iphone 14s that aren't used anymore?  😄 

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 Probably your best bet....

Search the net for we buy phones, electronics ON LINE, plenty of sites comes up.  Also, I remember seeing those vending machines or kiosk at some stores where you can sell the phones, look up ecoATM.  All the best to you.

[az93]

Since no one else has pointed this out, ebay does not refund through paypal.

[fm2000]

You don't have to stop selling on eBay. Just don't sell anything expensive you can't afford to lose on eBay (or any other similar venue.) Selling items of small value will (almost always) go fine. Newer (expensive) iPhones are a lightning rod for fraud.

Sell your iPhones locally, and meet at a police station when you do it for your protection. Bringing a pen that can detect counterfeit bills is also a good idea.