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?

[chblai-23]

Thank you!

Is it possible to cancel based upon nothing more than the buyer has zero feedback?   Would this count against me somehow?

[stephenmorgan]

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@iamalwaysright wrote:

I see so many of these smart phone scam posts that I wonder what's the actual success rate of legitimate completed sale vs scammed for phones on ebay. It'd be crazy if it was like 50/50.

I also wonder if the significant amount of scams are making it tougher for a legit buyer to get a smart phone off of ebay. If the scammers are "buying" out all the inventory, what's left for the real buyers?

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Not sure, but I would think being caught perpetrating one Scam should be enough to have you banned from eBay.

[bonjourami]

Yes, you would receive a serious defect to your account as you would have to use the out of stock option to cancel and Ebay hates that. And if the buyer paid you he could also leave a negative feedback.

[shag182]

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@chblai-23 wrote:

 

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?

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Answer to your last question: NOTHING.

Selling an EXPENSIVE iPhone, NO selling FB on eBay,  especially with a SCAM gone wild climate just like the shoplifting gone wild at brick and mortar, big box stores. What can go WRONG?  EVERYTHING!!!

Sell it locally or just give those two other phones away, that is likely going to be the outcome again and again for you.  Scammers are FEASTING on your next phone listings.

[chblai-23]

I am guessing scammers keep making fake accounts?

[chblai-23]

Wow, I am done selling on eBay.  Thank you for your honest answer.

[chblai-23]

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

[shag182]

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@gemarakop_trading wrote:

Welcome to ebay where they cannot seem to inform new sellers about the countless scams that they are aware of.

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YEP!!!! New sellers are like a baby kitten with the hungry SCAMMER coyotes licking it's chops!

[lakefor94]

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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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Already answered in previous post. Sell locally for cash.

[bonjourami]

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

Some items are just not worth trying to sell..cant imagine that an old broken phone would be a 'collectible' for anybody.

[bamorris]

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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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I usually trade them in to my carrier on my new phone purchase. You might not get the best price, but it is better than nothing.

[bamorris]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

It appears that you are the victim of the 'fake tracking' scam.

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Interesting that they're able to upload trackable, live packages to the same zip code but are really packages sent to someone completely unrelated.

Maybe USPS should prevent tracking number harvesting? I assume there is some black market for these live tracking numbers.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Walmart has 'machines' that buy back old phones....

[buyselljack2016]

@bamorris 

No need to "harvest" a tracking #.

They can alter the address on one provided.

They can purchase their own tracking, and send some small piece of trash to "Burger King", to Phil"s Discount Emporium, or anyplace with the same zip that the purchase was to be returned to.

[bonjourami]

"Some items are just not worth trying to sell..cant imagine that an old broken phone would be a 'collectible' for anybody."

Sorry, posted this to the wrong thread!