eBay

funnykiller1337 · ‎07-20-2021

Hi Everyone,

I have an extremely weird situation, I received a package at my address that was addressed to my relative. This relative does not have an eBay account nor has ever done business on eBay. We opened the package because it was addressed to my relative, only to find that the package was an eBay return. We contacted eBay to figure out what had happened and how to get this item back to the original seller and how to make sure the buyer got his money back.

Upon further investigation, we found that the seller has used my relative's first and last name, birthday, and address as their own. It just so happens that I have an eBay and account and was able to track things down by luck of the draw. There is clearly fraudulent activity and stolen identity here, i've since contacted the seller who's stolen my relative's identity, the buyer who tried to return the item, and eBay via the phone (fraud and return). Is there any precedence for this, and are they any other eBay corporate departments left to contact to ensure that this seller account is banned? The listings for the account are all private, so i assume any positive feedback is being artificially increased. I'll probably fill out a USPS identity theft complaint, but i'm not sure if that will lead down a path of success.

Thanks

fab_finds4u · ‎07-20-2021

Your relative should be contacting eBay to close that account.

funnykiller1337 · ‎07-20-2021

They've been unhelpful thus far, and been investigating. I've had a small back and forth in messages with the faux account owner. Again, everything just seems circumstantial based on this scammer's bad luck of the draw.

Unfortunately I'm not sure if there's anything else weird going on with accounts that we are not aware of (ie another account using the same address and variation of my relative's name).

coolections · ‎07-20-2021

@funnykiller1337 wrote:
I've had a small back and forth in messages with the faux account owner.

That does not make since. Do you and the relative have the same last name ? How would someone use you (an ebay seller) and a relative (non Ebay seller) to achieve this scam. My guess is it is not your relative that is being scammed but you. Keep in touch with ebay fraud department and let them settle it. I would cease communication with the person.

funnykiller1337 · ‎07-20-2021

Looks like the account is gone now, cannot access feedback any longer.

To clarify for others and anyone searching: I was not involved in the transaction at all, it was a direct relative and with the same address. It just so happened that the person who got scammed needed to return the item, the scammer gave the return address as my address, and under further investigation was using my relative's name as his.

I'm not sure why the scammer decided to give my address to the buyer who needed to return the item; it might have been bad luck that he chose someone to scam who was able to identify what was going on quickly and track down his ebay profile.

In any case, this scam account is either deleted/banned/private. Unfortunately i didn't save his reputation page.

gracieallen01 · ‎07-20-2021

If someone is using an assumed identity, particularly to possibly commit fraud, then it sounds like it is a matter for the authorities. I think it may come under the heading of 'Identity Theft'.

Not saying 'NO' doesn't mean 'YES'.

The foolishness of one's actions or words is determined by the number of witnesses.

Perhaps if Brains were described as an APP, many people would use them more often.

Respect, like money, is only of 'worth' when it is earned - with all due respect, it can not be ordained, legislated or coerced. Anonymous

funnykiller1337 · ‎07-21-2021

Agreed, however it would probably be very difficult for the authorities to do anything assuming that the person does not live in the US. I don't think I'm allowed to link the account profile in question. Again, it's just been very circumstantial and bad luck for the scammer that the return address had someone living there with an ebay account who was able to quickly smell smoke.

Is there a way to tell if someone's ebay account is suspended? The account status currently reads: "Based in , has been an eBay member since", with no date nor location. I assume this is different than the scammer making the account private? Additionally, I can no longer access his feedback page.

bbravo65 · ‎07-21-2021

...file an Identity Theft case with FTC at www.ftc.gov...

tdumonde2014 · ‎07-21-2021

It is not eBay's job to investigate criminal matters. Contact the appropriate authorities.

"Those who enter the arena unarmed or unprepared are quickly dispatched."

coolections · ‎07-21-2021

I believe if I am reading correctly the OP did not get scammed. Just received an item in the mail that had nothing to do with the OP. If that is correct I would forget about the whole thing and move along with life, especially since the OP came back and said the person is no longer on Ebay. Funny thing is the OP would have had to already dealt with this person because the odds of someone randomly sending an ebay item to their house would be a one in a ten million chance. Very odd story.

dnasilver · ‎07-21-2021

Contact your local authorities and if you can cancel eBay account. You most likely will need some sort of legal documentation since eBay should not just close an account without proof of ownership or fraud (identity theft)

gracieallen01 · ‎07-21-2021

One can make excuses for not reporting it to the authorities all day long and rationalize until hell freezes over. But, that doesn't get anything done about it, even if it is only to get someone looking into it or being aware that it might be occurring from a new direction. ebay may have their rules and regulations and enforcement, but they are only there for their own protection and benefit, and have no legal authority to do anything.

If one seriously wishes to report something, one takes it to the appropriate people who can, and might, do something about it.

Not saying 'NO' doesn't mean 'YES'.

The foolishness of one's actions or words is determined by the number of witnesses.

Perhaps if Brains were described as an APP, many people would use them more often.

Respect, like money, is only of 'worth' when it is earned - with all due respect, it can not be ordained, legislated or coerced. Anonymous

toysaver · ‎07-21-2021

The unwarranted error return is not an uncommon occurance. Random people havw been used as a straw address for returns. It's cheaper than having buyers return items to China. Also might prevent eBay from discovering the seller is a drop shipper. How do you know they have the birthdate too?????

varebelrose · ‎07-21-2021

Odds are that they just randomly looked up the name and address to use as a return ship-to address rather than having to pay to have an item sent back to Asia or wherever. This is fairly common. Expect more items possibly even though the actual seller has been NARU'ed.

lacemaker3 · ‎07-21-2021

@funnykiller1337 wrote:
Hi Everyone,

I have an extremely weird situation, I received a package at my address that was addressed to my relative. This relative does not have an eBay account nor has ever done business on eBay. We opened the package because it was addressed to my relative, only to find that the package was an eBay return. ...

This is not very common, but we have heard of it before. The previous times, it turned out that the seller was overseas (often in Asia) and they didn't want to have to pay the high cost of return shipping back to their country. So they accepted the return, and used an address in the USA as the return address. Usually, they use the address of a former buyer, but perhaps in your case, they got the name and address from somewhere else on the internet.

As far as that goes, if this is what happened, I don't think it really amounts to identity theft. For most people, their name and address can be found online, and the fact that they were used for this strongly suggests that the person's name and address ARE available online somehow, even if just as a former buyer.

I don't know why the sellers wouldn't just issue a refund without requiring a return. Perhaps they don't know that is possible, or think it's a bad business practice. Some times, the sellers who do this don't speak English very well, or at all. In the previous cases, it didn't appear that the sellers were scammers, from what was said.

Or possibly, if the seller was a scammer (as seems to be the case here), providing a return address would extend the time before eBay refunds the buyer, giving them longer to try to run their scam.

@funnykiller1337 wrote:

...
Upon further investigation, we found that the seller has used my relative's first and last name, birthday, and address as their own. It just so happens that I have an eBay and account and was able to track things down by luck of the draw. There is clearly fraudulent activity and stolen identity here, ...

I don't know how you would be able to tell that the seller knows your relative's birthday? My birthdate is not on record with either eBay or PayPal, and I have never heard of eBay even asking for that information. Even if they did, personal information like that is not publicly shown on eBay to anyone but the account owner, and eBay requires you to enter your password again before viewing or updating personal information. It wouldn't be shared with any other members.

The only information that the seller would have needed to do this, was a valid name and address, and as I said, for most people, that can be found online.

You should follow up about possible identity theft as you see fit, to ensure your relative's safety and reassure yourself about it. But based on what you have said, I don't think that actual identity theft has occurred here. I can understand that it is alarming to have someone use your address for their own purposes (not to mention your relative's name), but I don't think that this goes beyond that, from what you have said.

@funnykiller1337 wrote:
...
Is there a way to tell if someone's ebay account is suspended? The account status currently reads: "Based in , has been an eBay member since", with no date nor location. I assume this is different than the scammer making the account private? Additionally, I can no longer access his feedback page.

Yes, when you're on the member's account profile page, it will show "No longer a registered user" in red font beside their name. You can paste the user ID in to this link to replace "userID" to access that page:

https://www.ebay.com/usr/userID

I haven't seen where the feedback page has been removed in this situation, it is normally still available as long as the user ID isn't completely removed. But if the member has 0 feedback, then there may not be a feedback # on the profile page to click on to go to the member's feedback page. In that case, you can paste the user ID in to this link to replace "userID" to access the feedback page:

https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/feedback_profile/userID