SCAM GOT ME!

[blue_saluki]

I've been blithely and confidently  buying and selling on eBay since 2002. This year I got scammed. Shortly after selling merchandise, I received an eBay message requesting that I send it to the Buyer's girlfriend at a different address. I thought, "what a pain in the neck," but being an accommodating Seller, I replied, "No problem" and proceeded to change the address on the shipping form and mail the package to Wilmington, Delaware. Three days after mailing, I wrote to the buyer to see how his girlfriend liked the perfume. Guess what?

He had not asked me to send the perfume to his girlfriend in Delaware. I went back to look at the message with the request. The user names were not the same, and the hacker had 0 as feedback. So many red flags had come up for me during the transaction, and I had ignored them out of haste, carelessness, and misplaced trust. Googling Wilmington, Delaware, I found posts complaining of this group's scamming dated as early as March 2019. That means at least 10 months of ripping off unsuspecting sellers.  

I just refunded the buyer his $55, and it seems like a bargain at the price. What if it had happened when I sold the vintage leather coat for $275 at Christmas? That would have been a hard hit. My faith in eBay's security is not as strong as it was a week ago, but I will still sell with eBay because I haven't found a satisfactory replacement. It's still the biggest auction site around and I've had positive experiences with the company. I'll just be more cautious now.  Here is . . . 

THE TAKEAWAY:

1. I'll always send to the address on record. If a buyer wants it sent to another address, they can change it in settings to the one on record.

2. I'll pay full attention to the user name on transactions.

3. I'll follow my intuition and question suspicious communications.

[2015mhfashions]

At any time, if they want a change of address cancel with problem with address, tell them to update their details and re purchase, many sellers do change the address with the $$ signs in the headlights not knowing they are voiding all their limited seller protection.

Never change the address no matter what the sob story.

[luckythewinner]

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@blue_saluki wrote:

My faith in eBay's security is not as strong as it was a week ago

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This was a failure of YOUR security, not eBay's. This happened because you were careless.

eBay is not going to prevent users from contacting sellers.

And there is nothing eBay can do to prevent you from acting on information a user sends to you.

[writertypes]

.

You got really lucky. I know it doesn't seem so; but the lesson learned far outweighed the cost.

[kensgiftshop]

Always check the ID's to make sure they match and never change the address..

Scammers will send a seller a message claiming to be the buyer and wanting the package sent to a different address and seller won't know they've been scammed until the real buyer wants to know where their item is..

If it really is the buyer that sent the message, cancel the order as problem with buyers address and they can purchase again using the correct address.

[whatmorefabric]

It also has nothing to do with the reshipper in Delaware.     They are only an agent of overseas buyers.    Your scammer has an account with them to ship items overseas.    They have no way on knowing if the packages they are forwarding are scammed or not.

You might email them and the might take down the account,  but my gut is that guy is long gone.

[nkmipgolf]

Even the mods protect the scammers.  eBay does need better security.

[icp_double_j]

Oh but it's cool for ebay to hold onto funds when you're a 'new' seller with a decades old account. There is something eBay could have done they simply chose not to because it wasn't in their financial best interest. 

[coket_41]

@nkmipgolf the mods don't work for eBay, they work for Khoros

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@nkmipgolf wrote:

Even the mods protect the scammers.  eBay does need better security.

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User IDs will always be removed for a very good reason.

People lie all the time. Who is to determine what's true and what's not?  If the IDs weren't removed, what would stop your competitor from coming to this board and telling us you were a scammer? Is it true? Is it false? It doesn't matter, the damage would be done. Your name would be trashed and people would remember. You would wind up on bad buyer/seller lists all over the internet.

There are some rules that I don't agree with on this board, but this isn't one of them. Nobody has the right to blast someone's ID on a public forum without their express permission.

[luckythewinner]

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Oh but it's cool for ebay to hold onto funds when you're a 'new' seller with a decades old account

First, I never said that.

And second, that is a completely different subject that has nothing to do with what I was responding to.

There is something eBay could have done they simply chose not to because it wasn't in their financial best interest. 

This OP's situation arose because anyone on eBay can see what a seller has sold, and can send a seller a message.

So what exactly was it that eBay could have done to prevent what happened to the OP?

[ersatz_sobriquet]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

So what exactly was it that eBay could have done to prevent what happened to the OP?

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Rest of the debate aside, ebay could read the message to redirect the perfume to another address and that the messenger had nothing to do with the transaction, and then take action on that person and accounts, all accounts. 

Don't say ebay couldn't do anything. They could. They chose not to. Not taking action doesn't benefit ebay financially, yet it contributes to ebay's scammer friendly reputation. There are many many things ebay could do to cut down on the scammer situations. They should step up to the plate and do more than whatever they are currently doing behind the scenes. 

[coffeebean832]

Even if your request came from the ID of your buyer you could still have been faced with refunding in full. Changing the address- even at the request of the actual buyer- means you forfeit any seller protections on an Item Not Received claim.

[luckythewinner]

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@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:
Rest of the debate aside, ebay could read the message to redirect the perfume to another address and that the messenger had nothing to do with the transaction, and then take action on that person and accounts, all accounts.

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What action could eBay take against an account that could not be bypassed in 30 seconds by creating a new account?

[backroomnoir]

That's an old one, surprised you haven't seen it or heard of it since you've been on eBay since 2002.

Only ship to the address on the PayPal and eBay order.  If the actual buyer needs an address change, cancel the order and tell them to purchase the item again with the correct address.