eBay

nessastreasures · ‎12-30-2021

this is an email I received after selling a lot of rings. This is NOT the winning bidder. If I was a less experienced seller this may have worked on me. It's an actual ebay email from an ebay member. Totally legit in every way except that it's NOT the winning bidder. Please share with everyone. I have no idea how to report this A$$ to ebay, I've searched but there's no selection for scammers. Maybe someone else does? Anyhow sellers beware. I'm quite sure if I had sent these rings to this person unaware that it's not the winning bidder I wouldn't be getting a refund or any help from anyone to recover my money.

stainlessenginecovers · ‎12-30-2021

Sadly; that has been a 'thing' to do for many years here, and I'm sure elsewhere.

downunder-61 · ‎12-30-2021

I think this is one of the ''newer'' scams, ingenious in it's intent I must admit, and sadly I have seen quite a few sellers burned by this.

While eBay policy states Never change an address when asked after purchase, only send to the address on the orginal order at payment - but new sellers rarely read up on the policy nor do they understand the trouble they can so easily get themselves into.

You are not new to the game so you know what to watch for and you are right there is no way for eBay to assist - you lose your item, your buyer needs to be refunded and may even give you a red donut for the trouble, it is lose lose.

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I have been imported from Australia and this is my posting ID

a_c_green · ‎12-30-2021

@downunder-61 wrote:
While eBay policy states Never change an address when asked after purchase, only send to the address on the original order at payment - but new sellers rarely read up on the policy nor do they understand the trouble they can so easily get themselves into.

They also fail to notice when the scam message (such as the one shown in this thread) is not sent from the ID of the buyer who actually won. That was the case here, but fortunately the OP spotted the discrepancy.

Unfortunately eBay has not yet nuked the scammer ID.

janet9988 · ‎12-31-2021

Since that scammer was not the winner on a sale there is no way to report the ID.

Ebay needs to allow for reporting ids even when not in a transaction with them.

Lift your left leg at midnight to start off on the right foot. Happy new Year!

hawkwind5454 · ‎12-31-2021

The big red flag for this is the convoluted backstory. If it's any kind of a scam, they always seem to have some backstory attached to it, to instill confidence and portray sincerity to the scam-ee.

ckimodog · ‎12-31-2021

The only way to avoid these types of potential scams is to list your items at a fixed buy it now price with immediate payment required. You'll see a lot less of them. You may want to change your present listing as you have it up for auction as well. Glad you were smart enough to steer clear of this issue. It's just happening too much and it really needs to be seriously addressed by Ebay. Good luck.

ittybitnot · ‎12-31-2021

Unfortunately eBay has not yet nuked the scammer ID.

The address is a big clue as well. That freight forwarder is an all time favorite for scammer IDs as well.

nessastreasures · ‎12-31-2021

So true. Trying to garner trust. They are the worst. I was thinking how if this happened to my mom she may have fallen for it and it really upset me. I did get into a chat with a customer service representative and gave them the member ID and a copy and paste of the email. Last I checked they were not gone. That really troubles me. I'm picturing some poor retired person needing money to eat selling heirlooms and getting scammed.

d-k_treasures · ‎12-31-2021

@janet9988 wrote:
Since that scammer was not the winner on a sale there is no way to report the ID.

Ebay needs to allow for reporting ids even when not in a transaction with them.

If they really wanted that, they would put the report button back in the messages.

_____________________________
"Nothing is obvious to the oblivious"

nessastreasures · ‎12-31-2021

It wasn't easy to actually talk so someone who was not a robot. Why is it so hard to report a scammer and why is said scammer STILL an active member at this moment??? So aggrivated.

itsjustasprain · ‎12-31-2021

@d-k_treasures wrote:
@janet9988 wrote:
Since that scammer was not the winner on a sale there is no way to report the ID.

Ebay needs to allow for reporting ids even when not in a transaction with them.
If they really wanted that, they would put the report button back in the messages.

Too true.

Of course the scammer will just open another throwaway account as soon as the current one gets removed. I do think that the Report button should be restored anyway so that people can report other problems as well - psycho buyers or frequent spammers and that kind of thing.

buyselljack2016 · ‎12-31-2021

@nessastreasures wrote:
It wasn't easy to actually talk so someone who was not a robot. Why is it so hard to report a scammer and why is said scammer STILL an active member at this moment??? So aggrivated.

Yup, a bit difficult to talk to eBay, and hard to get something so simple resolved.

Not easy to talk to eBay, because unlike your situation where something needs to be done, and as they have it set up, can only be done by a call, the phones are flooded with calls about things that are easily handled by using existing routes, but the callers are not using those routes.

eburtonlab · ‎12-31-2021

It wasn't easy to actually talk so someone who was not a robot. Why is it so hard to report a scammer and why is said scammer STILL an active member at this moment?

eBay provides ways to report sellers or individual listings, but it is not easy to report a non-selling user unless you are actually involved in a transaction with that user. To report a random user you would likely need to contact eBay customer service via the chat assistant. In many cases eBay will suspend the user's account for sending multiple unsolicited messages long before you figure out how to get in touch with eBay, at which point the scammer just moves on to another account.

Scammers take advantage of such things, as well as the ease of registering new accounts to avoid facing the consequences of their actions.

luckythewinner · ‎12-31-2021

@nessastreasures wrote:
I'm quite sure if I had sent these rings to this person unaware that it's not the winning bidder I wouldn't be getting a refund or any help from anyone to recover my money.

Exactly.

That is why when you print a label through eBay and try to change the address, eBay puts a highlighted box at the top of the page with a warning that says ...

"You may not be covered by the eBay Seller Protection Policy if you send to a different address"

... along with a link to that policy.