Scammers & eBay’s Communication w/ users

[jobo9810]

Just recently got back into eBay to start selling/buying & sold an item this morning to what ended up being a gift card scammer....

Noticed it fairly quickly & proceeded to see what I needed to do.

Best option eBay gives is to cancel the order for irrelevant reasons.

Then tried to provide more accurate details to let them know what happened & the user.

COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME!

No way to reach out, note actual reason item didn’t sell, or help them weed out some of these scammers.

This isn’t anything new to eBay but based on their contact options & generic responses, you’d think they don’t even realize scammers exist....

[southern*sweet*tea]

Report them here: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/reporting-issue-buyer?id=4084

Not sure how much good it does, as these scammers have thousands and thousands of accounts and when one gets canned they just move on to another.  

[mtgraves7984]

Sadly, cancellation of the order and reporting the buyer are the best you've got. Glad you caught on so quickly.

[jobo9810]

I understand that but just frustrating when I can’t even cancel a sale for the right reason....especially something like that

[jobo9810]

Cancelled yes, but best reason option was “incorrect buyer address or shipping location” something like that. Never found a way to notify them

[gracieallen01]

Well, don't expect many changes in the way any scammers are handled.  It would cost money for ebay to work on the situation and there would also be the risk of losing 'buyers'.  Many of the scams are just considered 'a cost of doing business', you know, an industry standard.  Many of them are a he said/she said where they say they can't tell who is telling the truth and give back to the 'buyer' - when 'being a venue', they probably shouldn't be in the refund business in the first place, especially since they can't prove that one party is being dishonest or not.

Keep alert as you are the only one that can protect yourself.

[jobo9810]

I know it exists about everywhere & scamming has become a large scale operation now. But maybe it wouldn’t be as prevalent if eBay & others took steps to try & minimize or atleast allow users to notify when it happens. But hey, our local & federal leaders don’t even attempt to stop it or even prosecute it. 
idk how your “he said/she said” comment relates. Sounds like something else entirely. 

[gracieallen01]

He said/she said = he said the original item was returned and she said something else was returned.  A 'faulty return' where a switch may have or may not have been made.  ebay can't prove one way or the other and provides the refund to the buyer with no proof either way and no actual investigation or safeguards.

[jobo9810]

👌🏻 I gotcha now. Another type of scam. Guessing fairly common? Wait, so in that situation eBay wouldn’t look at your listing pics of item & compare to what was returned??

[gracieallen01]

Yes, a rather common type of scam - upgrade or replace for free.

It isn't apparent that ebay looks at pictures or descriptions.  'Bots aren't programmed to do that, even if they could make 'decisions'.  Programming is in place to handle situations as quickly as possible and everybody agrees to it via the UA and TOS.  CS is frequently 3rd party, off-shore companies where the reps have little or no power to do much of anything other than commiserate and soothe the person calling.

I'm not saying that all sellers are perfect, however it seems that buyers have carte blanche.

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@jobo9810 wrote:

👌🏻I gotcha now. Another type of scam. Guessing fairly common? Wait, so in that situation eBay wouldn’t look at your listing pics of item & compare to what was returned??

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No, eBay does not review the details of the case until the appeal stage, which comes after the buyer has been refunded. Even if they did review pictures, that doesn't prove fraud as a picture of the return can be doctored. Ebay's method in a he-said-she-said case is to find for the buyer. Then afterwards, if a seller has compelling evidence of buyer wrong-doing, they can submit it with the appeal. Money Back Guarantee cases are found for the buyer 95% of the time. Ebay watches out for the buyer's interests first and foremost. Sellers must protect their own as best they can. It is one of the risks of selling here. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

@gracieallen01 wrote:

"Keep alert as you are the only one that can protect yourself."

This bears repeating.

[jobo9810]

Yeah that makes sense. “Bots aren’t programmed to do that” 😂 

Not the best business model for complete automation either. Buy/sell/resell built by individuals requires human eye for some guaranteed & known complications. But I also understand automation from a biz/financial decision. Just don’t agree with total automation

[gracieallen01]

'Bots and programming is only as intelligent and as good as the person(s) paid to do the programming.  (learned that about programming back in the 60s)

[gracieallen01]

Sort of brings to mind a movie line, 'Open the pod-bay doors, Hal'.