Scams O'plenty

[bigdeals.etc]

How many times have you been scammed by a buyer? Go!

[vintagecraze50]

1 time in 15 years. 

[coffeebean832]

I get a lot of attempted scams- mostly buyers fishing for full or partial refunds, free replacements, etc. They usually disappear when you tell them to return for refund. The most common attempts these days are when buyers claim INR and demand an immediate refund.

I've only had a few actual scams where buyers returned different or damaged items.

Last year I started a new selling account for clothing because my family did a major closet clean out and downsizing. Within the first week of listing I had about a dozen of the "text me" scam attempts on inexpensive ($20-40) items. That was the most UPIs I ever filed in one week.

[queencleo614]

So far, zero.

[buyselljack2016]

One I know. Sent photo of item that I did not send showing something broken.  I sent parts to repair.  Partial loss.

One that I am pretty sure. Sent. Said did not work. Refunded without return.

One I suspect. Claimed damage. Larger item, not oversize, but large. No return opened. Said box looked like run over by truck. Shipped Parcel Post without insurance. Refunded without return as no point in paying to get a "broken" item back.

Probably more.  I try to forget.

Thing is now I start to look for the potential scam in sales before even shipping.

Yesterday I sold some used bars for a freezer door. I sold them in pairs to make the sale worth doing. I had one left over. I thought about just including it with the purchase. Shipping would have been the same.

The little gears in my head were twirling. What if the buyer only needed one, and had made the purchase of 2 just because they were listed that way. If he only wanted one, and got 3 in the package would he just keep the one, and open a return for a refund, and just ship back the 2 as that is what the listing was for?

Have had some good buyers as well that have admitted to their errors in purchasing.

[inhawaii]

3 or 4 times in 20+ years.

[dhbookds]

2 x in 16 yrs.

[mtgraves7984]

Never... yet. Wish me luck!

[lamber9347]

Not a single time, knock on wood....

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

Wait a minute...Kindly text me and included 3 gift cards to Taco Bell..no wait..Wendys...no wait Applebees my number is 867.5309...and I'll tell you!

[calntom]

One for sure. Real knucklehead. Folks here on the board walked me through it as it was in progress. EBay ended up providing a courtesy refund to the scammer out of their own pocket. 

I checked his user ID recently. He is still at it. 

Thanks again for the help.

[coffeebean832]

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@silverstatetreasureboxes wrote:

Wait a minute...Kindly text me and included 3 gift cards to Taco Bell..no wait..Wendys...no wait Applebees my number is 867.5309...and I'll tell you!

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I'm in a wheelchair and I'm disabled and I'm out of the country and I'm in the military so I can't buy the gift card myself even though anybody can purchase a gift card to almost anywhere online- I can only buy from your listing. I'll give you $50, no $100 for gas to go get the card. I promise this is legit. 🙄

The sad part is how many people fall for it.

[calntom]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

One I know. Sent photo of item that I did not send showing something broken.  I sent parts to repair.  Partial loss.

One that I am pretty sure. Sent. Said did not work. Refunded without return.

One I suspect. Claimed damage. Larger item, not oversize, but large. No return opened. Said box looked like run over by truck. Shipped Parcel Post without insurance. Refunded without return as no point in paying to get a "broken" item back.

Probably more.  I try to forget.

Thing is now I start to look for the potential scam in sales before even shipping.

Yesterday I sold some used bars for a freezer door. I sold them in pairs to make the sale worth doing. I had one left over. I thought about just including it with the purchase. Shipping would have been the same.

The little gears in my head were twirling. What if the buyer only needed one, and had made the purchase of 2 just because they were listed that way. If he only wanted one, and got 3 in the package would he just keep the one, and open a return for a refund, and just ship back the 2 as that is what the listing was for?

Have had some good buyers as well that have admitted to their errors in purchasing.

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I rarely ever send any extras due to the fact that some buyers are easily confused when not getting exactly what they ordered. 

[auctionpet]

A handful of times if you count someone using false reason for return. Zero if your going by not returning what I shipped.

However, I've been scammed by sellers here more times than I can count!

[whitepoof]

One time but I cut it off before things got too hairy, thanks to the help of these forums. 

I had a few potential buyers working overtime to make me give them free shipping and offering to send me a shipping label. Hard pass. 

I also had a guy crank the truss rod all the way on an American Fender Guitar so he would claim damage and get a free return. I wish he would have at least turned the truss back before he returned. 

I am going to stick with things that don't go out in 50x20x8 boxes in the future.