Suggestion on handling empty box scam?

[shoryureppa354]

Sold a PS5 with signature and delivery and as soon as it was delivered, the buyer sends me a picture of empty laptop box and opens a return. 

Suggestion now to best handle the scam? The buyer is definitely low feedback seller with few negative feedbacks. Also he’s not responding to any of my messages for proof. 

Thanks. 

[fbusoni]

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@shoryureppa354 wrote:

Thanks everyone for their suggestion and help. 

I did talk to eBay CS and accepted the return. Will see how it goes. Interestingly the CS told me that the buyer created a lot of returns in the past. Hopefully that’ll help with the escalation when I receive the empty box. 

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@shoryureppa354 

I do not sell electronics on eBay for this very reason.

I have had some good success on FB marketplace, which I would recommend for high-value items vulnerable to the sort of theft that you have experienced.

[youn2240]

luckily I don't sell too many items like these that are targeted but eBay definitely needs to figure something out when the common response to people bringing up how they got scammed out of hundreds of dollars is never list highly sought after items.  the rock and the hard place is if ebay starts refusing returns through automation then good buyers will start getting scammed by scam sellers and surely it's better on the bottom line to error in the buyers favor. one thing that would massively help is an option for sellers to choose if they want their items to be delivered to freight forwarders. the amount of scams that are pulled through those is obviously way higher than the average home or business buyer. the only realistic way to end these scams is to add a lot of cost onto items and have it shipped to an ebay verifier and then reshipped to a customer but it would be very expensive so it probably won't happen and will drive down profits for everyone, slow shipping times, and raise costs for buyers. 

[sextons-sweet-deals]

So, you're going to accept a return on an empty box. Why?

You have a tracking number

You have confirmation of signature

why not respond to the case with that information and let it ride out?

Do you have a receipt that shows tracking and weight from FedEx?

Sellers! You have to do your homework on your buyer before shipping. 

If I was selling that item, it would be pick up only at local police station. Pay in cash. 

[vintage-camerastuff]

Let the buyer know that you are contacting the police department and the postal authorities in there city and reporting mail fraud which is a federal offense.    Let them know if they return the box without the PS5 inside they would face some jail time.  

[shoryureppa354]

The rule seem to be that you have to accept the return regardless first. 
Otherwise eBay steps if seller doesn’t respond or accept return and force return label and as soon as the tracking shows return was received then the buyer gets full refund. Not only that but the seller has to fork over the fees that was taken by eBay and never given to the seller. 

[shoryureppa354]

UPDATE:

FedEx was able to pull security video of the driver carrying the heavy box that I shipped and GPS location. Also the signature requirement helped. 

When presented with these and threat, buyer immediately closed the return. Still wouldn’t acknowledge and have the decency to apologize though.