Beware of eBay scammers

ballerhe75 · Oct 31, 2019

I wrote about this several months ago, but it has happened again.

I sold a drone on eBay and eBay sent me the name and the address of where to ship it. Then I get an email from the supposed purchaser to send it to a different address. Then I get a different email from another address from the same person saying send it to my sister who is the hospital, in another state. Then the buyer (with a different email address) emails me to send to his girlfriend in another state. In total, three different email addresses.

In both cases the buyer could say they never received the drone, claim I sent to wrong address.

I called eBay, 1) refund the buyers money because “conflicting shipping addresses” and 2) make my ad inactive. I decided I did not want to do this over again.

The buyer sent several emails demanding I send the drone (to the sister in the hospital or the girlfriend in another state, so confusing lol), of which I did not respond. Let eBay take care of it, which they did.

KobeFlight1981 · Oct 31, 2019

I would have just sent it to the original address with tracking. Then if they said they didn't receive it.. Send them proof of postage and the digital copy of their signature. I've had this done to me 3 months after I sold an item on ebay. The buyer claimed I took money from their account and demanded the money back. I simply sent all the email conversations and postage screenshots to email and shut them up.
If people can't receive their items to their original address, then they should make their own arrangement to resolve the matter. It's not up to you as a seller. I've sent stuff to other places, but always made sure it's stored in my own address book. If not, usually ends up at my local post office for me to collect myself.

25Vettes · Oct 31, 2019

As an eBay seller/buyer for 20 years with over 6700 positive feedbacks, fraud runs rampant on eBay but you can control it.

1. Only sell/buy to people with positive feedback
2. NEVER ship to any other address than their CONFIRMED Paypal address. NO EXCEPTIONS! If they claim their address is wrong, refund their payment, tell them to fix it and resend payment.
3. If you buy off of eBay and use Paypal, never use "Friends/Family" and pay via Paypal Credit. Great protection if the order isn't what they say it is, or if you never receive it!

Most important, if it seems like a great deal, too good to be true, 99.99999999% chance it is!!

JAW · Oct 31, 2019

I've had the address switch scam occur a couple times. What eBay recommended I do was to request the buyer to change his primary PayPal address to the address he wanted me to send it to. They rarely make the change.

DDS · Oct 31, 2019

oldest trick in the book...

only ship to confirmed paypal address and your fine.

Jet skier · Nov 1, 2019

That also happened to me and eBay did not do anything about it. eBay is no longer secure the way it used to be

GFields · Nov 1, 2019

I had a similar experience with an eBay buyer. I have an Inspire 2 Premium package on eBay. The cost is $9000. The buyer sent me a message asking if I could over-night the shipment and he would cover the cost. This option is not available in eBay so he suggested just dropping the payment directly in my PayPal account. My sixth sense kicked in and I told him I would invoice him through my company (so I could have more of a paper trail) and he could pay from the invoice. I did just that and never heard back from him.

I could have lost both the drone and the 9 grand.

Always protect yourself. If it doesn't sound right, just don't do it.
If it sounds to good to be true - it is!

KobeFlight1981 · Nov 1, 2019

gfieldsr said:
I had a similar experience with an eBay buyer. I have an Inspire 2 Premium package on eBay. The cost is $9000. The buyer sent me a message asking if I could over-night the shipment and he would cover the cost. This option is not available in eBay so he suggested just dropping the payment directly in my PayPal account. My sixth sense kicked in and I told him I would invoice him through my company (so I could have more of a paper trail) and he could pay from the invoice. I did just that and never heard back from him.

I could have lost both the drone and the 9 grand.

Always protect yourself. If it doesn't sound right, just don't do it.
If it sounds to good to be true - it is!

I don't think you would have lost the $9000 unless you decided to send it before the buyer even paid. Then you would have definitely lost it. But if the buyer paid (which I can see he didn't) then you don't lose out. You did the right thing to put it through invoice. Either way, if the person did pay, you still have paypal protection as long as you cover your own tracks.

25Vettes · Nov 1, 2019

KobeFlight1981 said:
I don't think you would have lost the $9000 unless you decided to send it before the buyer even paid. Then you would have definitely lost it. But if the buyer paid (which I can see he didn't) then you don't lose out. You did the right thing to put it through invoice. Either way, if the person did pay, you still have paypal protection as long as you cover your own tracks.

But still be very careful and read the fine print... PayPal does not guarantee payments from non-US accounts...

hermitdog · Nov 2, 2019

This same exact thing happened to me. My eBay order was intercepted by a Russian individual whose address was a warehouse in Wilmington, Delaware. I'd been tracking the UPS shipment (from Detroit to my home in southern Ohio) - and when it began moving east through Pennsylvania, I knew something was very wrong. So, I sent a private message to the eBay seller - who IMMEDIATELY went to the UPS facility that he'd shipped it from and changed the address back to mine. My Mavic Pro would have been delivered the very next morning to the fraudulent address in Delaware.
Once, I'd corrected the problam, I called eBay to report the incident. The person I spoke with was congenial and complimented me for handling the event on my own.
The fraudulent address in Delaware was for a warehouse operated by an online company that ships merchandise twice weekly to Russia.

DanMan32 · Nov 2, 2019

Question: How does a private seller and buyer mutually protect themselves? The seller likely won't have a seller account, and a buyer can't use purchase protection if the seller isn't registered as a seller account.

25Vettes · Nov 3, 2019

DanMan32 said:
Question: How does a private seller and buyer mutually protect themselves? The seller likely won't have a seller account, and a buyer can't use purchase protection if the seller isn't registered as a seller account.

I'm not sure what you mean, but if you are referring to selling directly to someone and using Paypal, NEVER send money via the "Friends/Family" option. Pay for it using the "Goods/Services" option and pay for it using Paypal Credit (NOT your PP balance, bank account or credit card). If the item is never received, or if it arrives not as described, they will back you up 100%.

DanMan32 · Nov 3, 2019

And how do you select Goods/Services if private seller is not a registered seller?

Scenario: I'm an individual and have an extra remote you are interested in. Being an individual, I'm not registered as a seller. From my experience, only friends/family will work.

Using a CC (not debit) will give you some protection, but only through CC services, who in turn will likely work with PP.
Supposedly using CC transaction mode on debit is supposed to protect you just the same but the risk is on you and the account behind the debit. With actual CC, it's up to the CC provider to get money from you. This is where I disagree with Dave Ramsey.

25Vettes · Nov 3, 2019

DanMan32 said:
And how do you select Goods/Services if private seller is not a registered seller?

Scenario: I'm an individual and have an extra remote you are interested in. Being an individual, I'm not registered as a seller. From my experience, only friends/family will work.

Using a CC (not debit) will give you some protection, but only through CC services, who in turn will likely work with PP.
Supposedly using CC transaction mode on debit is supposed to protect you just the same but the risk is on you and the account behind the debit. With actual CC, it's up to the CC provider to get money from you. This is where I disagree with Dave Ramsey.

Registered as a seller where? On Paypal? If you as the seller and me as the buyer both have verified PP accounts, you can sell me the controller as "goods/services"

Multi-Rotor Pilot812 · Nov 3, 2019

I recently sold an expensive item on eBay. I didn’t experience someone trying this address switching scam on me but I did feel like eBay cares about and tries to protect the buyer much more than me the seller. The only positive thing about the site are the protections that PayPal offers. I’m starting to feel like eBay is becoming like another Craig’s List and I’m contemplating never doing any kind of business on their website again.

DanMan32 · Nov 4, 2019

OK, maybe the seller hadn't had his account verified yet. However their documents seem to make a distinction between a seller account and a non-seller account.

KobeFlight1981 · Nov 5, 2019

DanMan32 said:
Question: How does a private seller and buyer mutually protect themselves? The seller likely won't have a seller account, and a buyer can't use purchase protection if the seller isn't registered as a seller account.

Now I don't remember how I became a seller, but I think I just started selling stuff without verifying anything??.. I've had my account since 2003, so maybe I skipped that process due to how new the website was?. Of course now, all my paypal and accounts have been verified, but that still doesn't stop me having multiple accounts (one that my wife doesn't know about so I can keep buying drone stuff without her knowing

)
Usually though, it is paypal that will help protect you. Recently had someone told me this item I sold, that something was broken, but it wasn't. They tried to have it sent back after saying I sent them something that wasn't as described. In my description, I put down everything that is wrong with it as well as told them exactly what they were getting. Anyway, I had to escalate it because the person wouldn't respond for over 2 weeks. Then ebay offered to have it sent back at my expense and refund the person (that annoyed me as I tried everything I could to resolve the issue, but the ebay rep just clicked it through for refund instead of investigating the matter thoroughly.. Fortunately for me after 2 weeks, the case closed (still no response from the buyer after my initial messages to him (I was nice and polite)) and they kept the item and I kept the money.. Ebay did tell me this would happen after I chased up for an appeal. So sellers and buyer's protection does occur both ways. Although, can be very frustrating!...