Ebay question (0% feedback buyer)

[Tim Polster]

To relay my recent experiences, Ebay is more dangerous for buyers of big ticket items than sellers.

I check the broadcast cameras from time to time and I noticed a lot of cameras and lenses were repeating. Often these images have been stolen from real listings and are complete scams for high dollar equipment.

I have also come across the "second chance offer" scam a few times where somebody actually takes over another person's account and try's to re-sell their items.

They send out a second chance to bid on the item like the sale fell though and re-direct the communications to their accounts.

If the item is expensive, I always request a phone number to call. I figure if the person will talk to you, you have a shot at making an informed decision.

Glad you avoided your scam. BTW, you can call Ebay or Pay-pal and they are very helpful. The numbers are on the site or by google search.

The main thing is to only consider messages that are in your ebay account, not just your personal e-mail. Ebay always sends one to your Ebay account for verification.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

PayPal & Ebay claim to be very concerned about fraud & safety but in my experience care little about crime as long as they get their listing fees & that everything appears rosy.

My experience has been completely opposite. I have found both Ebay and
PayPal to be very quick to respond to my concerns on the rare occasions
in which I've had a problem. Based on my encounters, I would say that
they do indeed care very much.

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

In particular they don't want to frighten people off using Ebay/PayPal with bad publicity about numbers of bad transactions.

They have no control whatsoever regarding bad publicity. There are plenty
of reports about the numbers of bad transactions which are well outside their
ability to suppress, available to anyone who makes the effort to look for them.

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

I was the victim of a scam with non-delivery of $1000... I pretty rapidly got refunded

So you were *rapidly refunded* by Ebay / PayPal. Therefore you
would say that they are indeed concerned about fraud after all.
Once you've been refunded, you're no longer the victim. That
status is then passed on, from you to Ebay / PayPal.

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

But I could not get Ebay/PayPal to take any interest in reporting the seller to the authorities in Singapore

Since you're not the victim (because you were rapidly refunded),
Ebay / PayPal has no responsibility to tell you whether they reported
the seller to the authorities or not. Even if they actually told you they
were not going to report the seller, they might have done so anyway.
Regardless, they're under no obligation to tell you how they handled
it, since you're no longer involved.

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

...in my case a package containing junk (a glossy magazine)... they even told me to just dispose of the magazine despite the fact that this could have been evidence with the criminal's fingerprints on it.

What would Ebay / Paypal do with that magazine? They're not a law
enforcement agency. Nor would Singapore's criminal investigations
division want it -- they probably don't bother dusting for prints on
a magazine that's been handled by who knows how many people,
for a misdemeanor offense that most likely would never go to trial.

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

In particular they refused to let me know what action if any had been taken regarding this crook.

Of course not. How is that any of your business, since
you're not the victim? Were you not rapidly refunded?

Here's the documentation of two cases in which Ebay came to my aid rather quickly:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-eo...-my-photo.html

and

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/taking-c...eople-off.html

Ebay's fast response in both instances has left me with a
very good impression about how seriously committed they
are to combating fraud.

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

C) They say a generic "item" not "camera"

That is my hint to bail. Agreed. No one says "the item."

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

My experience has been completely opposite. I have found both Ebay and PayPal to be very quick to respond to my concerns on the rare occasions in which I've had a problem. Based on my encounters, I would say that they do indeed care very much.

Chris as always lays down the solid truth on this matter. If you have your money back, then you are out of the picture PERIOD. And no police agency ANYWHERE will give two craps about an online investigation unless it involves millions of dollars (then it is likely to be federal), involves major campaign doners to powerful politicians, or involves child porn. Everything else is not worth investigating.

[Marty Welk]

in your sellers area go to Account, Site Preferances, Buyer Requirements, select SHOW, then EDIT.
and select away all the STUFF you dont want.
Here is mine

BLOCK
Don't have a PayPal account
Have received 2 Unpaid Item strike(s) within 12 Month(s).
Are registered in countries to which I don't ship
Have 4 Policy Violation report(s) within 6 Month(s).
Have a feedback score of -1 or lower
Are currently winning or have bought 5 of my items in the last 10 days and have a feedback score of 5 or lower

You cant set it to excessivly restrictive, but at least you can set it so the constant scammers cant even bid on your auctions.

Also while your there check out some other things

Payment from buyers - Allow buyers to edit payment totals (NO)
Shipping preferences - Exclude shipping locations from your listings

and always File an Unpaid against any buyer who doesnt ever pay , give the slow pokes time, NARU the crooks
Always Block any buyer you have trouble with, like any buyers that really ticked you off.

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Jason Robinson

Chris as always lays down the solid truth on this matter. If you have your money back, then you are out of the picture PERIOD. And no police agency ANYWHERE will give two craps about an online investigation unless it involves millions of dollars (then it is likely to be federal), involves major campaign doners to powerful politicians, or involves child porn. Everything else is not worth investigating.

Sorry, but that's not my interpretation. I can only assume that the law is different in the US but I was the victim of the crime not Ebay/PayPal & the fact that I was reimbursed is irrelevant. If I had posted the guy a cheque rather than using PayPal I would clearly have been the victim of the crime. If my car is stolen then even though the insurance company pays out they still expect me to report the theft to the police. In a similar event to the Ebay scam I had a fraudulent transaction on my bank card. My bank reimbursed me but insisted that I go to the police & report the crime.

The fact that Ebay is online is irrelevant it's a straightforward mail order fraud. Ebay/PayPal have all the information available to them e.g. address & bank account details of the fraudster plus details of all the other fraudulent transactions from that individual. That's why they need to report these crimes to the authorities because unlike the individual victim they have access to the bigger picture. Whether Ebay/PayPal do involve the authorities or not they certainly don't do themselves any favours by their lack of transparency. The suspicion is that in order to make Ebay/PayPal attractive to buyers & sellers they actually do all in their power to minimise reports of the numbers of fraudulent transactions by brushing it under the carpet so people won't be scared off using their service.

[Jason Robinson]

There very much is a difference of law between Europe and the US, some times for the better, other times, not so. And realistically, no ebay transaction is going to get investigated by any police force in the US. There just isn't the manpower for the prosecution to investigate all the cross border legalities of each fraudulent transaction. This is of course not ideal. But having the service is better than not having it.

[Harry Simpson]

I just had a 3 day auction that was won by a high bidder. I sent an invoice and the buyer sent a message asking for more pictures of the camera and asking me to verify my paypal address. I simply responded for the buyer to pay by clicking the PAy Now button. I've not heard another word and this was 5 days ago and no payment...I opened a resolution case yesterday - had to wait 4 days after the sell time and now have to wait another 4 days until I can stop the sell - which at this point I'd love to do now!! The address is GA. USA and the name looks to be very Nigerian sounding on the surface which is fine.....but I've been burned before by folks bidding and then never paying....It wastes my time and energy. Ebay is very pro buyer and honest sellers are bit from time to time.....I think bottom line - I'll not be using eBay after this.

[Jason Robinson]

Sorry to hear this. eBay is indeed slanted to the buyer, after all that drives their business model. The biggest red flags are any deviation in payment type / method. If they aren't willing to process with PayPal and do so promptly, then doing what you did is the best way to go. File the complaint, go through their hoops. :-/

[Harry Simpson]

Got a related question - I opened a resolution case almost 4 days ago - have to wait 4 days after the case initiation before I can "Close the case". What does this mean? I've read and re read the eBay help file and know that tomorrow morning I can "Close the case".
I've sent two emails to the buyer but have received no response at all. Is the "buyer" who is not paying for his winning bid setting me up? I want to cancel the sale at this point to sale to a friend anyway so I'm trying to go through the proper channels and I'd love to see the crook on the other side have a little negative feedback because bidding, winning and then not paying is not cool.
When I "Close the case" tomorrow morning what does this do exactly?? What is the resolution case but waiting for time to pass?

[Bob Hart]

I had a bad buy experience where the vendor simple did not send the items. The eBay/Paypal resolution system just did not work. It was a sub $400 transaction so probably would be regarded as a less unaffordable loss in amongst the background noise of bigger ticket transactions.

I have since bought through eBay after a boycott of about five months but would never sell via eBay in a fit.

[Jordan Nash]

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

I agree that this sounds very fishy but don't just back out of the transaction as I am guessing that no payment by PayPal will ever be made. Buyers have seven days in which to pay you & if they don't then you lodge a claim for non-payment with Ebay. You need to do this otherwise you will be charged the Ebay fees.

I know all this stuff as I just recently attempted to sell an item on Ebay for the very first time even though I have been a buyer for many years.

I have just upgraded my iPhone 3G with a new iPhone 3GS at a bargain price from my phone operator so was looking forward to selling my old iPhone at a profit. The auction ran for seven days & there were several bidders eventually the winner was someone with zero feedback. I made it very clear in my listing that I would only accept PayPal as a means of payment but after the auction finished the buyer claimed that he had only just started on Ebay & had to wait a few days for the PayPal account to be verified & would I accept a cheque instead. Immediately alarm bells rang for me & I insisted that it was PayPal or nothing. There was an exchange of email with promises of payment with the final email claiming that he had been taken into hospital for an operation on his back & that his father would settle the payment. Needless to say no money ever arrived. I had already entered a claim for non-payment & as this was an auction Ebay has the so-called Second Chance option where you can offer one or more of the losing bidders the opportunity to purchase at their highest bid. Sadly the two highest losing bidders had by then bought a similar iPhone from another seller.

In my failed sale I don't know whether it was an attempted scam & that when I refused to accept a cheque he just strung me along so as to make it appear that it wasn't a scam. Maybe he was just some kid who wanted an iPhone but didn't have any money. Alternatively he just got some kind of thrill from mucking me about & screwing up the sale for genuine buyer. Who knows? Anyway it has left me rather jaded with the whole business of selling on Ebay especially as they are still charging me for the cost of the listing (less than the equivalent of $2 & not the final sale fee which was refunded).

I do see listings on Ebay that say that bids from buyers with zero feedback or less than ten will be refused. I don't know whether this is within the Ebay rules but I shall certainly add that caveat when I re-list my iPhone.

I had a similar problem when listing a cell phone. The first time it was a Nigerian scammer who hit the "Buy It Now" button. I refused to ship, and Ebay eventually refunded the fees. Of course, I had to call Ebay first and convince them that I would NOT be shipping to Nigeria.

The second auction for the same phone was won by some person in Florida who accidentally won the auction and decided she wasn't interested in the phone after all. I filed a dispute, she paid, and I shipped.

I was dealing with all of this and getting ready for Air Force basic training at the same time. It was pretty irritating.