Matt just got his first taste of Ebay, and it wasn’t good—as soon as he mailed off the Best Buy gift card to the buyer, the buyer reversed payment on Matt’s PayPal account and stopped communicating with him. We’re pretty sure he’s screwed on this one, but does anyone have any good advice for what he can do next?
I was just scammed from selling a 100$ valued best buy gift card selling it on ebay for 96$. I wanted to get an mp3 player but not from best buy because they have no selection of mp3 players greater than 20 gb at all.
Everything looked fine because someone bought this gift card and “supposedly” sent me the money. It was shown i had 96$ on april 3 in my paypal account, so of course i did the “right” thing and sent my card to the unfortunate fraudulent buyer.
Then the same day after I say i sent the package, the money gets somehow reversed. I get this notification from paypal that i might have been dealing with fraud. They notified the man and even received confirmation via email. Paypal finally gets back to me on April 22nd just saying that I did not have seller protection so they will not refund me in any sort of way.
I have his address, phone number and e-mail, but I do not know what to do. He has not responded to my emails though.
I need some advice in dealing with this besides any more pointless responses from paypal. Where is the justice? What can I do to get my money back if possible since paypal will not help or refund me? Why should only certain sellers get seller protection but not others? I would like to sell more stuff on ebay but after this risky transition I’m not so sure if I still want to. Thank you.
Matt
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um, a couple times buyers have TRIED to scam me, but paypal has decided in my favor. Here’s how they’ll side with you:
Applies to physical goods only:
1. ship only to the buyer’s Paypal confirmed address.
2. Send via Fedex or UPS, signature delivery required
Someone tried a paypal chargeback on an ipod I sold a year or so ago. Paypal sided with me once I sent the Fedex link showing the stupid dude’s signature.
The same thing happened to me. I lost about $1800 from paypal refusing to help me. Paypal should only allow people who are able to confirm their address the ability to use their service. This would vastly reduce the number of stories like these.
Post his info you have online if paypal won’t help you maybe the internet community can.
@timmus: If they returned it to the seller, the seller needs to re-pay you or they’re guilty of theft/fraud.
Is eBay just getting super scammy?
I just got scammed too. Buyer paid, when I went to send the insured mail #, his email address bounced back. Later, he disputed the payment on Paypal. Paypal pretty much immediately sided with him. LUCKILY, I’d saved the Insured Mail form, and was able to go to a Post Office and get physical confirmation of delivery. I called, Paypal reopened the case and gave me a fax# to send the evidence. Still waiting to see if Paypal sides with me before filing an insurance claim.
I’ve dealt with something like this before. Someone buys a cell phone off me, I ship it off (Albeit a little late since I was out of town). It gets disputed and I have to provide proof of shipping. Well the options they give are UPS and Fed Ex tracking numbers and I sent it through USPS, since that’s what was paid for. So Paypal proceeds to give the buyer the money back…so they got a cell phone for free. A few months later I sell my PSP on Ebay and had to relist the damn auction three times because of fraud. Afterward, I said “To hell with it” and sold it on Amazon.
It’s amazing how much of a scammer Ebay/Paypal is.
since the OP has the scammers
phone number / email / address
why not try the attorney generals office either where the op lives or where the scammer lives
i tried to use pay pal once….i got so confused trying to sign up that i forgot the whole deal…pee on pay pal…..
Call him and tell him you contacted his local police, and that you’re ready to take him to court for theft and fraud. I did this to a guy that bought 5 wiis from me for $1800 and attempted a chargeback. He called my cell phone 5 minutes later and apologized.
Actually, I posted on paypalsucks.com with the full story.
[paypalsucks.com]
I always ship 2-3 days after i say i did just in case. blaming the postal service still works.
@tvmitch: I don’t think you understand. Paypal will do nothing because it was not shipped (at least not at first). They will pretend they are going to do something, but they don’t.
That happened to me dad, too. He somehow managed to track down the
UPS truck right before his item was delivered to the guy who had had
the payment reversed.
@rdm I understand that PayPal is evil and could care less; however, it’s a lot easier for them to send you a form email than deal with you on the phone.
This happened to me too. I won’t sell on Ebay ever again and I use USAEpay for my credit card processing.
This is why I backed away from ever selling or buying on eBay again. I have both sold and purchased (a LOT on both counts with 100% positive feedback) over a period of several years but elected to stop doing so because of the prevalence of fraud and bad news scam-artists. Cheer up! If it is any consolation, there was apparently someone who got scammed on eBay motors for $12,000 and the seller’s PayPal account is STILL frozen some 9 months later. Really sorry this happened to you.
@ Skankingmike
They have 30 days to reverse payment… I’ve had people do this to me 20 days after an auction, after I’ve long since forget… this happens the most when its over seas customers because it’s difficult to provide tracking info.
Anyway, I feel for the guy from this post… Paypal is terrible. Not to mention really slow about this stuff in general… I sent something out to someone within a week… provided tracking information and the buyer freaked out and said I was a liar because the notice on usps’s site said they had only been notified. Well, anyone who’s used to using the usps site knows that they are horrible about updating their tracking information. Anyway, about a week and a half in she decides to tell paypal I’m scamming her and they put a hold on the money (because it was a high enough amount–like $250) while they investigated. I left them comment after comment with the tracking number and they did nothing for weeks, holding my money. I had to actually call her and ask her to drop the dispute because they refused to take action because she never responded. She did, but never did remove the negative feedback saying I’m a scam artist who stole her money-this is why I don’t use ebay anymore-I’ve had countless dealings where someone files a dispute to get their money back either claiming I never sent it or claiming it wasn’t what they bought. They never have to provide proof and sometimes my proof of sending a tracking number means nothing.
Act quickly!
Call Best Buy, especially if you have the name and ccredit card number of the card. Yes,this may involve confession to your gift giver that you tried to sell it, but that’s the lesser of your problems at this point. Tell them you really appreciated the gift and you really wanted an MP3 player but Best Buy didn’t have it, so…. Emphasize that you do appreciate that they thought you’d want electronics, it’s Best Buy’s fault for not having the electronic device you wanted. Tell them how upset you are that you got ripped off; they’re bound to feel sympathetic and not be mad.
Tell Best Buy what happened, and they’ll be able to bring up the card and void it, and send you a new one. If the card has already been used, maybe they’ll have a fraud department.
I lost a gift card from Wegman’s and called them almost a year later, and they were able to pull up the card info and issue me a new one.
You can ask the person who bought you a card to issue a chargeback on their credit card, or try to return it at the store.
@Buran: I’ve never blamed the victim and I’m definitely not a troll. Looking back calling him a moron was a bit harsh but that’s a dumb comment to say that Best Buy does not offer mp3 players over 20GB. What are we in, 2002? Also, it is very possible that the buyer thought that the gift card was already used (a reason not to buy them) and cancelled too late. Who knows. It was probably a scam.
Here on Consumerist you are allowed to offer your opinion. There is a difference between saying, “This idiot deserved it because…” and saying, “Well I believe this may be false and he should have done this because…”In this case, out of the 400+ topics I’ve read on Consumerist, I feel it was the victim’s fault here. I don’t know why anyone would buy or sell a gift card that could’ve been used up on ebay, it just doesn’t make sense. He should have either used it or sold it, and making statements as to why he didn’t use it (the Best Buy remark) damage his credibility.
So tell me, is having an opinion trolling? Is having an opinion that is not absolutely useless against Consumerist policy trolling? Or should I just kiss his wounds and say, “Next time it’ll be better, poor poor him”?
@kylo4: You can offer an opinion. But blasting the guy for having a reason for selling the gift card was uncalled for. All that matters is what happened when he tried to do so, not why he did it.
Hm…i guess this was kind of hidden from many users but a while back i had the same thing happened and filed through bbb on Paypal cuz i was so pissed. they in return gave me a list of what you need to be “illegible” for seller protection. Please note first that if a buyer chooses to file a chargeback, Paypal will not question it, Please read about it in the bbb website.
here are a few (there are about nearly 10 requirements)
-You are only protected if you have transactions with US, UK and Canada only
-A chargeback/reversal will be honor by Paypal when request from CC.
-You need to always buy tracking or proof of shipment
-Ship within 7 days
-Confirmed addresses only (or verified, i am not 100% sure right now)
-You need to be Premier or Business account holders
—–Can you see scammers had caught onto the chargeback/reversal lately.
Good Luck to you. I still have a case with the French Police for over a year now. Still going nowhere!!! Will be alot worse once May comes.
I don’t use eBay to sell anything anymore because of scams. Craigslist and bulletin boards for me. It amazes me that no one mentioned that eBay owns PayPal. Thats why you cant use Google Checkout. I hope that Google launches their own faster, cheaper, more reliable auction sight soon.
[en.wikipedia.org]
eBay needs to have an option that rejects bids from PayPal account holders that do not have confirmed addresses.
Otherwise, it’s easy for a scammmer to overbid a legitimate buyer. Even if you don’t ship out to the scammer, you’re still out the listing fees.
If you are serious.
You can work with your PD and give them the number.. You have the card number right? If you are savvy, work this and if need be, help them help you.
Since in this day and age, that stuff is tracked. Plus the cameras in store.
The chances of getting your money back are pretty much next to nil.The chances of getting the human who used the card physically is better.Even online… Products have to ship someplace..
1. Use the card number
2. Work with your local PD
3. Track the card number you should have.
4. Prosecute to the full extent of the law. (Follow through)
5. Do not let any party give you the run around. It is your money.
Laptops, giftcards, iPhones variously easily fenced items are not worth selling on eBay. To many “phished” accounts are used for these.
Still have good luck in the cycling area, especially seeing none of my auctions are international.
eBay is like a very sharp tool, useful if used properly, but dangerous if you are not very careful with it.
@guyguy: Even if the seller had purchased insurance, the claim would have been denied due to inadequate packaging.
@Pro-Pain: As long as you use paypal and fund your payment with a credit card you can get your money back. The only catch is you have to pay return shipping to send not as decribed items back to the seller.
@Keat: Paypal allows you to block payments from buyers without a confirmed address. It’s possible to receive a payment from a buyer with a confirmed address, but not be covered by the seller protection plan. Always make sure the transaction is eligible for the seller protection plan.
The best ‘Seller Protection Plan” is to get your money FIRST and make sure that it is good funds and then send the item to the buyer.
Look,Ebayer’s need to stop kidding themselves- PaYPal is looking out for PayPal. They don’t care about your little problem. They are a fee grabbing adjunct to Ebay’s core business and as such,their interests are not your interests. I never got burned with PayPal,but after I signed up,they stopped my account until I would fax them reams of information. ( I was careful to have about $.04 in the account at the time). I told them to shove that fax machine up their ass and haven’t looked back.
Little known fact – IF you have a good feedback score and IF you ask nicely in plenty of time before the auction ends,most “Paypal Only” sellers will let you pay by check or money order. I have done this hundreds of times. I am always careful to send good funds promptly and give great feedback for their understanding. Hasn’t failed me once. I guess that there has been a half dozen sellers that said no to this,so I thanked them and moved on .
One thing that you MUST consider these days with Ebay is the high percentage of scammers that have picked PayPal’s security locks and still swindled trusting sellers (like the OP).In this case, he would have benn much better off to accept a check,waited for clearance , and then sent the card. Cost ? -$0.
Okay, if he deposited a bad check – cost – $30 – $40 bucks. Bad,but not a total loss (and a cheap lesson about selling high risk goods on Ebay).
His cost here- $100. Total loss.Now,tell me how PayPal offers “protection” for sellers ?
PayPal is a convenience.As always,you will pay dearly for this convenience.In this case,you even fund your own undoing.
@Buran: Oh come on… No one is blaming the victim. I feel for the guy. But the dude, seriously, has some common sense issues.
Any time you try to sell anything from one unknown party to another there’s always risk.
@Snarkysnake: So very true…
Here’s good advice: Selling gift cards and coupons is against Ebay’s policy.
File a police report with his local jurisdiction.
OR
Post his personal information on the internet and let vigilante justice run its course.
You are caught in the new ebay scam
Sellers can’t leave feedback so Buyers can now scam sellers completely and their is nothing the Seller can do. This is why I will never sell anything on eBay again.
This same thing happened to me. In the respect that I sent items to a buyer after he paid me via paypal. Then he reversed the transaction. Paypal and ebay were no help, so i took matters into my own hands. Here is what i did…
I requested his email account via ebay. I couldnt belive my luck when he used a domain account he registered. A simple whois revealed all the info i needed. I contacted local police in his town and provided them information.
I called his house and spoke with his parents. Who confirmed the package from me was at the house. Local police told me that unless i wanted to travel to the state the crime occured, i would not be able to take any legal action. They did keep in contact with me weekly asking me how it was going.
I asked the parents to ship the goods back to me. They did and couldnt belive i had tracked him down. All of this took roughly 4 weeks, additionally I looked at his recent purchases via ebay and contacted each of the sellers and asked if they had been scammed. Once they confirmed i gaave them the info they needed to get everything back. All but one guy did and it was a laptop this kid destroyed once the heat was on.
Moral of the story? Hold ALL paypal payments for at least 5 days or ship through paypal and it will email the buyer the tracking number making them think it was shipped. Then still retain the item for 5 days.
I work for a company that manages and tracks gift cards. We blog about gift card issues on savvywallet.com. Selling a gift card on the net, is risky business. My advice? Swap or trade it in person and go get it checked out. It may be a pain in the butt, but so is calling paypal 24/7 to get your money back.
There is no protection for a seller with PayPal. I had a problem with them releasing my money even after the item was delivered. The PayPal rep basically said they don’t protect the seller. Once I did get my $ I promptly closed my PayPal account and told them to f*ck off!
If you have proof that you sent the item (delivery confirmation or something similar) you can file mail fraud against him. You probably won’t get your card or money back, but it may put a stop to his shenanigans. If you didn’t add delivery confirmation or something similar to the package, there’s not much you can do but to chalk it up to experience.
next time, as soon as you see the money hit your paypal account, transfer it to your checking account immediately.
@tcp100: However, unless the guy lives in a one stoplight town, if folks here think the police will get invovled via an out-of-jurisdiction complainant for a lousy hundred bucks, you’re smoking something.
Nope… I bought a UPS from a guy on eBay once, then he refused to ship me anything. I rounded up about a dozen other folks who he’d just recently sold items to but not delivered on by digging through his list of recently ended items. Then I called his local PD and said, “Hey, this guy is ripping people off. He stole a hundred bucks from me, and I’ve got names and phone numbers of a dozen others he’s stealing from, too.”
Local police department was very interested. In fact, they paid him a visit that same day, then called me back and told me what his lame excuse was, and that if he didn’t refund me, to let them know. It took him a week or two but he managed to scrape together the money and pay us back.
Try it. The police may well be interested in helping you.
Props to everyone saying craigslist… I’ve bought 3 different things off of craigslist in the last month; a truck, a gas stove, and something for my kid. I always offer cash, and meet in a public place. Haven’t had an issue yet.
As for gift cards we just want cash for? A friend of mine likes to buy something worth about $10 OVER the gift card value, pay the remainder in cash of course, hold onto the product for 5 days, return it with receipt, and get the cash. Some places haggle about the gift card thing, but he hasn’t had too much of a problem yet just getting cash back. Most places don’t want to give you $10 cash and a $150 card again…
Perhaps you might consider checking out the seller’s feedback before bidding on any item. I have bought and sold on eBay for over 8 years and it has been great…BUT I always check out the feedback before doing business.
Try it…it really does help.
“Where is the justice?”
I’ve been on eBay for many years and I can tell you there is no justice when eBay/PayPal is involved. PayPal is NOT a bank so they can screw you all they want as none of the bank regulations apply to them.
And even if you qualify for the “seller protection policy”, you will still get scammed as easily.
Oh, and don’t complaint to PayPal and eBay, that will only get your account(s) suspended. (Yes that happened to my friend)
We [my husband and I] are going through the same thing. We look like bad people here because we have so many people taking our money from paypal and we have done what we were suppose to do. We sent them [the buyer] what they bought and then they file a complaint with Paypal saying we never sent the item. We have proof, but some of it was for PokerStars gift certificate and we even had a guy scam us and Paypal is saying that that buyer used a stolen credit card. We should be protected no matter if it is for intangible goods. We are consider as a “lower” class family. We live in a trailer, we don’t have a lot of things, so we did this to get a little money to get us to the next payday and well we ended up being poorer than dirt. We are in so much stress with this. We have two young kids and we need diapers and food for them. How can people do this to others?!? It just makes me sick. It was a lot of money that we have been scammed out, well to us anyways.
I cry all the time just thinking about this. That was our money and we NEEDED it. Now we just are “surviving” in life, instead of living. Luckly we have the family we have to help us with food and things right now in the difficult time.
People just don’t understand how some people really need that little bit of money to survive. I just don’t know what to do. Because of all these claims on our paypal account, paypal probably think we are the scammers and bad people and if you knew us, you would see that we weren’t. We help people and apparently we helped a lot of people out with getting free gift certificates. They pretty much got free money from, I don’t want to say poor, because we aren’t “poor”, we just have very little money, especially for a famly of 4.
But I hope one day, and I hate saying this, but I hope the tables get turned to the people who took our money.
Oh and the people who have done this to us, had good feedback. I don’t get it. Why would they choose us to do this too???