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Community Newsletter: Q&A: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now?
- 9/28/07 3:22 PM
My revenge
by ia3d - 9/23/07 11:06 AM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Twice someone tried to cheat me on eBay - once by sending a cheap, used point & shoot 35mm in place of the Sony camcorder I won and once by not sending at all the color monitor I won.
In the first case, the none-too-smart seller had to include his name & address for the insurance form. It happened to be only about 20 miles from where I was going in two weeks to spend Thanksgiving with the family. I emailed him that I would either have a credit to my PayPal account by the time I left for the drive over there or else I would be paying a visit to the local police to have him arrested for fraud. I got my refund.
On the second occasion, I phoned the police department in his town and asked to speak to the person in charge of fraud cases. This officer then went to the 'perps' home, told him that I had threatened to file fraud charges and informed him that I should have a PayPal credit posted within three days or he would be arrested. I got my refund.
Smart on you part...
by jcrick - 9/23/07 12:41 PM In reply to: My revenge by ia3dI applaud your action, unfortunately most people live too far for this kind of action to be even remotely worth the time and expense. But if it were me, I would not have given the person any warning. I would have filed the complaint with the police and politely asked for a court date.
It's always nice to "get the message across", but I would go the extra mile to get the "lesson learned" to the two bit hustler. Chances are a little better that once burned they would be so quick to do it again.
Too good to be true?
by tmccool - 9/24/07 4:48 AM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
"Here’s my problem, I purchased an iPod from eBay some time ago."
There is one piece of advice that none of the chosen answers provides:
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.
Online Order Scam then DO NOT SHOP ONLINE
by x4daniel - 9/24/07 5:39 AM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It seem to much problems which the online order from the seller side screwed up the buyer side. WE SHOULD CLOSE THE ONLINE BUSINESS AND SHOP AT LOCATION STORE IS MORE SAFER AND IF THERE WAS A PROBLEM WE KNOW FOR SURE 100% TO GET OUR REFUND BACK. THIS PROBLEMS WERE GOING ON AS DAILY BASIS AND OUR GOVERNMENT ARE NOT BE ABLE TO CONTROL TO SECURITY THE BUYER. WE ALSO DO NOT NEED TO PAY EXTRA COST FOR THE CREDIT CARD PROTECTTION THIS IS ANOTHER IDEA OF SCAM IN THE MARKETING TO MAKE EXTRA COST. FOR EXAMPLE IF SOME SREWED YOU UP FOR THE CREDIT CARD LET SAY $1000 THEN THE BANK WILL EITHER RUN AFTER TO THE OTHER SELLER SAY THAT THIS TRANSACTION WAS NOT ACCEPTED BECAUSE THE CREDIT WAS STOLEN. aND THEY NEED THE PROOF OF IDENTIFICATION TOO.
MAN YOU BETTER BUY AT LOCAL STORE AND NEVER DEAL WITH ONLINE IS MUCH SAFER.
Everyone who uses Ebay ought to get a message warning them
by catladys15 - 9/24/07 8:09 AM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Ebay doesn't TELL anybody about all their RULES for getting your stuff from crooked sellers. I had a similar experience with a "team" of people claiming to be married. They wanted money orders to the "husband" but made out to the wife (whose name was totally different). When I wrote Ebay, they suspended the husband's selling account, but the woman who cashed the money orders is still selling, with no mention of this rip-off on her account. My only recourse was to never use Ebay again. If all the people who got ripped off on Ebay stopped using it, Ebay would really DO something about these people instead of just "covering their own butts".
Check feedback is genuine
by ninjamynci - 9/24/07 8:53 AM In reply to: Everyone who uses Ebay ought to get a message warning them by catladys15I've never so far had a problem as a buyer on ebay. Many poblems as a seller with the winning bidder contacting me after the auction has ended and requesting that I send the item to 'his cousin in Nigeria', despite my clearly stating in the item description that I post to UK only. Ebay has been great about refunding fees in these cases.
I have often noticed when looking at items 'too good to be true' that the positive feedback seems to have all been left at roughly the same time. What I tend to do is spotcheck a few of the people leaving feedback to see if the feedback THEY'VE received seems genuine. In most cases, they have a similar history where all feedback has been left over the course of one or two days or are no longer a registered user.
eBay Help
by Tratter - 9/24/07 11:59 AM In reply to: Check feedback is genuine by ninjamynciIf you have some problems with scammers or eBay technical issues.
The volunteers at the eBay Q&A Board are the ones to ask. They have years of experience dealing with user related problems and scammers/thieves!
For help, visit the board at:
http://chatboards.ebay.com/chat.jsp?forum=1&thread=21
Folks there are really sharp, good luck!!
Ebay scam
by grbin11 - 9/24/07 2:00 PM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There is an easy and fast way to recover your funds. Credit card transactions take 6 months to clear between banks. During that time you can dispute the sale with YOUR BANK that issued your credit card. No delivery signature will void the sale, and no signature, as a rule, negates the sale. No proof of delivery voids the sale. There are also other reasons. File a dispute with you bank, they will get your money credited back to your account. Pay Pal is worthless, filing with the DA is a waste of time, as are most other remedies. If your sale is older than 6 months, your bank may not help you.
Don't trust PayPal, trust the USPS
by ezsurfer - 9/24/07 6:11 PM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've tried to trust PayPal, but basically, their rules protect their buyers. More importantly, you lose right by trying to give them time to do the right thing.
My best remedy so far is to ensure I don't pay via PayPal. Pay via USPS money order. Failure to deliver is mail fraud. Most items sold via the internet are already guaranteed these protections, so you can always file a case with them. Both times I have had to, both parties immediately ponied up the goods. Imagine that!
8 Months???
by Bob_Merlin - 9/24/07 6:40 PM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Why would you wait 8 months to decide on what to do? I can't believe CNET has this as a question! You're right, you're screwed and it's your own fault for ending the dispute resolution before you got the item and for waiting 8 months to try to figure out which way is up!
I've never been scammed, but have been ripped off a little
by Elgeraldo - 9/25/07 12:47 PM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
IMHO, eBay is a messy, risky way to buy things. The kind of stuff I buy from eBay is little things that you can't get in local stores, like weird interface cables for old PDAs or peculiar miniature guitars, etc. If it's a standard item, I prefer to get it from Amazon.com (not one of their affiliate sellers) or as a last resort - in a bricks and mortar store. Amazon always use UPS for shipping, and if you can wait a couple of weeks for your item, shipping is usually free.
As many people have said here, you need to set an "I won't be too upset if I lose it" limit - which for me is about $200. A guy at work successfully bought an $18,000 minivan on eBay from someone purporting to be a 'going out of business' car rental company in Florida. I couldn't believe it when he actually got the car. It wasn't even stolen and hadn't been in a wreck/flood/fire. If that had been me, I'd have been scammed for sure. My eBay disasters are on a much smaller scale...
I once ordered what I thought were some alkaline button cell batteries from a PowerSeller and he sent me a load of out-of-date zinc air (hearing aid) batteries that were no use to man nor beast. Zinc air batteries have a really bad self-discharge characteristic, and they're only 1.35V, not 1.5V. After much e-mailing and trying to convince him that he was mis-selling these things, he said he'd refund the money but never did. Since it was only $5, I gave up trying. I couldn't be bothered to go through PayPal for this.
Another time, I ordered a couple of replacement LCD screens for a Nintendo handheld game system. One arrived within 2 days, but the other never showed up. After nearly a month of e-mailing, and me insulting the selling company's customer support people in progressively less subtle but more amusing ways, they agreed to refund the $24. They were still adamant that they'd sent me two items however. What really annoyed me with these people was that I'd ordered two items weighing just a couple of ounces each, and they'd charged me about $7 each for shipping, then sneakily tried to ship both in the same package!
Rip-off shipping charges seem to be the norm with most small eBay items. I believe that eBay doesn't charge commission on the shipping but does on the item sale price, which encourages sellers to do this. This farce only adds to the already sub-par online shopping experience.
As I said, eBay does enable me to obtain otherwise unavailable items, so I will continue to use it. I always go for sellers with a long history and no suspicious bad feedback. Irrational/ignorant customers are one thing, but you can usually tell when the seller is persistently messing people about.
eBay beware
by gankt2000 - 9/28/07 11:30 AM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
eBay is a great place to buy/sell, well, just about anything. Unfortunately, as with everything else, there are those who wish to scam and just try to be the most obnoxious forms of human life. And, I am sorry to hear about your iPod fiasco but your options are not lost. Firstly, buyers can always leverage feedback to their advantage, although it sounds like this individual is a real jerk. The first thing to do would be to threaten a negative feedback. This usually only works with people who care about their eBay reputation as most sellers definately do not want any negative feedbacks. As the case is with this jerk, leave a negative feedback. As for PayPal and the worthless people that work for them, that is a more complicated matter. The 1 resolution BS sounds like garbage and if I were you I would threaten to close your PayPal account and to report them to the online BBB. Good Luck.
PS. Never buy from any seller without at least 50 feedbacks.
Paypal is just as bad as ebay: they're crooks !!!
by bigmutt - 9/28/07 5:52 PM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have been using ebay (mostly buying) for seven years and been a Paypal account holder for even longer.
Paypal used to be great, in the beginning years; until ebay bought them and dragged Paypal into it's "profit without scrupples" business model. Now Paypal is almost useless when trying to resolve problems as a buyer; they are just as seller-biased as ebay.
Ebay gets its revenue from its sellers, period. So why expect fairness as a buyer, when buyers are a dime a dozen.
One of the traps that cost me $200 is this one: if you buy an item, pay with Paypal but don't receive it, you file a dispute, right? well, all the seller has to do is respond with a shipping number and date, and they automatically win the dispute. Never mind that the shipping number was a phony, and seller never really shipped it.
The ebay feedback system is a joke, of course; leaving negative feedback about a transaction only gets you retalliation feedback and does nothing except mess up your profile.
Yes, I've had many good transactions on ebay, but only because most people are basically fair and honest, not because of any help from ebay or Paypal, or any goodwill on their part towards buyer-customers.
Ebay's founders have gotten extremely rich on the backs of honest, gullible buyers like you and I, Jim.
Puleeez...
by PC-PILOT - 9/28/07 6:26 PM In reply to: Paypal is just as bad as ebay: they're crooks !!! by bigmuttYou get scammed anywhere. Less likely at a Baskin-Robbins. More likely at a curb-stone car dealership. You choose to buy. No one forces you to. Go takea trip down Houston St. in NYC .. PLENTY of bargains! USE YOUR HEAD!
Don't blame the facilitator! Ebay and Paypal RELY on you using common sense ... and ebay has been preaching 'let the buyer beware' since it started. EBAY doesn'y rip off people - PEOPLE rip off people. And,I should add- the percentage is LOW!
Check your bank!
by bt2513 - 9/28/07 7:36 PM In reply to: I got scammed on eBay, what can I do now? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I would check with your bank. Depending on your method of payment, they may be willing to help you with the charges. Although, most banks consider transactions 60 days old or more to be final. Still, it never hurts to try. If you've paid with Visa, you may have more of a chance. They have an interest in keeping you safe from net predators so that you will in turn use your card more. Don't be afraid to bring this to their attention.
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