Argghhh Ebay scammers

[karasue91]

So I posted my first dress on Ebay, not having the highest expectations of it selling. On Friday morning I got up and had an email saying my dress had sold via Buy It Now!!! I also had an email from the person who bought it, giving me instructions on how they wanted to pay (even though I had listed that I only accepted PayPal). So they said they would be sending me a cashier''s check that would be for an amount greater than the dress, and after I shipped it and found out the true cost of the shipping, she would trust that I would wire back the excess to her.

Obviously, a sane person would think "What the hell is this???" but I was so excited that my dress sold that I emailed her and gave her my address and cell phone number and told her to call me to discuss the details. She emailed back and said she would contact me after Easter.

After an hour or so, I talked to a friend who warned me it might be a scam, so I looked it up on Ebay and lo and behold, it is one of the scams they have listed there!! But I had checked the girl''s feedback and it was all positive, and she had a decent number of feedbacks so I emailed her trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. I told her that I know she has good feedback but I just don''t feel comfortable with the arrangement and asked her to please pay with PayPal and sent her a PayPal invoice.

Three hours later I get an email saying that the bidder had reported fraudulent bidding activity on their account and that my listing and the bid had been cancelled. So to me, it sounds like they realized that I had caught onto their scheme and tried to cover their ass. I suppose that it could actually be fraudulent bidding on someone else''s account, but the email address this person was emailing me from was extremely similar to their Ebay username (as in the person''s username was jthom24 and the email was [email protected], not the real username or email but the two were that similar).

I''m so pissed!! My auction had 5 days left on it too!! And Ebay says there is nothing they can do and I have to pay again to relist my dress. I mean it''s $4 but still. Ugh so if any of you ladies plan to sell your dress or anything on Ebay, please beware of this scheme. I''m a little worried that I gave this person my address and phone number, but I wasn''t dumb enough to give them any kind of account number or anything super confidential...

 

[Gypsy]

Happened to me too once. I was just as ticked off as you are now. My fees down the drain. My sympathies.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Oh, that''s terrible, but at least you didn''t send the dress out!! I still sift through the ebay listings every day, for hours it seems, and I noticed someone had reposted and stated that they had to repost due to a fraudulent bidder, so at least your not the only one. Sorry you had to deal with this.

 

[glamourgirl]

I''m sorry to hear about your ebay trouble. It sounds like to me that if the person does have a good amount of history with positive feedback then their account could''ve been hacked. Usually if the person has no feed back or any buying history then its more likely to be fraudulent. Also, ebay does discourage having your username close to your email name since people can easily take control of your account so it sounds like this may have happened in this case to that ebay user. It sounds like hacking was possible. Good luck and it sucks that you have to pay again to relist your dress. You''d think with all the $$$ ebay makes, they''d just continue your listing considering the circumstance you encountered.

 

[neatfreak]

Ugh, it has totally happened to me a few times too. I really have a love/hate relationship with ebay...I''ve scored some major deals on there (one hopefully to be unveiled on PS soon

) but it really bites to be a seller with all those new scams and ebay''s policies regarding them.

 

[karasue91]

Don''t these scammers have better things to do? Ugh...

LovesVintage, haha that might be my new listing, so frusterating! I just wanted to add it there so in case any other scammer is looking to pull something they will know that I''m hip to their jive!! hahaha I also took the Buy It Now off so no one can end my auction early...hopefully if a real buyer really wants it and needs it sooner they will just contact me.

Glamourgirl - I didn''t think about it that way, maybe this scammer just set up a new email address with a fake name that was close to her username. I think if something like that ever happens to me I''ll contact the seller afterward and at least let them know I''m sorry it happened. But you could be right. I still contacted Ebay and let them know exactly what happened with the email exchanges just in case anyone else had complained about the bidder in the past, or in case anyone has trouble with them in the future they would have something on file.

Neatfreak - oooh I''ll have to check to see your new purchase!! I''ve also gotten some great deals, this has been my first real problem I''ve come across (except for people trying sell something for WAY more than it''s worth and getting mad when I ask if it doesn''t sell if they will be lowering their price).

Arghhh. Oh well, maybe I''ll have better luck this time. Thanks for the condolences, haha

 

[sera]

Wow... that''s awful.

I don''t sell on ebay, but I do buy. I''m sure not familiar with all the scams going around there (didn''t know about the one that happened to you), but a lot of times things about the listing give me a red flag. Whether or not it''s something part of a scam or not, I dunno, but I don''t bid. (I see often, "Don''t use ebay checkout, I''ll send you an invoice." I don''t bid on those). I''ve been relunctant to sell on ebay and this is pretty much why.

I wish you luck in selling your dress to an honest bidder who absolutely loves the dress!

 

[MoonWater]

Wait, Ebay is saying you need to pay the listing fee for the original purchase even though the sale was not completed? So now you have to pay AGAIN to relist? This doesn''t sound right at all. You should tell Ebay that you never made anything off the intial sale and it was obviously a scam so you shouldn''t have to pay for listing it the first time. I''m a little behind on ebay rules as I haven''t sold anything in years, but I thought you only had to pay Ebay if a sale was completed.

 

[karasue91]

Moonwater - I just checked my credit card and it looks like I wasn''t actually charged. So I guess they only charge you when your item sells? They still charge you if your item doesn''t sell though don''t they? Gypsy, did you have to pay twice when this happened to you?

It could be that it just hasn''t hit my credit card yet...charges take FOREVER to show up...when I lived in the US and had a US credit card I could see charges immediately, here in Canada I can''t see the pending charges. Very annoying...

Sera - yeah some of those sellers definitely seem shady...I thought I would be safe just by not shipping until I received payment, but I''m sure people have come up with many more creative ways to screw sellers than just not paying!!

 

[bee*]

Ugh that''s so irritating! Sorry to hear that happened to you. How annoying.

 

[isaku5]

Date: 3/23/2008 3:15:40 PM
Author: karasue91
Moonwater - I just checked my credit card and it looks like I wasn''t actually charged. So I guess they only charge you when your item sells? They still charge you if your item doesn''t sell though don''t they? Gypsy, did you have to pay twice when this happened to you?

It could be that it just hasn''t hit my credit card yet...charges take FOREVER to show up...when I lived in the US and had a US credit card I could see charges immediately, here in Canada I can''t see the pending charges. Very annoying...

Sera - yeah some of those sellers definitely seem shady...I thought I would be safe just by not shipping until I received payment, but I''m sure people have come up with many more creative ways to screw sellers than just not paying!!

I sometimes sell items on eBay and have come across some pretty skilfull scammers. When I was new to selling higher priced items, I had several inquires about using escrow promising to pay in full including shipping and handling. I''m ashamed to admit that I almost "gave away" an expensive watch and ring. I spoke with another eBayer who had had much more experience than I and she cautioned me not to send any articles unless the money had been cleared into my bank account. She saved me a lot of $$$ and misery.

I also had another item "sold" through BIN. I responded via e-mail to discuss payment etc., but never heard a word from him. I filed a dispute with eBay after the imposed wait period, Ebay finally refunded the listing and selling fees and gave me the opportunity to re-list that item at no charge. Even though I wasn''t out any money, I couldn''t relist (according to eBay policies) for about two weeks. Ordinarily, it wouldn''t have mattered, but this was just prior to Christmas and peak selling time.

These scammers are enough to make any sane person give up selling altogether on eBay, but there aren''t many alternatives other than Craigslist.

My sympathies are with you as you sort out the details. Best of luck selling your dress

 

[karasue91]

UPDATE!!! Even after sending the email saying that I need payment via PayPal and receiving the message from Ebay saying that the bidder had reported fraudulent activity on their account, I got another email from this chick saying she sent me the cashier''s check!!!! She gave me a UPS routing number and everything, and says I will receive it tomorrow!!!!

I wish there was some kind of email police that I could report this person to!!!

Now I believe that this poor girl''s Ebay account has been hijacked. What do I do?? Do I reply to this scammer?? Or do I just ignore it? What if I actually get this fake cashier''s check???

I am so mad right now, what nerve do people have???!!! I can''t believe this!

 

[MoonWater]

You need to report this to ebay immediately.

 

[sumbride]

Do NOT under any circumstances cash that check!!! It is NOT real and it will eventually cost you a lot of money if you do cash it!!!

 

[krisvrn]

I have no advise. Just wanted to say sorry to hear this! Good luck with selling the dress.

 

[cpster]

I would leave a note for UPS to reject the delivery. It will get sent back to the sender. Don''t accept it!

 

[karasue91]

I checked out the UPS tracking number and it is real. I think I''m going to tell FMIL (it''s getting delivered to her house) to jot down the address it comes from, but reject the shipment from UPS. Not sure if I should just keep it and then report the fake cashier''s check to the police or what?

I noticed on UPS the shipment is coming from NYC, but her shipping address is Indiana. God, this whole thing really pisses me off, I don''t know what the best way to catch this person would be. I guess I should just reject the shipment and thank my lucky stars that I didn''t fall for the scam.

 

[sunnyd]

Ugh, this kind of thing makes me so mad...it happened to me several times trying to sell my car on Craigslist. I''m sorry it happened to you...I don''t have any advice though. What a weird lady! Like you''d change your mind if she sent you the check?!?!

 

[nclrgirl]

That is SO annoying! Someone tried the same thing on me TODAY actually. I was pretty insulted. These people must think we''re idiots.

 

[Gypsy]

Date: 3/23/2008 3:15:40 PM
Author: karasue91
Moonwater - I just checked my credit card and it looks like I wasn''t actually charged. So I guess they only charge you when your item sells? They still charge you if your item doesn''t sell though don''t they? Gypsy, did you have to pay twice when this happened to you?

It could be that it just hasn''t hit my credit card yet...charges take FOREVER to show up...when I lived in the US and had a US credit card I could see charges immediately, here in Canada I can''t see the pending charges. Very annoying...

Sera - yeah some of those sellers definitely seem shady...I thought I would be safe just by not shipping until I received payment, but I''m sure people have come up with many more creative ways to screw sellers than just not paying!!

I don''t remember honestly. It was well over a year ago, and I have trouble remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. Sorry, my memory is the pits.

 

[BrownEyedCountryGirl]

Was your dress the Justina McCaffrey dress I luuurved ????

 

[~*Snow*~]

Karasue: I know i''m coming in alittle late here but have you recieved the cheque yet?! I once had a VERY similar Ebay experience.. they said they were sending me a money order via UPS and sent me the UPS # and everything and after a week of no action on the movement of the UPS# i called UPS to ask them why my envelope wasn''t being shipped, and they said that the UPS# was an automatically generated number, from software that they sell so people can use at home to print their own lables and send a package using UPS withouth having to go to a store!
So Warning to all ebayers out there just because they give you a UPS# doesn''t mean that it''s acctually been sent!!

 

[karasue91]

hahaha BECG no, my dress is not Justina McCaffrey...

I sent the loser an email:

The user whose account you hacked into and fraudulently bid from has reported unauthorized bidding activity on their account and Ebay has cancelled the bid. I will be rejecting the UPS shipment of the fraudulent cashier''s check you have sent me. You are lucky I don''t report you to the police, but I have better things to do with my life. Do us all a favor and please fall off the face of the earth.

I feel better now.

 

[gtn]

That happened to my friend and she got charged for it. In light of the fact that eBay is aware of this type of scheme now, I hope you don''t get charged.