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fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

so... had a buyer today that requested a return on a cellphone worth $150. The phone is brand new sealed in box (never activated). Right when the buyer receives the item, he sends me a return request saying "cellphone is reported stolen want refund." I knew this dude was trying to scam me right off the bat because there is no way a phone can be reported stolen if it's never been activated so I went ahead and told him he could return the phone if it's the same condition as he received it, brand new. I also told him that I recorded the serial number and if he were to switch out the phone with an old stolen phone of the same model, I will not be providing a refund. He hasn't responded in 24 hours so maybe that message scared him or he hasn't looked at it. Anyway, need your opinion on situations like this. Could I have threated legal action in my message if this were to end up being a scam?

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

Just wait and see if the buyer will respond to it, he may just back out when you said you have track the serial of the phone.

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

I did sale used cell phone before and here is what I did.

- Take a picture of the shipping label (show name address and tracking number), packing slip (show name, address, and order ID), and the phone label (show MEID, ESN, Serial Number, or IMEI number) all together in 1 picture before I ship it.

- If I got email something like you have I always ask buyer to confirm the phone information (MEID, ESN, IMEI etc.) to check on my record. I just do it to buy time and to see if the item really defect or buyer just play game. And most off the time buyer never respond again. :)

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

Has anyone won an A-Z claim on AMz using this procedure against a fraudulent buyer ?

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

I won one case before when buyer claim item not received about 30 days later. I check the MEID number and know for sure the buyer using the phone that he claim not received it :)

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

thanks tony, that's something I will definitely start doing. great idea.

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

If these are your items, always record everything relating to them....

Cover your own back.

In claims, you can always say 'Here is the info regarding the item'.

Makes you appear professional.

Dont forget $150 is too high a loss of profit.

Good Luck

:mod:

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

Unfortunately in the UK we get a tracking number AFTER the item has been posted so it's not possible to take a photo of everything together in one photo.

Good idea nevertheless :)

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

This is not always true. If you go to the Royal Mail and pick up special delivery or recorded delivery labels then you will have all the tracking information you need before posting anything.

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

I sell phones sometimes, we always record the EMEI number and make a note of who has each EMEI, it is the only way to be safe.

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

I feel that if you are selling a good number of phones its not realistic to take pictures of every IMEI because things like this happen maybe 1 out of 500.

However what I hate about the Amazon process is that unless you kiss the scammers ass and accept it back for a refund, you run the risk of them filing an AZ claim. From that point on, even if you win the claim, it still counts against you.

Situations like these are always lose-lose for the seller and this is the biggest thing I hate about Amazon.

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

The worst part of it is, the seller could end up on Amazon's radar as potentially selling stolen phones.

This actually happened to me when I sold a rare book for about $200. A customer orders the book and I ship it. About a week or so later she messages me through Amazon saying the book was stolen from her collection six months ago. Even though I am in the Midwest and she was in California, I still ended up having to speak with seller support and explain to them that the book was in my inventory for over a year.

I didn't lose the account but they DID force me to give her a refund. This was one of those galling situations because this person was a complete nut who was looking for trouble. She was very careful to use the words stolen, illegal and criminal as many times as humanly possible in her message - she was probably trying to trigger the bots. It took every ounce of willpower I had to resist the urge to send her a nastygram in return. Since that incident, however, the account HAS produced a few thousand in profits. So, businesswise I did the right thing. But on a personal level, I wanted to do TERRIBLE THINGS to her.

Whether she was just looking for a freebie, or what her deal was I don't know. Maybe she DID have a book stolen, but it was definitely not the one I sold to her as it was in my inventory prior to the date she claimed it was stolen.

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

Jeff,

Sorry to hear that you were down for $200. I will make he/she paid a good price for steal $200 from me :)

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

This is true. Your ratio is actually pretty accurate to the quantity I've sold. This doesn't happen very often at all and it may not be worth it in the long run. It really comes down to the volume.

Updating on the OP, my bluff worked. It has been a week since the original message from the scammer. I told him I had a record of the IMEI, which I really don't, and I told him there would be legal action if this were to be a false claim. Not only that, but I would file the IMEI as lost/stolen and the phone would be disabled if he were to follow through.

Re: fraud buyer claim. need opinion
 

Be careful with this because it might not be worth it. He might just decide to file a claim.

What I like to do is, whenever they request a return, I authorize the request and then I try to reason with them or resolve whatever the issue might be. Most times they never end up returning, but if they needed to they can.

The long term profits are not worth losing the account over a few hundred dollars. Its the cost of doing business online.