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Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

Hey guys,

I have an ebay account with 60000 feedback's...anyways I usually sell cheap stuff but the one time I decided to sell something over $500 I get scammed....I sent an email and pictures of the crap I got returned to the buyer. I also threatened to contact local police and lawyer.....is there any point fighting this? Will ebay just refund them even with all this proof?? please help me....

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

This sucks, especially on such an expensive item.
What did the buyer actually return to you?

Yes, I would contact eBay and explain it to them. Won't hurt.
Unless the amount is extremely high, contacting local police or a lawyer will likely result in nothing coming of it.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

Welp I just lost. I contact eBay explaining everything. 10mins later I guess the buyer just contacted eBay and they refunded them $550. Is it worth perusing? Heard police don't do "civil cases" in which this is a "civil case" FML Can I re-open it?

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

$550 is a lot to lose + the item. Really sucks to be in the seller in this case considering eBay/PP almost always sides with the buyer and gives sellers the shaft.

If it were to happen to me, I would be considering "unofficial" channels to deal with the buyer. Unfortuantely that's not something that can be openly discussed on this forum. ;)

As far as reporting to law enforement, it's unlikely they will do much of anything except maybe file a report. Unless there is actual evidence the buyer scammed you, as you claim, it comes down to "hearsay".

Maybe some other members of the forum can chime in and offer suggestions?

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

Did you ship with tracking,signature, and insurance?

Edit: sorry I read it wrong so if u got returned back wrong item u can definitely get your money back just because they gave the money back to him doesn't mean he won. Call them and explain it they will give you your money for sure don't take that loss. If u have to ask to speak if supervisor.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

call ebay and say you got returned something different and that you will go file a police report on it. they will most likely will refund your money back to you and the buyer will keep both the refund and item, ebay will eat up the cost.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

Good advise.

I was wondering if this scenario would be covered under their so-called "Seller Protection Policy" ?

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

Never sell anything above 200$ without some kind of insurance, it's too high risk...
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Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

EB is going to say it's your word against his, they're not going to refund you a dime and your 6K feedback is meaningless to them.

Honestly, there's nothing practical you can do. EB has enabled this kind of fraud, and it's very rare for the seller to win.

You'll get people here saying things like file a lawsuit, contact bbb in CA, file a police report, file a mail fraud case, talk to your TV station, file a complaint with ICC, call FBI, CIA, NSA, etc, but here's the skinny:

You say he sent you back crap, he'll say no he didn't.

Until a court of law hands you a judgment, nobody is going to do anything. And even then you're going to get a big pile of nothing.

You can try all the suggestions, and maybe you'll be the one in a thousand who gets lucky, but this scam is very common and getting anything back is very rare.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

Dallis is right. You should still try though

I remember I called in about this some time ago. Their response was basically that you should just write it off as a business expense as a cost of doing business. HA. Why can't THEY write it off on THEIR books as a business loss?? When they're the one facilitating this fraud

The irony is that their User Policy explicitly says that they cover sellers in the event that the buyer returns a different item. LOL

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

I don't agree he has more of a chance then u think, I won't lose no money by eBay/PayPal never back down they will make it fair. I'll keep calling till I get my money.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

ebay has, on more than one occasion, given me money and let the buyer keep his money. They are doing so more and more. Ebey reps even have a certain limit of how much they can give out in a given time period. It is a thing, and they do give out money all the time.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

can't exactly have some kind of insurance, when it comes to a buyer returning you garbage.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

That's the thing dallis above said, it comes down to your word against his. Hearesay, lack of evidence. eBay or PayPal have no idea who is telling the truth.

You are claiming the buyer shipped you a brick. Buyer claims they shipped you what you sent him, etc.

Contacting Law Enforcement might result in a report being filed, and likely going nowhere. No lawyer is willing to take such a case without a nice retainer from you up front. For a $550 item, just the fees to pursue this guy would exceed that. Even if by some miracle managed to secure a judgement in any court, how would you go about collecting it?

The only thing you can do at this point is try and reason with eBay and see if they can help. Good luck.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

There some kind of investigating body you can file a charge on and they will investigate. Sometimes PP and Ebay will refund if they see the charge filed. I forgot the name of it but Ebay CS knows

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

You can also take their name adress and phone number and file a Rip off report on them and make a YouTube vid too This will at least hurt their chances of finding a good job or more customers for a biz. This gets their name on Google as a crook.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

Ebay and paypal rules are $750 for signature. Just follow those rules and all is OK.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

I've done this to several stereo shop owners who robbed me for parts

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

ebay is literally all scum lol best thing to do is scum someone else

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

While a $10 or $20 or even $50 'courtesy refund' from EB is not unheard of, EB is never going to take a $550 hit/loss over a he-says she-says dispute.

Spend all the time you like calling and filing complaints, they'll just ignore you.

And calling 10 or even 500 reps isn't likely to get you a $550 credit.

And like dhand says, you can post a video on youtube and make a ripoff report, be sure to use their name so that if you successfully get them turned down for a well-paying job or cost them money or reputation, they can get a plaintiff's attorney to sue you for damages on a contingency basis. Keep in mind that any insurance you have won't cover you because you took those steps with intent to injure.

Then your out of pocket loss just to make the lawsuit go away could be 10 or 20K, not just $550.

Great advice!

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

ebay WILL take the loss but you have to work for it including a police report. I have had them refund me thousands of dollars when I did everything they have asked for.

Re: Being scammed by a buyer! I have 60,000 feedback!
 

Listen to what yotano and yankee have been saying - file that police report ASAP