Buyer/Scammer threatening/ has called police?

[copley1]

Thought i'd ask for some advice on the matter.

Sold an item to someone, received a thank you email from them, and positive feedback. Then 2 days later they open a case for item not described stating doesnt work, wants refund etc.

I of course am a little bemused at this, ask for the issues, to which they give a vague response and then say they have been fraudulently sold to and will contact the police.

I then reply taking apart all of their bull**** issues, to which they reply that they are done dealing with this case and are calling the police.

i then send two more messages about their discrepancies and begin to think that although the transaction isnt fraudulent, that having an eBay Stealth account is bad news in the even they really did call the police.

So i gave the refund and now im pissed because i got out manoeuvred by what i think is a scammer.

What i was curious about is what if the police were called would/could they say anything about stealth accounts in various different peoples names?

And how easy would it be to find out that it was you who had the stealth names?

Cheers!

[JamesNorth101]

Its a civil matter. Police would generally not get involved.

In future if someone has an issue with an item just get them to return it and issue a full refund on return

[MM78]

Next time if they say they have filed a Police report....chances are they have not and are trying to money back. Don't just give in easily, make sure you try to get your item back first.

[jeffweico]

I am in the US, not in the UK, so please don't take this as actual advice for your situation.

I have had this happen to me in the US. The police don't generally want to get involved in eBay disputes any more than they will involve themselves with people unhappy about what they bought at a garage sale. It all comes down to "he said, she said" and is a civil matter, not a criminal one.

The police are not going to investigate anyone UNLESS a crime has been committed. Crimes would include things like counterfeiting, obvious fraud (selling Apple Ipads and delivering a box with a brick in it) and things like that. And the ACCUSATION won't do it, the police will want proof. Even then, unless they are receiving multiple complaints about a particular seller, the matter is likely to be very low on their priority list.

Just because the buyer calls something fraud does not mean that it is fraud. Items are damaged in transit, lost, etc. all the time. That does not mean fraud has been committed. Here in the US, the police would probably tell the buyer to take the seller to small claims court or to file a complaint with eBay/Amazon/PayPal.

MM78 is right on the money. So is JamesNorth101. You MUST be wiling to issue refunds if you want to stay in business. Thankfully, they are relatively rare. Just tell the buyer to return the item for a refund. When you get the item back, refund their money and move on. It is not worth the aggravation.

[TazUK]

The police wouldn't even look at this. I (and a few others I know) were scammed of nearly 500 pounds on the internet by the same person, gave police the details and his bank details, phone etc. After two weeks we get a letter saying due to resources required to investigate the case the are not pursuing the matter any further!

So don't worry, I even had an eBayer claiming he was a solicitor and will sue me etc etc. I told him to go ahead and make my day, he left a negative, I contacted eBay, the negative was removed and heard nothing again

[progetter92]

Lol police wouldn't even care trust me

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by copley1

So i gave the refund and now im pissed because i got out manoeuvred by what i think is a scammer.

What i was curious about is what if the police were called would/could they say anything about stealth accounts in various different peoples names?

And how easy would it be to find out that it was you who had the stealth names?

Cheers!

Never engage in talk with these types.

They are baiting you and you fell for it.

As much as it may annoy you, first call of issues, you start falling over yourself to keep the upper hand and get rid of them.

[zexaah]

Police won't do anything about this.

As others have said, its a civil matter. The police wont do anything.

I read the other day cyber crimes are the fastest growing crimes around. The police dont have the resources to inveatigate them. I think it was only 5% of cases get investigated. How many of that number get successfully prosecuted I do not know.

[Dmshark25]

Newer eBay buyers tend to freak out and exaggerate any situation if they want to make a simple return

They feel since the store is online than it can be a scam, they don't realize that it's probably easier to get your money back from a purchase on eBay than it is at a regular store, so they go overboard open every case possible and as soon as you say here is a full refund and u may keep the item, they are your best friend and leave a glowing feedback

This is what is really bad for sellers is new buyers that don't realize that they have all the power

[stanislav]

Once every single buyer on eBay is going to realize that you can get your money back plus keep product it won't be worth to sell on eBay anymore. Already a lot of buyers are extorting sellers in order to get freebies because they figured out how it works. Just proves once again that once you give someone authority over others they always use it to their own advantage so I find it laughable when people criticize politicians, bankers, CEOs for being criminals when in reality the people who criticize them are themselves doing the exact same thing but on a smaller scale. U know it's a bit off topic but I truly believe that humanity will not survive without humility, understanding and mutual respect but most importantly working together to achieve one goal.

[copley1]

Cheers for all the replies guys!

Realise i'd been ****ed literally just after i did give the refund. Buyer has since NOT left any feedback and has disappeared into thin air (probably a good thing).

The thing is they weren't a new buyer they had over 1000 feedback and seemed to gain most of the feedback from buying multiple items of one seller to get the automated feedback. So has clearly been doing this for a while.

[copley1]

Originally Posted by stanislav

Once every single buyer on eBay is going to realize that you can get your money back plus keep product it won't be worth to sell on eBay anymore. Already a lot of buyers are extorting sellers in order to get freebies because they figured out how it works. Just proves once again that once you give somone authority over others they always use it to their own advantage so I find it laughable when people criticize politicians, bankers, CEOs for being criminals when in reality the people who criticize them are themselves doing exact same exact thing but on a smaler scale. U know it's a bit off topic but I truly believe that humanity will not survive withiut humility, understanding and mutual respect but most importsbtly working together to achieve one goal.

Issue is the system my friend. Healthy capitalism promotes competition, extreme capitalism which we live in today promotes extreme competition and unfortunately engages one of the worst and best traits in a human being; selfishness.

I say best because without selfishness we quite literally wouldn't survive, but worst because selfishness also leads to people acting like complete and utter ****s to others for absolutely no reason.

Rant over

[stanislav]

There is a good chance your "buyer" is also a seller and has another account. Could be your "competitor".

Originally Posted by copley1

Cheers for all the replies guys!

Realise i'd been ****ed literally just after i did give the refund. Buyer has since NOT left any feedback and has disappeared into thin air (probably a good thing).

The thing is they weren't a new buyer they had over 1000 feedback and seemed to gain most of the feedback from buying multiple items of one seller to get the automated feedback. So has clearly been doing this for a while.

[copley1]

Originally Posted by stanislav

There is a good chance your "buyer" is also a seller and has another account. Could be your "competitor".

I was also thinking that much! Not much you can do if it is a competitor!

[rsot]

Professional buyer hard at work - nightmare for sellers

[Dmshark25]

Just report them, eventually this does catch up to these type of buyers and when they are banned all there negative Feedbacks go with them

I have had in the past other sellers contact me right after I received a negative from buyers like this, asking to use the report button, and within a couple weeks the buyer was no longer registered

[copley1]

Originally Posted by rsot

Professional buyer

Unfortunately, yes.

Holds the record for most items purchased, least amount paid.

[copley1]

Originally Posted by Dmshark25

Just report them, eventually this does catch up to these type of buyers and when they are banned all there negative Feedbacks go with them

I have had in the past other sellers contact me right after I received a negative from buyers like this, asking to use the report button, and within a couple weeks the buyer was no longer registered

One can hope, already reported the prick.

[Dmshark25]

I'm guessing u refunded and do not have the items back??

Hopefully it wasn't expensive transactions

[Nadia.Nadia]

I always get this from buyers, and I always reply with same MSG, " send my regards to the officers "
They play you, specially because you can not give them negative feedback ( you are the seller ) thanks to ebay.

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by stanislav

Once every single buyer on eBay is going to realize that you can get your money back plus keep product it won't be worth to sell on eBay anymore. Already a lot of buyers are extorting sellers in order to get freebies because they figured out how it works. Just proves once again that once you give someone authority over others they always use it to their own advantage so I find it laughable when people criticize politicians, bankers, CEOs for being criminals when in reality the people who criticize them are themselves doing the exact same thing but on a smaller scale. U know it's a bit off topic but I truly believe that humanity will not survive without humility, understanding and mutual respect but most importantly working together to achieve one goal.

Thankfully, most people are not like this. If they were, you couldn't walk into a restaurant without two attorneys to negotiate your meal. But it IS getting worse. It started in the 1980's, as near as I can tell, with the whole "Greed is Good" philosophy. People saw that the wealthy and our politicians have no problem lying and committing immoral acts to get what they want and figured "why shouldn't *I* get something too?"

It is why there were MILLIONS of claims received for the Red Bull class action settlement, the vast majority of them who had probably never even TRIED Red Bull. If no proofs of purchase are required, people figure it is OK to lie about buying the product to get $10 for free.

We need to have MANDATORY ETHICS CLASSES in all of our schools. Our politicians should be ASHAMED of themselves! And we have to have better enforcement of our existing laws so that people cannot so easily get away with committing fraud. The mortgage crisis almost took down the ENTIRE FINANCIAL SYSTEM in the USA. Everyone agrees that fraud was being committed on a MASSIVE SCALE. And yet NOT ONE person has ever been prosecuted for their part in the whole mess or went to jail. That is completely outrageous!

Ok, stepping down off the soapbox now...