Ebay fraud! Sellers beware! Be careful!

billgiff · Post by **billgiff** » Sun May 20, 2007 2:31 pm

I just wanted to let everybody here to watch out for the Ebay buyer bbmik78 from France. He recently won a lot off of me, paid through Paypal and then reversed the transaction 2 days after he paid. Unfortunately I shipped the items the next day after receiving payment. Paypal screwed me and won't reimburse my money to me. Now this scumbag has my items and his money back. If anybody else has had a problem with this buyer, let me know. Thanks, Bill

P.S. This guy ranks up there with "Bob Hughes". It's unfortunate that this clown is from France and out of my reach!!!!!

exether_mega · Post by **exether_mega** » Sun May 20, 2007 2:37 pm

Bill, I want to bid on one of your lot

http://cgi.befr.ebay.be/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... &rd=1&rd=1

Any idea about the shipping cost for Belgium ?

phil

Rowsdower · Post by **Rowsdower** » Sun May 20, 2007 4:03 pm

That sucks, sorry to hear about idiots like that. I only do business with US buyers on ebay. Too much BS with international sales.

exether_mega · Post by **exether_mega** » Sun May 20, 2007 4:14 pm

Rowsdower wrote:That sucks, sorry to hear about idiots like that. I only do business with US buyers on ebay. Too much BS with international sales.

sad that the good one pay for the bad one

phil

Post by **aferguson** » Sun May 20, 2007 4:21 pm

buyers have to wait 7 days before they can open a Paypal claims case which eventually leads to them getting their money back (after another 10 days). How did he do it in two?

His feedback is pretty good...may just be a case of him jumping the gun....he may well pay you again when he receives the items you shipped. Some buyers are just jittery and untrusting.

Stay in contact with him and keep pestering him for the money. You can mention things like mail fraud, Interpol, Ebay collections etc.

Also, open an unpaid item claim for each item he won and has now reversed payment on. If he doesn't eventually resend you the money then make sure you leave negative feedback for each item, warning other sellers what he did...but wait a while before doing so as he may get angry and not pay you if you leave negatives prematurely.

Open the unpaid item claims as soon as you can though (7 days after the auctions ended).

Rowsdower · Post by **Rowsdower** » Sun May 20, 2007 6:19 pm

exether_mega wrote:sad that the good one pay for the bad one

phil

I know, and believe me I would like the extra buyers but it's just too much trouble for a small time seller like myself.

buyers have to wait 7 days before they can open a Paypal claims case which eventually leads to them getting their money back (after another 10 days). How did he do it in two?

Wondered that myself.

billgiff · Post by **billgiff** » Sun May 20, 2007 6:29 pm

I don't know what's going on!!!!! I just received another payment from the buyer. I'm holding my breathe that I don't receive another email from Paypal stating that the payment is under investigation. I'll be sure to post any happenings.
This is very weird!!!!

Col.Pickle · Post by **Col.Pickle** » Sun May 20, 2007 6:53 pm

sorry to here that billgiff. I hope it gets resolved though!

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Sun May 20, 2007 7:18 pm

The rat b4stard.

Exether Mega go over there and throw eggs at his house.

FieroDude · Post by **FieroDude** » Sun May 20, 2007 7:26 pm

billgiff wrote:I don't know what's going on!!!!! I just received another payment from the buyer. I'm holding my breathe that I don't receive another email from Paypal stating that the payment is under investigation. I'll be sure to post any happenings.
This is very weird!!!!

Could be some weird glitch with Paypal itself kicking back the first payment as invalid due to a problem on the buyer's bank's end or something. I have seen a couple cases where it shows it was paid, then there was an issue with the bank not transferring funds right away. Or where a credit card was used to fund the transfer and the credit card issuer put a hold on it pending verification (this has happened to me more than once with on-line purchases, especially for overseas sellers).

Just keep an eye on it is about all you can do until it hits 7 days. I recently had an e-bay sale that had me skittish for a few days until enough time had passed that I was pretty confident that there was no funny business.

exether_mega · Post by **exether_mega** » Sun May 20, 2007 10:33 pm

pickelhaube wrote:The rat b4stard. Exether Mega go over there and throw eggs at his house.

phil

BadCatMatt · Post by **BadCatMatt** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:38 am

This may be a little tough to follow but please read, it's worth understanding.

Unique Paypalism:

If the buyer also sold something in the past (like a month or two back) and that charge was reversed making his account go below zero, Paypal will chargeback a recent, but otherwise unrelated, seller to this buyer in order to recover the cash!

This could explain Bill's situation. We had the same thing happen to a board member a few months ago, luckily it was resolved without too much embarassment. This has absolutely, positively got to be illegal but Paypal hasn't been called on it yet.

Tinman · Post by **Tinman** » Mon May 21, 2007 11:22 am

That's scary!

GooglyDoogly · Post by **GooglyDoogly** » Mon May 21, 2007 11:45 am

BadCatMatt wrote:This may be a little tough to follow but please read, it's worth understanding.

Unique Paypalism:

If the buyer also sold something in the past (like a month or two back) and that charge was reversed making his account go below zero, Paypal will chargeback a recent, but otherwise unrelated, seller to this buyer in order to recover the cash!

This could explain Bill's situation. We had the same thing happen to a board member a few months ago, luckily it was resolved without too much embarassment. This has absolutely, positively got to be illegal but Paypal hasn't been called on it yet.

WTF...that's messed up....

billgiff · Post by **billgiff** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:36 pm

BadCatMatt, that is great information to share with us. It's easy to see that Paypal only really cares
about themselves getting their money and doesn't care about the buyer/ seller who was screwed.
It's unfortunate that Paypal has such a monopoly on "Cyber Funds".

immeww2 · Post by **immeww2** » Mon May 21, 2007 1:02 pm

I'll have to think twice now about offering payments through PayPal on EBAY auctions.

lightning2000 · Post by **lightning2000** » Mon May 21, 2007 3:04 pm

Hehe, if you think that's scary, try visiting this site:

http://www.paypalsucks.com/forums/

PayPal, which is owned by Ebay, has been known to freeze bank accounts if they question a transaction, particularly if they think there's a laundering scheme underway. I can understand protecting their interests, but that's a very worrisome proposition, especially if you are doing everything by the book.

Lightning2000

Rowsdower · Post by **Rowsdower** » Mon May 21, 2007 5:34 pm

Let me know when you guys find a replacement for PayPal that allows instant fund transfer, is accepted by the vast majority of ebay sellers and gives me a debit card to pay for stuff. Just like any huge entity (WalMart anyone?) PayPal has it's problems and a lot of people get screwed, but millions more have used it for years with no problems. Do I think they are perfect, hell no and their fees suck but it is better than craptastic moneyorders or other alternatives.

lightning2000 · Post by **lightning2000** » Mon May 21, 2007 6:39 pm

Hi,
I agree with you Rowsdower. I remember when I first started out and literally had to wait weeks to get paid. Then, the mailbox would get stuffed with checks and money orders, some of which had no note to indicate what the customer was paying for. So we would have to line them up and figure out how to match up the merchandise with the payments. Then we had to run to the bank to deposit all the paper money, sometimes waiting days for a check to clear.

There's no perfect system for making payment, but this one comes close. Generally, if you had a problem with PayPal, something caused it and they have a reason to delay payment. In this particular case, it does sound like the buyer may not have had enough funds in his account to cover the first payment.

Lightning2000

Rowsdower · Post by **Rowsdower** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:32 pm

lightning2000 wrote:Hi,
I agree with you Rowsdower. I remember when I first started out and literally had to wait weeks to get paid. Then, the mailbox would get stuffed with checks and money orders, some of which had no note to indicate what the customer was paying for. So we would have to line them up and figure out how to match up the merchandise with the payments. Then we had to run to the bank to deposit all the paper money, sometimes waiting days for a check to clear.

Lightning2000

Yeah I tried money orders for awhile but for many reasons including yours, they stink. PayPal has a captive audience and they know it. Getting my money instantly and being able to head to the Post Office and use the PayPal debit card to pay for shipping and then to buy dinner afterwords is great. Paypal is a perfect example of the old saying that your damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Post by **aferguson** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:45 pm

my only problem with Paypal is that their customer service is terrible. I have emailed them probably a dozen times over the years with various problems and have yet to receive a single response to any email i've sent.

They are too automated. If everything runs smoothly, great but if there is some kind of a problem that you have it's almost impossible to find a human being at Paypal's end to explain it to so it can get straightened out.

FieroDude · Post by **FieroDude** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:49 pm

And for all other questions, press 5. Click. Bzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Rowsdower · Post by **Rowsdower** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:54 pm

aferguson wrote:They are too automated. If everything runs smoothly, great but if there is some kind of a problem that you have it's almost impossible to find a human being at Paypal's end to explain it to so it can get straightened out.

This is very true as I found out when I had some problems.

Threetoughtrucks · Post by **Threetoughtrucks** » Mon May 21, 2007 8:23 pm

Sorry guys, but until something better comes along, I'll stick with PayPal.

A while back I had my first problem after 120 transactions. A DB tried to screw me and it took six weeks to resolve in my favor but I got full refund of my purchase price and shiping costs. I paid postage to return the item, but it was well worth that to stick it back to the DB.

Score: me - 1 and AHDB - 0

TTT

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Ebay fraud! Sellers beware! Be careful!

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