HELP: how to get money back from eBay/paypal scam

I would go ahead and open a claim with ebay TODAY. Get a paperwork trail started. I presume you have all emails, correspondence, etc. that you can send them.

I had a friend who got "scammed" about 10 years ago on eBay. He bought a used Mole HMI. Eventually it needed service(I think he may have hung it upside down and fried something). He sent it to Mole for service and it came back that it was a stolen unit, possibly a stolen demo unit if I recall. My buddy told them that he bought it on eBay and provided all of the info he had on the seller, all emails, everything about the transaction, etc. He was extremely lucky that they ended up letting him keep the light.
 
The seller has sold 176 items with a 96% positive feedback score since 2012. Looks good honestly. Though....I did not look at the items. This is the first high ticket item and first piece of camera equipment.

What I am thinking is someone might have cracked into this account from overseas. So the seller might actually live in the states and not know someone from the UK is processing transactions with their account. Totally speculating here...but it would make sense.
 
Run&Gun said:
I would go ahead and open a claim with ebay TODAY. Get a paperwork trail started. I presume you have all emails, correspondence, etc. that you can send them.

I had a friend who got "scammed" about 10 years ago on eBay. He bought a used Mole HMI. Eventually it needed service(I think he may have hung it upside down and fried something). He sent it to Mole for service and it came back that it was a stolen unit, possibly a stolen demo unit if I recall. My buddy told them that he bought it on eBay and provided all of the info he had on the seller, all emails, everything about the transaction, etc. He was extremely lucky that they ended up letting him keep the light.
Click to expand...


Im able to open a claim tomorrow. Know you that's the first thing that's gonna happen...before breakfast
 
Possible. . .I've read that anything below 99% positive is questionable these days. 96% sounds like a very high number, but when you see those power sellers that have 100% or close to with 20,000 transactions, 96% for 176 is not a good track record. Hope it all works out.
 
ReelWorksMedia said:
The seller has sold 176 items with a 96% positive feedback score since 2012. Looks good honestly. Though....I did not look at the items. This is the first high ticket item and first piece of camera equipment.

What I am thinking is someone might have cracked into this account from overseas. So the seller might actually live in the states and not know someone from the UK is processing transactions with their account. Totally speculating here...but it would make sense.
Click to expand...

My guess is that a "normal" person had their account had their account hijacked. I don't know if there is a way to know if an account is compromised before a purchase. I guess you could ask a question but if it goes unanswered that is not confirmation. I think best practice with bigger ticket items is to try to reach out to the seller before the bid/purchase. There is so much stuff going on around Ebay that if you can't get in touch with a seller it is probably best to move on.
 
I started the eBay refund process this morning. At this point, eBay just lets you put in a request for a refund and an opportunity to explain why. The basis of the claim is that the item has not been received. At this point, I still have to wait all next week until eBay is willing to step in. They give the seller an entire week to repond before they step in. That's not great. A lot can happen in a week. One could..."disappear"...in that amount of time.

So, for now, the waiting game begins again. I think I can get eBay support on board starting this upcoming Friday the 8th.

Apparently, paypal just sends you back to the eBay resolution center. Does anyone know if there is a way to also make a claim through paypal...or if,at this point, its normal for Paypal to just send you back to eBay.

What a headache. Eeeesh.
 
Last edited:
UPDATE:

The seller on eBay and the shipper are two different people. The seller appears to live in Jamaica and be involved with a Florida and CA company. I have changed account pw on all my accounts. I also called eBay. They let me know I have done everything I can at this point.

My fear though, since this person has my address, am I in danger at all beyond this transaction? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


I almost have 100% confirmation that is is a scam. The shipper is from Scotland. The seller claims it is his sister. I have looked up the lady in Scotland. She is a different nationality...though that doesn't really matter. One thing that was alarming is her latest post referenced waiting for the police to arrive. So I'm not sure what that means. It could be stolen...or they could be working together.

One thing is for sure...its completely not legit. Not 1 thing so far has been upfront or going to plan. Everything is pointing to a scam.

So....I need advice. What would you do. I could really dig in more and get deeper in communication and expose it for what it is....or....I could limit my contact....go radio silent....let eBay do its thing and limit my involvement and distance myself from the seller as much as possible.

What would you do?
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the response. I did talk to eBay today. They said that in 1 week, they will step in if the item has not arrived and the seller does not produce a legitimate response. At that point I will get a full refund.

Thats all good....I guess I am a little paranoid about ID theft. I should order a credit report...but that process is fairly miserable as well.

Yuck....I should have just kept the 5D3 and passed on the 1Dc. What a mess.
 
Last edited:
The only thing that is a light of hope is that the name he gave me is tied to the company he has....and he does still respond to my questions. The answers suck....like.... "Who was the shipper....oh it was your sister who has a completely different name half way around the world." He has not gone radio silent even though I have been outspoken that I think it's a scam.

I hate not knowing what is going to happen...though time will tell this week.
 
I wouldn't worry about any retaliation from the scammer or ID theft. That doesn't look like their game and they're not going to come after you half way around the world over reporting this.
I'd insist that eBay cancel it today and refund your money. The seller/scammer can't produce a legitimate tracking number, isn't even shipping from where they said they were, so you can argue that you're not even getting a USA camera like advertised. That right there is grounds to cancel the transaction without having to wait for them to run out the clock.
 
I recently bought my FS700 on ebay. Once I had won the auction, before paying, I confirmed for myself that the seller (a company in UK) existed and was selling the item for real. After that it all went through fine.

My point is that I think when buying high value items it is worth confirming the reality of the seller before paying. Of course, that's easier if the seller is a company, which is why I would only ever buy such items from such a seller (or an individual if I can prove to myself that they are for real).

Not much help to you now, I realise - I hope you get your refund or your camera without any more hassle.
 
UPDATE:


So...I took your advice Andrius. I called eBay today and put my foot down. Turns out...they were happy to comply since the seller closed his account. So....there we have it. Bay is refunding the money. Wow.....total lesson learned here. This person seemed completely sincere. Said things like " my word is my bond. There is no way I would intentionally scam anyone. I can guarantee this is going to be just fine if its the last thing I do."

Just kind of mind blowing. There is a big part of me that believes people to be honest and upfront. What a terrible situation. It looks like it will work out fine for me....but why a stressful rollercoaster.

I'm not sure I can bring myself to ever buy a high ticket item used online again. I think this might always be in my mind. Are the savings worth the risk? ....not really. Not at all. Getting a guaranteed product new from the source is worth something. Its worth sleep at night.

So.....I'll update one more time once everything is completely resolved. Thanks to the entire DVX community for reading this thread lending advice and personal experience. I am thankful for all the honest people out there willing to contribute their thoughts on this. I will pay that forward.

Best

Mike
 
Last edited:
On the flip side; I tried to sell my old EA50 on eBay, decided pay extra for a minimum selling price and also put a buy it now price at slightly above what I was really hoping to get for it. Within a couple of hours there was a ka-ching and it had sold for the buy it now price! I was happy!

But then the buyer wrote me in Italian (although my ad was in English and I'm located in Berlin, Germany). That raised a first warning flag. I google translated the message but anyway wrote him back asking him to use English, got a reply saying that please give me your PayPal email address so I can pay quickly... I told him to please use the built in paying system of eBay... I also found out that his address as registered by eBay was an address in London... All this was enough to make me very suspicious so I did a bit of research. Turns out it's a quite common scam, they send emails looking like the come from PayPal stating that payments have been made. And I think the plan is that because it's so important to have a good rating as a seller on eBay some people send items as quickly as possible without verifying that the money really is on their accounts.

Then started a quite tedious process of raising complaint with eBay and making them waive the fee for the minimum price etc. When that was finally dealt with and I tried to relist the item, I couldn't. And all of a sudden the price was too high (I hadn't sold anything else on eBay) and they never allowed me to put it up again and I sold it through other channels.

Moral of the story is, you also have to be careful as a seller on eBay.
 
Can you believe...this guy is trying to contact me outside of eBay now...even though he closed his account. Should I be concerned?
 
Thanks Chris and David. I agree. I just blocked his emails. They will be automatically deleted so I probably won't know if he sends any more. If any packages come...I'll refuse them. If one arrives on my doorstep without a signature required...I'll drop it off at the Police Dept.

Best thing to do is to have nothing to do with it. If a box actually does come...Lord knows whats in it....and I don't wanna find out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top