Admin nuggethunting Posted September 25, 2007 Admin Report Share Posted September 25, 2007 Hello All, A customer and his wife came over last night to purchase a metal detector. He was pretty upset and told me he recently got burned on Ebay. He purchased a White's Goldmaster, paid for it and never received the detector. He has sent several emails and even a few calls to the Ebay seller, but never has heard anything back. What should this customer do next? Any help would be appreciated.Rob Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grubstake Posted September 25, 2007 Report Share Posted September 25, 2007 As a matter of fact, the CEO of Ebay was on DR. Phil the other day, first thing is to contact Ebay dirrectly, secound is call the FBI, if it was a wire tranfer. They can track these guys down. Third if it was paid for by credit card, talk to them, see if you can get your money replaced. That was the CEO's advice. Grubstake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpion Posted September 25, 2007 Report Share Posted September 25, 2007 If it was paid through PayPal, file a complaint with PayPal. They will also investigate and in some cases refund the money.I would recommend that everyone only pay with a PayPal transaction. Yes the sellers have to pay a fee. This is no different than a merchant who takes payments by credit cards.Both Ebay and PayPal recommend, advise and discourage buyers paying using a wire transfer, money order, check, Western Union methods of payment. There isn't a vehical for the buyer to protect themselves from a dishonest seller. Thieves and scam artists work EBay all the time.Unless I know the seller or the amounts are under a limit that I am willing to risk and never see the item or the money returned, I will always make payment using PalPal. I have had two instances where the items were never shipped. Paypal returned my payment.The "Buyer Beware" tag has never been more important than when buying off the internet.Good luck to your customer Rob! I hope that they get their money returned.I would recomment that they file the complaint with the FBI and also their local law enforcement agency.Karl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
way2cool Posted September 25, 2007 Report Share Posted September 25, 2007 Hi Rob, If they used their credit card thru paypal I would go right to the credit card company. If they send cash or a check I am afraid that they are screwed out of their money. Credit Card is the only way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptGrumpy Posted September 25, 2007 Report Share Posted September 25, 2007 I have sent a money order only one time because it was for $10 and the seller had a perfect record with over 500 transactions. I will never send anything other than a Paypal payment due to the amount of fraud potential and with the Paypal buyer protection combined with my credit card protection, I feel pretty protected. I only had one package not show up and the seller sent me a money order. Sorry to hear about the sour deal.And NEVER close a deal outside of the Ebay forum just because the seller wants to save you money, that will always be a fraud! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOC Posted September 25, 2007 Report Share Posted September 25, 2007 The heck with emails. Very few people realize that if you go into the buyer's options you can actually request the personal information of the person who is a party to the transaction as long as you are also a party to the transaction. This function automatically emails name, address and most important the phone number of the person. A little phone call usually with some very polite, direct, and pointed information usually makes things happen real fast. I had a guy who thought he was going to rip me off on a bogus Mont Blanc pen. I called him, told him he had two choices, he could refund my Pay Pal payment before the end of the day, or I would be at his door the next day with the FBI, (he lived in California.) as he was selling bogus trademarked merchandise. Well I had a refund in about 20 minutes.DOCI have sent a money order only one time because it was for $10 and the seller had a perfect record with over 500 transactions. I will never send anything other than a Paypal payment due to the amount of fraud potential and with the Paypal buyer protection combined with my credit card protection, I feel pretty protected. I only had one package not show up and the seller sent me a money order. Sorry to hear about the sour deal.And NEVER close a deal outside of the Ebay forum just because the seller wants to save you money, that will always be a fraud! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted September 25, 2007 Author Admin Report Share Posted September 25, 2007 Hello Doc and All, Actually the customer that purchased from Ebay did get the person information and phone number, but also had his information sent to the seller. The guy called several times and actually got in contact with someone, but they claim the seller is out of town ... It's been over a week and the customer hasn't heard anything. I told the customer to contact Ebay and Paypal since he used that service. I told him if he waited any longer he might not get anything. Thanks for all the help, I will pass it on. Rob Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montana Posted September 28, 2007 Report Share Posted September 28, 2007 After he gets it resolved , I would recomend doing what I did. CLOSE the Ebay account!. Ebay has become a snakepit of scam artists. You will eventually get burned if you continue to use Ebay. You can spot the scams by the dozens. I never got burned , but all I ever did was sell a few nuggets there. I would never consider buying anything . Much safer to use the classifieds on the forums . We often know who we are dealing with there. I can't believe people still shop on Ebay after reading about all the scams.----Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rexb Posted September 28, 2007 Report Share Posted September 28, 2007 ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted September 28, 2007 Author Admin Report Share Posted September 28, 2007 Hello Guys, Just an update, the customer came over last night and mentioned he is in the process of getting his money back through PayPal. However, you have to do a bunch of paperwork and it takes some time for them to investigate. The seller disconnected his phone number ... go figure! Rob Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whats4supper Posted September 29, 2007 Report Share Posted September 29, 2007 dang! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamikaze Posted September 29, 2007 Report Share Posted September 29, 2007 Just a sort of tip... Some of you have probably heard of "phishing". It is basically fishing for personal info on the internet, usually using official looking email messages with links or request for personal data. I get them and if you are using ebay or sometime online banking, you probably do too. The phishing message will usually state that they have updated the system or had some sort of breach and request that you use a link attached to the message to log in and change your user id or password. Once they get your info, they can log into your account and become you... If the can obtain your ebay id, they can post fraudulent listings using your account and use your id to bilk buyers. In regards to the phishing, I rarely use links attached to email messages ESPECIALLY if they are dealing with login's or passwords. In the case of ebay or paypal, if the message addresses you with "Dear user" or addresses you with your email address rather than your name, I would use caution. You could also sometimes tell by RT clicking the message, select properties and then look at the details but unless you know the true address for the genuine sender it's hard to tell. The best thing to do if you receive a suspicious email is to forward the suspect message to the account's security/customer care or USING YOUR BOOKMARK (NOT the email's links) to login to your account to see if there is a request to reset or mention the request. If there is nothing there, the message was an attempt to get your id/login...To help me to determine if the ebay listing is fraudulent, I look at what items they usually sell and if say they usually sell car parts and suddenly a whole bunch of short term listings for say nuggets appear, I would be cautious. Or if the account has not been active for some time and they suddenly start listing a whole bunch of items that are not usual for that seller...I use caution. Basically, the scammer has infiltrated the user's account, listed items probably without the true user knowing, possibly changed the profiles so that messages are now sent to them and are hoping to get in, get some fast money and abandon the account if exposed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whats4supper Posted October 1, 2007 Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 I forward all ebay emails to Spoof@ebay.com or Spoof@ paypal.com. if the email is legit, there'll be a copy on my messages on Ebay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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