Discussion Someone trying to scam me on Ebay for a lot of money. Please help.

ibex333 · Sep 13, 2023

I am in NYC. I sold a ROG Ally game console on Ebay to a guy in Florida. As soon as he received it, he messaged me saying its defective without any explanation and immediately opened a return. He attached a picture of a ROG Ally console in a case. I never even sent him a case. It may not even be my console!

Now Ebay will force me to accept a return, and he will most likely send me his old broken console.

What can I do to fight back? I do have pics of my console but it's not like they are zoomed in to show tiny serial numbers even if there are any on the outside body.

I cannot let this go. I already had been scammed a long time ago like this with a video card where a guy simply sent be a different broken card in return. I already have experience with police that won't do anything in such cases. A detective screamed at me and told me to talk to Ebay. Ebay manager told me "This is just a loss you gonna have to take".

What are my options? Can I take this guy or ebay to court? If so, do I have to pay or is it free? I got to get my money back or my "like new" device back.

Brainonska511 · Sep 13, 2023

Do you have the original serial number recorded somewhere?

[DHT]Osiris · Sep 13, 2023

Brainonska511 said:
Do you have the original serial number recorded somewhere?

This, without the SN recorded its his word vs yours that the busted one isn't yours.

ibex333 · Sep 13, 2023

Brainonska511 said:
Do you have the original serial number recorded somewhere?

[DHT]Osiris said:
This, without the SN recorded its his word vs yours that the busted one isn't yours.

I thought I did not have it, but apparently, I do. It shows clearly in one of the old pictures I took.

So let me get this straight. Even though I can prove right now that the buyer is trying to scam me, I STILL have to accept the return regardless and deal with getting my money back later?! Thats at least a week wasted time till item arrives back at my place and then more time in waiting till my case is resolved?! Thats insane...

Why cant I just "deny" the return with picture as proof? There's no option to actually "deny".

Brainonska511 · Sep 13, 2023

Because eBay has created policies that are very buyer friendly, you'll probably have to accept the return and argue your case with photos, unless the buyer somehow sent you a photo that included the serial number of the one you suspect he is trying to scam you with.

Don't like eBay policies, then sell locally for cash only.

[DHT]Osiris · Sep 13, 2023

ibex333 said:
I thought I did not have it, but apparently, I do. It shows clearly in one of the old pictures I took.

So let me get this straight. Even though I can prove right now that the buyer is trying to scam me, I STILL have to accept the return regardless and deal with getting my money back later?! Thats at least a week wasted time till item arrives back at my place and then more time in waiting till my case is resolved?! Thats insane...

Why cant I just "deny" the return with picture as proof? There's no option to actually "deny".

Buyer friendly. What i'd do at this point is submit the SN to ebay, and ask them to verify the nonfunctional unit's SN. If he then sends you the nonfunctional unit and it's a different SN than the one the buyer provided, you have justification to say he's trying to scam you and they can refund you the cost of the product.

Next time, sell on craigslist. Ebay is trash.

ibex333 · Sep 13, 2023

[DHT]Osiris said:
Buyer friendly. What i'd do at this point is submit the SN to ebay, and ask them to verify the nonfunctional unit's SN. If he then sends you the nonfunctional unit and it's a different SN than the one the buyer provided, you have justification to say he's trying to scam you and they can refund you the cost of the product.

Next time, sell on craigslist. Ebay is trash.

Looks like I'll have to.

It's just that in New York City, selling on Craigslist, you're literally ASKING to get mugged at knife/gunpoint or killed outright for your stuff.

turtile · Sep 13, 2023

eBay sides with the buyer in most cases. Even if you have evidence, it's not easy to win a dispute.

In the past, I've turned off shipping to international locations. I also wrote it in the description. But eBay doesn't stop them from purchasing it. They say that you have to sell it to them anyway - even with free shipping! If you try to cancel it, the buyer has to agree.

I also had a scammer buy a lens from me. He sent me a payment from a different country and wanted me to send the lens to a PO Box in Florida. Again, this is after I went in my settings to block buyers from other countries because of scams like this. eBay did nothing because 'he has good feedback' but the account was clearly stolen. I refunded the money and never sent the lens. Luckily, he never left bad feedback.

Lesson learned - don't sell anything valuable on eBay. eBay will charge you massive fees and will do nothing to help you.

Brainonska511 · Sep 13, 2023

ibex333 said:
Looks like I'll have to.

It's just that in New York City, selling on Craigslist, you're literally ASKING to get mugged at knife/gunpoint or killed outright for your stuff.

FFS, don't be a baby. NYC is safe and fine. Just bring the item in a backpack so you aren't identifying yourself outright and meet the person in a coffee shop or something.

[DHT]Osiris · Sep 13, 2023

ibex333 said:
Looks like I'll have to.

It's just that in New York City, selling on Craigslist, you're literally ASKING to get mugged at knife/gunpoint or killed outright for your stuff.

Lol, well consider this a tax for your fear then, I guess.

BoomerD · Sep 13, 2023

Brainonska511 said:
Because eBay has created policies that are very buyer friendly, you'll probably have to accept the return and argue your case with photos, unless the buyer somehow sent you a photo that included the serial number of the one you suspect he is trying to scam you with.

Don't like eBay policies, then sell locally for cash only.

This. I don't have any sympathy for folks who get scammed when selling on scam-bay.

ibex333 · Sep 13, 2023

Brainonska511 said:
FFS, don't be a baby. NYC is safe and fine. Just bring the item in a backpack so you aren't identifying yourself outright and meet the person in a coffee shop or something.

you're joking, right? Tell me you're joking, cause it's not funny.

Brainonska511 · Sep 13, 2023

ibex333 said:
you're joking, right? Tell me you're joking, cause it's not funny.

I'm not joking. The crime statistics for the city back me up too.

Captante · Sep 13, 2023

turtile said:
Lesson learned - don't sell anything ~~valuable~~ on eBay.

Ftfy.

Buy? Sure have at it, just use a CREDIT card.

Sell? Hard nope.

EDIT: In case the above was somehow unclear (??) ..... EBAY SUCKS DONKEY BALLS IN HELL FOR SELLING NOW. So knock it off!

Captante · Sep 13, 2023

ibex333 said:
you're joking, right? Tell me you're joking, cause it's not funny.

Tell me you're a complete wussy without telling me your a complete wussy? (sorry)

Have just a TRACE amount of common sense and selling on CL is absolutely fine.... I've done it LITERALLY THOUSANDS of times (including expensive items like cars btw) and never once had a single problem.

It's worth noting here that ME NOT BEING A WUSSY means the deal goes MY WAY or it doesn't happen. Period.

Red Squirrel · Sep 13, 2023

Ouch this sounds like a crap situation. The only thing you can maybe try to do is BS him around long enough that he can't do a charge back on you, but really if he's a scammer he has no reason not to do a charge back anyway. I tend to avoid Ebay for big ticket items as it's too easy to get scammed selling or buying. I do that stuff locally, and want to see cash. But I guess it is trickier to do in a big city due to safety, but also just being a pita to get around, park, etc.

I rarely sell stuff myself unless it's physically big and taking up space, since I always figure at some point I might need it and I know I'm not going to get what I paid for it originally anyway, so no matter what it's a loss.

Lost_in_the_HTTP · Sep 14, 2023

The SN won't help. No matter how honest you are and how many of us believe you, they won't accept that as proof of anything. Why? Simple.

There are sellers who will list a good device with all sorts of pictures, maybe even including an SN and then send broken junk. No one can prove what was sent. Schrodingers package in a way.

You can swear you sent good stuff. The buyer can swear they received junk. Neither side can prove their case in court without independent verification of some sort.

Your only hope would be to file a criminal complaint and HOPE that the investigators at your end would pursue it to the extent of seeking a search warrant for the buyer's location and possibly find a device with that SN. And any portion of that is very highly unlikely. It only might happen if your complaint adds to a file of many other complaints for the same buyer or location.

Shmee · Sep 14, 2023

I would say avoid selling on ebay in the future, may be good advice. I have had pretty good luck on CL, but if you are afraid of meeting up, just go somewhere safe and protected, or come armed if you are really that concerned.

As for this case, I would send proof to ebay with the SN as mentioned. Also consider reporting to a federal agency, as this is across state lines. You possibly could get paypal involved as well, assuming that is how you were paid. And I would report the rude detective to your police department, if you know who it was.

As for court, I am not sure how that would work, with this guy being in Florida. You could look into it, but I am not sure it would be worth it, probably not easy at least.

Another thing you could do, if you don't think you can win the dispute, but already were paid, is to transfer money out of your paypal to your bank, and then just stop using paypal and ebay, as they will probably be deactivated. Just make sure you remove any payment options from these two sites. If they try to charge you anyway, contact your bank and report them.

igor_kavinski · Sep 14, 2023

ibex333 said:
What are my options?

I don't understand why you would risk it again after already suffering a loss with eBay in the past? Provide to eBay your serial number screenshot and any screenshots you took before shipping the device to that douche and show eBay how different they are from the one provided by the buyer. Then cross your fingers and pray.

purbeast0 · Sep 14, 2023

What I would do is just not accept the refund and never use ebay again. Remove all of your account info from ebay so they can't just take the money from you. If you have your bank account connected, call your bank and block any transactions from ebay. They cannot "force" you to pay them.

I had the same issue with paypal and my account was -$415 , $400 for an item and $15 because the scammer opened a case. They tried and tried to get me to pay them and had their collections calling me. I told them I am never going to pay them and I had so much proof the guy scammed me. Eventually they stopped calling me and now my account is in this limbo state where I can't log in and if I try to reset password it gives an error.

pmv · Sep 14, 2023

I sold a load of stuff on Ebay at one point, and I don't think i ever got ripped off. Things apparently got lost in the post a few times, but I guess they genuinely did fail to reach the buyer. One big problem is that Ebay/Paypal allow a much longer time period for the buyer to claim non-receipt of an item than the couriers allow for you to make a claim for them losing the item, so a buyer could suddenly claim they didn't receive something long after the window has closed for you to claim compensation from the courier.

I found it a horribly nerve-wracking process. There are such a vast number of ways a buyer can rip off a seller (some of them really quite convoluted, exploiting vulnerabilities in the way the Post Office assign post-codes) that you really have to gamble on people being honest. Hence I quit selling things.

Discussion Someone trying to scam me on Ebay for a lot of money. Please help.

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