The Scam Alert Blog

When it comes to Internet scams, EBay sometimes seems to have cornered
another market. Whether it’s because of the large volume of
transactions taking place there or because a number of novice Internet
users flock to EBay is anyone’s guess but the fact that scams and
schemes abound there is undeniable. This is not to state that EBay is
crooked or dishonest itself, it’s just to point out that as in every
dealing – beware.

A known scam targeting sellers on EBay and using Paypal goes something
like this. Bidding takes place and a buyer wins an auction. Buyer then
emails the seller and requests that the package be shipped a specific
way. There is no problem in the transaction up to this point, the
problem occurs because the specified mode of shipment is untraceable.
Whether it’s to a third party address with no confirmation of their
relationship to the buyer or merely sent to a foreign country that does
not provide tracking on packages, the end result can be bad. It should
be said, that someone could be purchasing the item from a foreign
country or legitimately sending this as a gift to someone they know.
This could be a legitimate transaction, but it may also be a scam. How
it works is, after sufficient time has passed the buyer emails the
seller saying the package was never received. When the shipment status
cannot be resolved because of a lack of tracking or because the shipment
was not sent to the person EBay/Paypal considers the “buyer”, the buyer
then requests an automatic refund through Paypal. Approximately seven
days later, unless the seller can provide proof of shipment, Paypal
refunds the money to the buyer and automatically subtracts the money
from the Seller’s account. Buyer receives the merchandise and the money
and the seller is out both.

Now, for foreign shipments there are other escrow services available but the danger lies in not being able to track the package. Many thousands of cases of safe delivery of foreign ordered product exist, this is simply a case of “seller beware”.