Reply With QuoteA PO box that sends money to China?
....the scam is what exactly?
Another one to watch out for, if you are selling anything over there.
I had something up for sale and received a BIN with PP payment, but something looked off as the buyer's name was a bunch of Chinese characters I can't read, and yet I have everything set for UK only.
So check the PP address and it's in the UK. OK, so maybe they've moved here, right? Nope! Check the address and it's a mail forwarding company that basically gives anyone who wants one the equivalent of a PO Box and forwards their stuff to China.
I've seen this before with some sellers pretending to have UK stock, when actually they just drop ship from China. Sometimes the return address has a strange postcode. Turns out that RM has issued some companies with "non-geographic" postcodes, which basically means their mail forwarding office gets its own postcode, like a massive PO Box.
This one just had a normal postcode, but it's easy to tell it's not right because there's a company name in the address, which when googled turns out to be a shipping company whose website is in Chinese.
Tip if this happens to you: Call PayPal. They are aware of it. They are trying to block people from registering these mail-forwarding addresses as their PP confirmed shipping address. They had not seen this one before, so said they will review and add it to their blacklist. I suspect however that these companies are wise to what's happening, and are just giving out different variations of the same address e.g., Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3 and so on, to prevent their customers in China from getting blacklisted.
Do not bother calling eBay. eBay staff are completely clueless and will give you bad advice like "just post it, it's covered by seller protection". It isn't. eBay do not cover you for the "buyer sends back a box of bricks" scam. If you speak to PP and ask them to, they can add a note with the refund that gets passed to eBay, so then when you cancel the order (select "something is wrong with the address" as the reason) this may help if eBay don't automatically refund your fees.
Incidentally, as far as I can tell, if you do fall victim to the "return a box of bricks and claim a refund" scam, your best bet is to call Action Fraud and get a case reference. Then and only then report the matter to eBay, giving them the case reference. eBay told me that they do have an escalation process where you can get your money back in these cases, but I could get no sense out of them as to how it works. Most eBay processes work on the basis of "computer says no" and their first decision is final. So you want to make it clear that the police are involved, right from the start, as they will factor that in and take things a bit more seriously.
I wasted many hours on this one today. Hopefully this will save some of you the massive headache I've got now. Be vigilant and always check the buyer's address on eBay, make sure it matches up with who the buyer appears to be and isn't some random business park.
A PO box that sends money to China?
....the scam is what exactly?
No, they send the goods to China. You send the goods to a UK address, and they forward the package on to China. The Chinese buyer then then claims there was something wrong and asks for a refund. They send you back an empty box, or some bricks, and eBay automatically processes their claim for a refund. As long as they use a signed-for service, eBay will automatically find in their favour.Originally Posted by Tifa
So you are left with neither the goods nor the payment.
And since they are hiding their address and are well outside the reach of the UK police, good luck getting either your goods or your money back.
Very helpful advice. Thanks.
I sell a lot of stuff on ebay and it's full of scammers.
Ebay won't help. They appear not to be interested.
I haven't had the Chinese one but plenty asking you to send a payment request to PayPal.
I never post til the funds are moved to my bank account but even then some want an unjustified refund.
Ebay seriously needs cleaning up.
Brendan
Agreed. They have a de facto monopoly, which gives them the ability to absolutely gouge everyone on fees, and also act as arbiter in any way that suits them. The only reason buyer and seller protection exist at all is that with the number of scammers on the site people would have just stopped using them a few years ago. They are not really interested in protecting anyone, just giving enough of an impression that they do so everyone keeps using the site.
I've considered trying eBid, because I did buy something on there once (found it on Google Shopping). It's much cheaper, but it's pretty much dead. Believe it or not they are eBay's biggest competitor (not counting Amazon), which just goes to show what level of monopoly eBay has. If I sold a lot of stuff, I'd definitely be looking at eBid as an experiment, although they probably have their problems with scammers as well so in a way it's still a minefield, just with slightly different rules to learn about how to stay safe.
Apparently ebay makes $290 a second !
I think I'll set up in competition...
Brendan
I obviously spoke too soon about avoiding Ebay scams in an earlier post. My washer broke so I got a new washer dryer. Therefore my tumble dryer is surplus to requirements so stuck it on Ebay on a listings offer. Collection only obviously and I stated payment on collection.
I then get an offer for £1 MORE than the asking price from a 0 feedback bidder registered with Ebay today saying how much the want it and when could they collect. Strangely enough I declined that one...
There are several advertised services for UK based buyers to bid on eBay.com US listings where the sellers (God bless America) are unwilling to ship outside CONUS. The providers of these services give a US address and then deal with onward shipping.
There are similar services which assist buyers outside Japan wishing to bid on Yahoo Japan auctions (Very useful to anyone looking for a specific JDM Seiko or Grand Seiko model).
This sounds similar. Services like this are intended to give the seller comfort that he or she isn't exposed to the additional risk of losses associated with international postage.
As for scammers, they come in all nationalities, flavours and colours and can be found just as easily on one's own doorstep.
There are a number of companies in the US who forward mail all over the world. These were initially set up for international buyers to get Apple products as soon as they are released in the US but they will ship anything. I lost a Damasko watch to Viet Nam a few years back; shipped to the US, forwarded to Viet Nam and then a chargeback because it had been "purchased" using stolen credit card details.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
Posting Permissions