Are phone scams on eBay really that bad?

ChrisD. · 13 Dec 2012 at 21:29

As per the title. A friend of mine sold a phone on there and to cut a long story short, after he had positive feedback the buyer put in a 'where is my item' claim and the seller ended up out of pocket.

Hunders · 13 Dec 2012 at 21:31

If you send a phone in the post without a 'signed for' option then you are a very silly person.

apeksdiver · 13 Dec 2012 at 21:32

Why didn't he send it recorded? There are a minority of people who will try it on but 90% are good buyers.

apeksdiver · 13 Dec 2012 at 21:33

Hunders said:
If you send a phone in the post without a 'signed for' option then you are a very silly person.

Too tight to spend the extra on postage

SB118 · 13 Dec 2012 at 21:34

Did your friend follow the guidance and send the phone tracked?

Did he make a note of the imei so he can block it?

V4NT0M · 13 Dec 2012 at 21:34

Scam, or lost post? Many people give feedback recklessly.

MooMoo444 · 13 Dec 2012 at 21:35

Better to lose a bit more on the postage, than to lose everything to a scammer.

Pawnless Endgame · 13 Dec 2012 at 21:36

I'm not sure if it's the same scam: After my auction ended for my old Galaxy phone, I had a message from eBay to say that the bid from the high bidder was fraudulent and I had to go through 2nd-chance offer with the next highest bidder. Although I wasn't out of pocket, the next highest bid was considerably lower than the highest and they got my phone for quite a bargain.

ChrisD. · 14 Dec 2012 at 07:06

He sent it recorded. The buyer put in the claim some 2 months after it was delivered yet got a refund from paypal because my mate couldn't produce the receipt. This is after positive feedback was left by both parties. How long are you meant to keep a receipt for? Surely after positive feedback that should be that.

iviv · 14 Dec 2012 at 07:18

MilanoChris said:
He sent it recorded. The buyer put in the claim some 2 months after it was delivered yet got a refund from paypal because my mate couldn't produce the receipt. This is after positive feedback was left by both parties. How long are you meant to keep a receipt for? Surely after positive feedback that should be that.

Paypal always sides with the buyer. Welcome to the joys of selling on ebay.

Beans on toast Dave · 14 Dec 2012 at 07:43

MilanoChris said:
He sent it recorded. The buyer put in the claim some 2 months after it was delivered yet got a refund from paypal because my mate couldn't produce the receipt. This is after positive feedback was left by both parties. How long are you meant to keep a receipt for? Surely after positive feedback that should be that.

i keep mine for a year, you should keep them for at least 6 months as thats about the time for a credit card chargeback

SB118 · 14 Dec 2012 at 08:26

MilanoChris said:
He sent it recorded. The buyer put in the claim some 2 months after it was delivered yet got a refund from paypal because my mate couldn't produce the receipt. This is after positive feedback was left by both parties. How long are you meant to keep a receipt for? Surely after positive feedback that should be that.

Time for your friend to cancel the dd mandate and ditch this pp account. Their "debt collectors" are as legit as the old private parking companies so they can be ignored.

I'm on my 3rd pp account reasons like thi.

pingwing · 14 Dec 2012 at 09:32

My sister just had a similar problem of selling her broken ip4 on ebay.

Some random bloke kept emailing her with "I will pay you £50 now for it" offers, told her to just tell them to bid and they might win it. They opened a new account and bid to win at £133 quid (3 more than the pervious offer).

She went fine pay through ebay, but he just kept asking for her paypal details and to send him the phone. A week later the account was gone and she's having to relist the stupid thing because the second chance guy didnt want it either.

Basically everyone on ebay is a scammer trying to get something for nothing it seems

Street · 14 Dec 2012 at 09:47

I've always had problems with scammers when trying to sell phones on Ebay, more so than any other type of item! I think my last phone I ended up just using Envirophone, although I probably got less money for it, it worked out a lot less hassle!

PaulyD · 14 Dec 2012 at 09:57

Street said:
I've always had problems with scammers when trying to sell phones on Ebay, more so than any other type of item! I think my last phone I ended up just using Envirophone, although I probably got less money for it, it worked out a lot less hassle!

Exactly what I have started doing now. Sold my old iPhone 4 to a recycling company. Less money but way less hassle.

londonbairn · 14 Dec 2012 at 10:00

I had a wierd phishing email recently. I had bid on a fairly high value item and didn't win. About a week later, I got a fake second chance email which looked like a good copy, but obviously fake as it said something like to pay, pleace contact the buyer directly.

What startled me is it had my user id correct, my bid amount correct with timestamp, which would is not visible in bidding history publically.

Seemed like either someone had got access to my account or the seller's account. I couldn't find any evidence they had accessed mines, so could have been the seller's. Spooked me out a bit.

Diagro · 14 Dec 2012 at 10:01

The main phone scam is this: (happened to me 4 times but im not going to fall for it)

1. Person buys phone on ebay.
2. Person tells you they wish to collect the phone that day.
3. They then tell you that they dont have the liquid money to hand and wish to use paypal so that it can be put on the Credit card.
4. You accept and get paid via paypal.
5. some chap turns up and picks up phone.
6. You find out that the ebay ID and paypal ID were stolen
7. Paypal returns money to paypals account REAL owner
8. Ebay removes buyers ebay account
9. You are left with no money or phone and NO WAY to get them back.

So moral of this story, REFUSE to accept anything but cash on collection unless you are going to post the item via SPECIAL DELIVERY to the PAYPAL VERIFIED ADDRESS.

I repeat IF YOU DON'T POST VIA RECORDED OR SPECIAL DELIVERY TO THE VERIFIED PAYPAL ACCOUNTS POSTAL ADDRESS YOU WILL LOOSE YOUR MONEY AND ITEM.

In my case i refused to send the items, and paypal pulled the money. But i already sent a bogus box in the post to the paypal address (I knew it was a stolen paypal account) - This way paypal will tick that box that says i posted it correctly and let me keep the money.
You may think.. Hey thats fraud.. But wait....! The stolen paypal accounts owner will get the money back because they did a bank reversal or chargeback or w/e... So its PAYPAL that looses the money. and they can afford it.
I made £1200 on a Samsung Galaxy S3 that way...

ChrisD. · 14 Dec 2012 at 10:03

How do people feel about sales on Gumtree where the buyer wants to pay via Paypal and then you ship the phone?

Diagro · 14 Dec 2012 at 10:06

MilanoChris said:
How do people feel about sales on Gumtree where the buyer wants to pay via Paypal and then you ship the phone?

Paypal should cover you.

As long as you set up the paypal invoice correctly and say exactly what its for and then place the tracking details on paypal for the transaction then you should be fine.

Spit · 14 Dec 2012 at 10:07

I have 914 feedback on ebay and have sold over 200 phones. Only had 2 problems, once when I bought a phone and the guy sent half a brick! Took a photo immediately and sent it to eBay and I got refunded. The other time I sold a Sony Ericsson P900 and I sent it too soon and got a chargeback. I ended up getting the money back through the phone insurance with my bank.

I stick to the following rules now...

Never sell to 0 feedback.
Only despatch after at least 3 days from payment.
Send Special Delivery to the confirmed Paypal address with no exception.

Never had a problem since apart from the none payers occasionally and then its not a massive problem as I will get the fees back and relist.