Ebay Scam - Advice required please

Insomniak

Insomniak

Insomniak

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Can anyone please offer any advice on the following.
A friend of mine has recently had their Ebay account hacked. He was called by Ebay in the early of the morning and they informed him they had noticed several unusual transactions on his account that were not made from his usual IP address. Sure enough he had not personally made the purchases and his bank account linked to paypal had been emptied to the tune of quite a few hundred pounds. He has contacted the seller who is based in Germany and he has said that he is a legitimate seller. He seems to sell Fifa 13 coins (whatever they maybe) and he has 300+ feedback going back over 12 months so it looks legit. In the meantime my friend has received a recorded delivery letter from what appears to be from the seller but it only contained a blank piece of paper.
Has anyone ever had any experience of this type of scam and how it works?
 
Clearly that seller is not a proper seller.

The way this looks to me:

Someone hacks account, buys items from this seller.
Seller then ships out a recorded delivery item, complete with tracking number which PROVES that it has been delivered.
You lodge claim, seller demands non existant item back (as the prrof of delivery to the buyer exists), keeps money.
Person who has had account hacked lodges claim, ebay say you have to return item, after all, it has been delivered (even though it actually has not)

Seller is probably the hacker, or more than likely an accomplice.

(Or something like that)


Ring up bank, tell them you have been a victim of fraud, get paypal stopped (just in case) and hopefully they can offer advice.
 
Yeah, this sounds like proper organised fraud on this one.

Did eBay offer much advice yet?
As clearly its already been flagged up by themselves as likely fraudulent.
 
He has changed his log in details and Ebay are monitoring his account and will ask security questions on his next transaction.
He took it up with the bank but they said there is nothing that they can do and to speak to paypal which hes now doing.
Hes basically just had his account cleared out right before Christmas...not funny!! and to make matters worse when he contacts Ebay he has to phone the usa.
What I cant understand is if he is a scammer is how hes managed to get so much positive feedback.
 
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Can someone please confirm what FIFA 13 coins actually are? Would they be some kind of game code? In which case nothing would be need to be physically delivered.
 
I haven't played FIFA 13, but it sounds like they are the equivalent of XP in the game, and by using real money you can buy more to unlock things quicker.

The response you just posted though doesn't sound good.
Aside from monitoring things, are eBay/Paypal going to get his money back?

I'm surprised by the response from his bank, but then I've never had fraud dealings which have involved PayPal. Perhaps its because its not fraudulent use on the card itself, but a connected account that the user is responsible for.
 
You think your bank will cover you when things like this happen but they just seem to pass the buck. Something similar happened to another friend of mine a few years ago. Every month his debit card was being charged for several transactions totaling £100+. The bank said they couldn't cancel them and they said he needed to cancel the transactions at source. Problem was he didn't know what they were. He gave me a copy of his bank statement and from the very minimal information it gave me I tracked them all all down to monthly subscriptions for porn sites. I eventually contacted the sites and cancelled the subs but it was a real pita. The bank were totally useless.

Paypal/Ebay are still looking into it so I presume he will be refunded at some point.
I've just checked Ebay and the guy is still up and running so his account hasn't been suspended. I would have thought this would the first thing to do while he was under investigation but obviously not.
 
One of many reasons not to have PayPal linked to a bank account with any funds in.

If this charge had been made to credit card, your credit card company would immediately deal with it.
 
Insomniak said:
Agreed you live and learn I suppose. Got mine linked to my crdit card so hopefully that is a more robust method.
Click to expand...

Well really you do need to link a bank account to withdraw paypal funds to, but use an empty bank account, then immediately transfer it to a main account.
 
if its his debit card then his bank HAS to sort out fraudulent transactions, dont take no for an answer, under VISA rules they can help and reverse transactions, all he has to do is phone up and say its been used fraudulently, dont mention ebay or paypal as they just use this as an excuse to pass the buck. complaint to the financial ombudsman, they will sort it out for you
 
Its just really puzzling me how the user gets away with it as I'm sure it wont be the first time hes done it. Maybe the registered post is the key to his success. But I'm thinking he must surely have had other complaints logged against him. Maybe he does them infrequently to disguise them? Or maybe its a one off for some Christmas money.
On the face of it he looks like a legit trader although I still dont get this FIFA 13 coin thing.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Buroklamm...27?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_77&hash=item2ec4af1a77
 
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Looking at his account, his transactions, aside from lots of buying and selling FIFA things seems fairly genuine. Certainly with that level of feedback and transactions over years.

Looking at the actual listing, and my rough understanding of the FIFA Ultimate Team Coins thing and his translation... it would appear he is selling a 'digital service', in the way of something to do with spending coins and improving a team or account or something.

He mentions that the auction is for one paperclip and 20,000 coins.
Perhaps the reason he sent a piece of paper (was there a paperclip?) by recorded post was to cover his own back, as that way he is covered by PayPal because the buyer can't try and do a reversal for saying that they haven't received it.

So my conclusion is that the Seller is most likely genuine. What I think happened is that whoever hacked your friends account, bought the coins, then had the code or whatever the 'digital product' is, sent to them at another e-mail address, or if its in game, applied directly to their account by the seller.

I think the Seller might certainly be able to help somewhat perhaps though.

But I'd do what MrMoonX said above... speak to the fraud department at the bank and don't take no for an answer, it certainly does look like they are trying to pass the buck with the admission that PayPal is involved.
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Buroklamm...61?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_77&hash=item2ec43bf34d

That particular auction 1 buyer bought 10 lots @ 63.99 each.

Given that the buyer then has to communicate with the seller afterwards to complete the transaction sounds like a scam. Why would the seller ever think 10 lots was a genuine amount to buy?

What probably happens is the seller uses the fraudulent money to buy more FIFA13 points which he then launders (sells back to ebay).
 
Nexus said:
So my conclusion is that the Seller is most likely genuine. What I think happened is that whoever hacked your friends account, bought the coins, then had the code or whatever the 'digital product' is, sent to them at another e-mail address, or if its in game, applied directly to their account by the seller.
Click to expand...

I think you are spot on there. looking into this further it appears the coins are similar to buying gold in wow and you use them to buy better players. There's a few threads on the EA forums where it says you actually buy the physical paperclip rather than the game coins as EA dont allow the selling of game coins.
I think we need to find where the "coins" were sent to. My friend contacted the seller and he was fast to respond on a couple of occasions so hopefully he will be able to help with this.
 
norm said:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Buroklamm...61?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_77&hash=item2ec43bf34d

That particular auction 1 buyer bought 10 lots @ 63.99 each.

Given that the buyer then has to communicate with the seller afterwards to complete the transaction sounds like a scam. Why would the seller ever think 10 lots was a genuine amount to buy?

What probably happens is the seller uses the fraudulent money to buy more FIFA13 points which he then launders (sells back to ebay).
Click to expand...

That was most probably the transaction I am talking about. Using in game gold to launder real money...I've seen it all now.
 
The sad thing is EA, Ebay & PayPal are complicit in this particular fraud.

Ebay rules forbid selling of virtual goods, yet they allow this. Really best option is like Nexus said, fight it with your bank.
 
He seems to sell one hell of a lot of game coins so I'm now wondering where he gets them all from. It seems like a very complex scam where gaming gold is being used wholesale to launder real money and very profitable it seems too.
 
Insomniak said:
He seems to sell one hell of a lot of game coins so I'm now wondering where he gets them all from.
Click to expand...

Hacked ebay/paypal accounts. Purchases Xbox Live points or PSN cards online (which have instant delivery of the code). From there redeems FIFA 13 points. Then transfers the FIFA 13 points to other accounts so they can't be revocated.

The whole FIFA 13 thing is just a front to launder the money (looks mighty genuine with loads of completed transactions, but like you say where are the points coming from).

Probably just got greedy/impatient this time and went straight to his FIFA13 selling operation to get at the cash quicker.
 
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