Comments on: A Victim of eBay Fraud

By: Gunasekhar

Gunasekhar — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:17:29 +0000

The ebay rating and review system is misleading. They do not verify seller’s identity even though the seller lists more than few thousands of dollars worth of items, which itself should be alarming. The paypal buyer protection is a big joke. If the seller account has funds then you get it, otherwise you won’t because the seller is not going to use the same paypal account once a complaint is raised. So the chance of getting funds deposited into that account is very very less.

Few days back, I lost 800EUR on ebay.de by purchasing a new DSLR. After I paid (only through bank transfer), the seller got banned. He totally amassed 30k EUR and still there is no trace of him. Ebay never really has his identity checked. Now think 800EUR is not a small amount to forget and 30k EUR is not certainly a small amount to let that fraudster steal and run away without a trace.

I am really pissed off, how this ebay kind of websites are legal??? (I know literally they are legal. But what about moral values???)

By: johnnytrevino

johnnytrevino — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:42:14 +0000

I have the same problem with paypal. paypal said to talk with the seller and to wait for him and he strung me along and said to wait 30 says for the refund then he said that i would love to fefund you today just send the tracking number exactly after the 45 days. wow cant believe i fell for that. its a medical supply company supposable they sent the wrong size then had me return the item then strung me along for a few months. ya i order alot but i will stop as of today after reading all your reports. thanks i just had a bad feeling and this really sums it up.

By: Glen Morehouse

Glen Morehouse — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:06:08 +0000

Mikey, this just happened to me. I bought software from Edward Crow of Georgia, USA, business name: 2009softwaredeals on eBay and used PayPal. I received no product and PayPal was totally unhelpful.

I would have left negative feedback, but the seller and PayPal strung me along until the time limit was over. Now I don’t even have the opportunity to warn others! Except here.

Fair warning: if you do business with eBay or PayPal, watch your back.

By: mikey

mikey — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:35:35 +0000

if i buy any thing from e bay is there any chance of the seller not sending the product ?

By: DA_Steeltitan

DA_Steeltitan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 04:03:07 +0000

that would suck to be him….
i really hope you’ve gotten your money back buddy…
it sucks to be frauded like that, my brother got frauded like that once.

By: John

John — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:43:38 +0000

I , after having a go-around with ebay billing dept, am leaving ebay for another site. seems they don’t care about anybody getting burned as long as they get their fees. What do you do when you walk into a retail store and they treat you like crap? Go to another store.

By: james

james — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:54:05 +0000

i recently purchased tickets thru ebay and paid via paypal (i have done this multiple times in the past). the seller stated that the tickets would not be sent until the week of the concert. i didn’t feel that was a big deal, he had very good feedback, and based on the feedback he was in the ticket buisness. well, guess what? i never recieved the tickets. paypal won’t touch it because it is past the 45 day reporting period, and ebay won’t touch it because i paid thru paypal. based on the comments above, i am hoping my credit card company will come thru.

By: sandy

sandy — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:21:15 +0000

My boyfriend is new to ebay and just learned a hard lesson. He bid on an old truck. Was told to send half the money as down payment and that the truck would be delivered. He sent half the money then got a notice that his payment had been received and to send the rest. He was suspicious and didn’t send the rest and has had no luck getting ebay to respond to his complaints. It looked like a ligitimate ebay website and the correspondance look official. It’s sad that ebay doesn’t seem to care. When we tried to get the sellers information, ebay stated that they couldn’t give it to us because the truck was no longer on the site. Do they not have records of previous auctions? – bad business.

By: Gideon

Gideon — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 13:11:08 +0000

In my case I’ve bought from a Ebay.de 2 sellers which dissapeared with my money and left me a hole of 90 Euro..
In Germany as you probably don’t know Paypal is almost invisible.
Only money Bank transfers.
In this case you can talk to the moon.
No money refund and no one to complaint

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:33:21 +0000

I have included the URL of an article in my blog about how I believe ebay / paypal appears to condone fraud. An international buyer used the same NAME and ADDRESS to set up an account 3 separate times. Each time he quickly bought 10-25 items then since he is international he reversed the Paypal payment before a 1 month period was up. Moral of the story: You could get better service than from eBay but you couldn’t pay more!

By: mzilikazi

mzilikazi — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:31:25 +0000

This is exactly why I will never use Ebay or PayPal again. There just isn’t a good enough guarantee that I’ll get what I bought.

By: Larry LaMont

Larry LaMont — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 15:11:04 +0000

As mentioned by a couple of other responses, as a card member, Visa, Mastercard and American Express will stand behind you through their chargeback programs. Regarding the bankcards (VI & MC), be sure you are not using a “Check Card” when making these purchases. This is just another name for off line debit. Once the transaction is consummated, the money is no longer in your possession. You may well get your refund, but you will also not have the cash until the matter is settled.

By: Hugoton Horatio

Hugoton Horatio — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:46:12 +0000

All this Paypal/Ebay this and that. I bought quite a while back off
Ebay and only used U. S. Postal Service Money Order. Figured if some
one was going to try to rip me off, would let them get involved with the
USPS investigators, they don’t cotton to mail fraud.

By: Malignedtruth

Malignedtruth — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:12:42 +0000

Everyone I know has stopped using eBay, due to the fraud. Too bad, eBay.

There are enough honest dealers on other auction sites and on the web, at local flea markets, and through local computer dealers!

If eBay spent any effort cleaning up the fraud, actually responding to the customers like Travis and the other ten folks who were cheated, they would have a chance to retain their auction empire.

I have shut down several of the lottery auctions of chances to win computers. It is so obvious a fraud that you should have reported it, instead of playing it!

By: Kent Smith

Kent Smith — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:19:22 +0000

I buy things from Ebay periodically. The trick is, you’ve got to buy from sellers whom you’ve bought from before, or someone you know personally has bought from. Ebay is a great idea, and it’s also a great big thieves market. The company behind it supports their sellers, from whom they get a percentage. They have no interest in their honesty. Ebay will never support you, or come to your aid, or do anything but make it as difficult as possible for you to claim your rights.

Paypal is also a kind of criminal enterprise, and they’re already in trouble in some countries. That’s another story in itself, but if you possibly can, you’re way ahead of the game by paying with a credit card.

The day will come when at least some the bosses behind Ebay will be in prison. No doubt they know they’re playing with fire. But for the time being they’re just cashing in big-time and hoping for the best. Buyer beware indeed!

Still, there are bargains to be had.