Results 1 to 12 of 12

Thread: eBay scam, or coincidence?

  1. #1
    Senior Member

    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    A rock in the ocean
    Posts
    752
    Thanks
    99
    Thanked 135 Times in 79 Posts
    Rep Power
    290
    Reputation
    3356

    Default eBay scam, or coincidence?

    Bought a few low value eBay items of late, where the seller, in China or Hong Kong, has sent a message stating that they "noticed a quality issue with the sold" and would like to cancel the sale, refund my PayPal, and notify me when they get more stock of what I wanted. No financial loss to me in all cases.
    But it's happened three times of late, and wondering if it's a scam or just coincidence. And if it's a scam, to what end? Email harvesting?

    Anyone else observed this, or have any theories?



Look Here ->
  • #2
    Premium Member
    wotnot's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Location
    Scenic Rim, SE Qld
    Posts
    3,236
    Thanks
    1,462
    Thanked 2,934 Times in 1,510 Posts
    Rep Power
    1334
    Reputation
    58690

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by mitaux8030 View Post
    Bought a few low value eBay items of late, where the seller, in China or Hong Kong, has sent a message stating that they "noticed a quality issue with the sold" and would like to cancel the sale, refund my PayPal, and notify me when they get more stock of what I wanted. No financial loss to me in all cases.
    But it's happened three times of late, and wondering if it's a scam or just coincidence. And if it's a scam, to what end? Email harvesting?

    Anyone else observed this, or have any theories?
    It would be handy if you shared the link to whatever it was you bought the seller was referring to.

    Also, keep in mind with the current covid19 situation, that there's going to be many excuses touted to explain 'lack of supply' etc, but nobody in CN is going to talk about it being caused by covid19.

  • #3
    Premium Member
    SS Dave's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    North Canberra
    Age
    63
    Posts
    2,119
    Thanks
    5,297
    Thanked 7,921 Times in 1,282 Posts
    Rep Power
    3337
    Reputation
    154762

    Default

    Better than having to fight to get a refund for the item never turning up..
    Death smiles at everyone. Grumpy old men smile back.

  • #4
    Senior Member
    Uncle Fester's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Commonly found in a pantry or the bottom of a fridge, searching for grains, fermented or distilled
    Posts
    6,405
    Thanks
    2,289
    Thanked 4,414 Times in 2,517 Posts
    Rep Power
    2046
    Reputation
    81778

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by mitaux8030 View Post
    Bought a few low value eBay items of late, where the seller, in China or Hong Kong, has sent a message stating that they "noticed a quality issue with the sold" and would like to cancel the sale, refund my PayPal, and notify me when they get more stock of what I wanted. No financial loss to me in all cases.
    But it's happened three times of late, and wondering if it's a scam or just coincidence. And if it's a scam, to what end? Email harvesting?

    Anyone else observed this, or have any theories?

    Yes, happened to me in the past a few times but not recently as I only rarely order from China through Ebay lately.
    Pretty sure they were legit as quality problems can come up, while the refunds were immediate. Could also be that they offered stock that was suddenly unavailable but don't want to admit that.

    If you are rightfully concerned about identity data mining, they not only get your email but also your full name address and usually phone number, then make sure you order from a seller with 1000's of feedback.
    I usually order my electronics components from the same group of reputable Chinese sellers who have even 100k feedback and lately I am ordering stuff directly from their stores like BangGood, TomTop, etc.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

  • The Following User Says Thank You to Uncle Fester For This Useful Post:

    hinekadon (21-05-20)

  • #5
    Senior Member
    trash's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Tamworth
    Posts
    4,088
    Thanks
    148
    Thanked 3,229 Times in 1,451 Posts
    Rep Power
    1287
    Reputation
    47674

    Default

    I'm not sure if the example you have given is some form of mining but I have seen some paypal and ebay spoofs where the buyers are conditioned by seeing legit emails from ebay and when they make another purchase with a scammer, they then spoof the legit email knowing the recipient might be expecting it and not check it and just click on the link.
    A lot of people will notice incorrect urls but some people may not especially if they login or name is used correctly making the email look very legit.

    It's something I would watch carefully and the first sign of trouble report it to ebay or paypal.
    Yes I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.

  • The Following User Says Thank You to trash For This Useful Post:

    hinekadon (21-05-20)

  • #6
    Member
    RFI-EMI-GUY's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Florida USA
    Posts
    271
    Thanks
    162
    Thanked 154 Times in 99 Posts
    Rep Power
    174
    Reputation
    3566

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by mitaux8030 View Post
    Bought a few low value eBay items of late, where the seller, in China or Hong Kong, has sent a message stating that they "noticed a quality issue with the sold" and would like to cancel the sale, refund my PayPal, and notify me when they get more stock of what I wanted. No financial loss to me in all cases.
    But it's happened three times of late, and wondering if it's a scam or just coincidence. And if it's a scam, to what end? Email harvesting?

    Anyone else observed this, or have any theories?
    I have one seller I have bought from before , ask for an extra $5 for shipping and pull some other items from sale because of shipping rates. Due to Trumps tariffs and the CV travel restrictions, Chinese sellers are not getting the favorible postage rates they once had. It is disruptive for me because some items cannot be sourced elsewhere.

    I think your seller does not want to ship at the listed rate, caught off guard by the increased rates. The quality excuse gets them off the hook for not completing the transaction,

    Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk
    "Have Spectrum Analyzer, - Will travel".

  • #7
    Senior Member

    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Gold Coast
    Posts
    1,504
    Thanks
    1,879
    Thanked 1,590 Times in 726 Posts
    Rep Power
    767
    Reputation
    27988

    Default

    In my experience this generally happens when the sale has somehow become unprofitable. It could be due to mistake, supply problems, postage or freight costs (as per previous post) or other reasons. The last time it happened to me I'm sure it was because they had run out of stock and their new supply would be at a higher price. We have to bear in mind that many Chinese sellers operate under a very different set of commercial ethics which are totally unacceptable by our standards. We can and should demand that they adhere to our standards when selling to us.

  • #8
    Senior Member

    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    A rock in the ocean
    Posts
    752
    Thanks
    99
    Thanked 135 Times in 79 Posts
    Rep Power
    290
    Reputation
    3356

    Default

    RFI-EMI-GUY and DB44 are right on the money, it seems. Just looked at a few of the most recently cancelled purchases, and the sellers are now re-offering the items at 3x or 4x the cost I'd originally paid & subsequently refunded.

  • #9
    Premium Member
    wotnot's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Location
    Scenic Rim, SE Qld
    Posts
    3,236
    Thanks
    1,462
    Thanked 2,934 Times in 1,510 Posts
    Rep Power
    1334
    Reputation
    58690

    Default

    I got email from someone over in TW, and she tells me the chinese supply train is in disarray ~ I'd need concur, last item I bought off banggood from store CN, was for-filled by a Dubai ware-house.

    Things can become unprofitable very quickly - as I pointed out in the other ebay thread, we just recently saw the AUD gain about 10cents relative to the USD, and that saw a wave of price hikes wash across ebay, with something I was looking at for $78AUD, the next morning was at $102 'just like that'....and with the current state of play with covid19 etc etc, anything and everything is going to be weird out of that part of the world for a while.

  • #10
    Senior Member

    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Melbourne, NE.
    Age
    55
    Posts
    2,696
    Thanks
    391
    Thanked 555 Times in 383 Posts
    Rep Power
    438
    Reputation
    7898

    Default

    The scams are getting more frequent, i got 2 yesterday supposedly from Amazon Prime about my card details being incorrect in my account.
    I don't have an amazon account so junked it right away, the idiots forwarded the same email a few minutes later.

  • The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to loanrangiel For This Useful Post:

    eaglem (23-05-20),enf (25-05-20)

  • #11
    Senior Member
    Godzilla's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Melbourne
    Age
    59
    Posts
    12,740
    Thanks
    16,580
    Thanked 7,201 Times in 3,648 Posts
    Rep Power
    2198
    Reputation
    79113

    Default

    Its not a scam.

    Its a sellers way of saying they have no stock, doing so they dont get a mark against their ebay seller status for advertising something they cannot deliver.

    Some sellers have hundreds of products, even thousands (im sitting at over 60K of products advertised), its impossible to know what the suppliers have run out of in their warehouse.

    Chances are the buyers are buying it from ebay because bricks and mortar stores are telling the buyer they cant get it, they find it online, buy it only to be told some excuse as to why they cant deliver it.

    Saying there is a problem with the goods is one way to come out of it smelling of roses....just refund the buyer, and zero the stock qty available.

  • #12
    Super Moderator
    enf's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Canberra
    Age
    70
    Posts
    17,753
    Thanks
    16,819
    Thanked 34,964 Times in 9,060 Posts
    Rep Power
    13678
    Reputation
    644489

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by loanrangiel View Post
    The scams are getting more frequent, i got 2 yesterday supposedly from Amazon Prime about my card details being incorrect in my account.
    I don't have an amazon account so junked it right away, the idiots forwarded the same email a few minutes later.
    Happened to a mate yesterday.....
    The fact that there's a highway to hell and a stairway to heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic flow.

  • Bookmarks

    Posting Permissions

    • You may not post new threads
    • You may not post replies
    • You may not post attachments
    • You may not edit your posts
    •