Sold my old iphone on Ebay last week as I had upgraded. The battery life was called out on the listing saying that it needed a service but worked fine for the bulk of the day under reasonably light use. The screen has always been fully protected and the phone kept in a silicon case. It's pretty immaculate.
Someone joins EBay, wins the auction with their first bid (at a decent price for the buyer too).
I package it up and send it the next day, having received paypal confirmation.
The following evening I get a message (with no introduction of pleasantries) simply saying "you scammed me mate. The phone has overheating problem and won't connect to network"
This is not true. on either count. Included with the message is a photo of the phone with "no service" and an orange screen saver. Which I didn't leave it set to. Also the phone is 40% charged in the photo (he went on later to say he hadn't even charged it yet).
I sent the phone with 25% charge. Also the photo he sent clearly shows 9.30am, yesterday. And I know from my receipt that they signed for it at 11,30am. and the phone in the photo is BATTERED. 100% not my phone. Unless he has roughed it up and has a time machine.
Ebay seem to have been quite good - I rejected the return, as per the auction. But....where do I now stand if this turd tries to take it through paypal?
Stupidly I didn't photograph the serial number but can probably get it from my network provider who sold me the phone initially.
Take the money out of PayPal is the first thing....
It's a tricky situation. I've found in the past, when dealing with both eBay and PayPal (who are now separate companies again) that if you can actually get through to talk to someone on the phone, they're very good.
I think in a lot of cases otherwise they tend to side with the buyer, which is what your scammer is counting on. Being cycnical about it, if the item sale goes through then they've got their money and if they side with the buyer then the seller picks up the costs of a refund. But I think it's also because of the crossover with distance selling regulations and the problems with buying something sight-unseen.
Then again, I'd hope that if you've got decent feedback history and your chancer is a new member with zero feedback they'd tell him to get lost... but I'd say try and talk to both eBay AND PayPal on the phone about it.
Take the money out of PayPal is the first thing…
pointless, they just take it from your bank anyway if you lose.
Yep, it will come out via your Paypal account even if the account is empty.
Don't think distance seeing is relevant here as it is not a new item.
Only sell on eBay what you can afford to lose as there is a potential you will lose it.
You could have sold your old phone to a company but they would have probably given 25% of the price you got on eBay so that is the decision/risk.
I was scammed the same way once.
As above withdraw the money ASAP, cancel paypal DD. They will refund the buyer from your account and it will go negative.
Open a new paypal account with a new email address and different card / bank account to use going forward.
You might get a few letters for the "debt", I just wrote back asking for evidence I owed them anything and they ceased.
Never sell a mobile on ebay. Not when CEX give the same in vouchers. whenever I sell anything with paypal now I immediately withdraw the money.
Soon to change with ebay taking over payments themselves.
Did you make a note of/photograph the IMEI and serial no before sending it out? That way if he sends a different phone back you can prove he's tried to defraud you.
pointless, they just take it from your bank anyway if you lose.
It'll come out of your PayPal account (putting it into negative) but not your bank - PayPal can't withdraw funds from your bank without your permission.
Call the person's bluff.
Ask them to send you a photo of the battered (not yours) phone with the IMEI on screen for you to compare against your records. They don't know you don't know what your IMEI is.
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Call the person’s bluff.
Ask them to send you a photo of the battered (not yours) phone with the IMEI on screen for you to compare against your records. They don’t know you don’t know what your IMEI is.
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This is what I'd do.
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Edit - erm. Without all the interesting code stuff...of course.
Call the person’s bluff.
Ask them to send you a photo of the battered (not yours) phone with the IMEI on screen for you to compare against your records. They don’t know you don’t know what your IMEI is.
oh I did that. He said he would send me half of it. But hasn't.
I think the most frustrating thing here is that it feels like there's very little I can do if Paypal decide to side with him. And probably have to pay him for additional postage as well (should he want to send me his thermal battered handset)
I always tell them I have a special set of skills.
He said he would send you half of it? What's his reasoning behind that?
Another tip is to make all communications through eBay's message system - that way it can be viewed by eBay's admins if they need to step in and adjudicate. Otherwise it ends up as he-said she-said stuff and, again, they're more likely to side with the buyer.
Also, do you still have the iPhone you sold linked to an iCloud account? Others may know more than me, but it may still be possible to de-activate the phone you sold if he returns some random battered brick to you and claims it's the phone you sent.
I had a similar issue, I said I would take the phone back for review and check it against the IMEI. If it matched I would refund otherwise I would contact eBay and the police. Last I heard from him.
Had a similar issue when I sold some immaculate Air Jordans a few years ago, buyer had been sending pushy messages asking me to end auction early. He won the auction and within a few days was asking for refund and sending pictures of a really worn pair of Jordans. I had photos of the serial numbers and asked him to show the serial numbers of the worn pair but he wouldn't.
I had no choice but to accept a return, when the postie tried to deliver them I wasn't at home and I never went to collect them from the local depot. I phoned Ebay and explained the shoes I sold were immaculate and the buyer hadn't returned them, They were very understanding and said that as I had over a decade as a user with 300+ 100% positive feedback they considered me an honest user. The dispute was settled in my favour.
I kept an eye on the buyers account and he did the same thing to someone else not long after.
As above ask him for the serial numbers so you can check your records that you carefully recorded as you deal with fraud everyday in your job as a copper and have come across this situation brefore!!
Yep some people are ****s!
I expect eBay will side with you in the end OP, but what a ballache anyway.
I have a used phone up for sale myself and I'm much more nervous about selling it than with any bike bits.
Anyone wanna buy a nice secondhand Huawei?
As others have said get them to proof it’s the same imei number of the phone you sent,
Always get the IMEI NUMBER screen and or under battery or on sim slider (iPhones). And keep a copy,
If you ring your mobile operator they should be able to provide info.
When I’ve sold my in-laws phones I’ve sent a message to the buyer with the imei number and pictures, not had a scammer yet
eBay tend to be fair, they must deal with these scams daily
Someone joins EBay, wins the auction with their first bid (at a decent price for the buyer too).
Did that not ring any bells?
I've cancelled bids if buyers have no or very little feedback.
Hope you get it sorted.
Be very careful:
So those guys should have told ebay they sent out a new one and the buyer sent back a different broken one - probably the one they replaced with the new one. Different item = fraudulent return.
I would also like to know if what they said is true. Or if what the police said was true. The fix is easy. Pass a law making that sort of fraud illegal.
