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Fraud

You should always be wary of eBay merchants who want you to complete transaction outside of eBay. A friend of mine wanted to buy some gig tickets on eBay but the seller started contacting them via email and asked for the money to be sent via post or something. Needless to say, they didn't get the tickets.

Although the whole thing was silly because they should never have been buying tickets from eBay in the first place and they were dumb to allow the seller to take the transaction off of eBay.

In this case, Paypal usually refund the money straight back to the buyer and then ask the seller to return the money to them. That way, the seller is in debt to Paypal and not you. That's not a situation the seller wants to be in because Paypal can do court orders and debt collection (or if the seller has a Paypal account attached to his bank details, they'll just help themselves to the funds). That's usually how the Paypal protection covers you in these scenarios.
 
Wait, so you didn't buy it on Ebay? Can we ask why? Just for future reference, try and buy stuff thru a legit site and don't settle stuff via email or some 3rd party method. If (and when) you get scammed, you'll have way more proof to back you up. Hope you get your money back and the person gets in troubles.
 
Shadowbech said:
If bought it via E-bay, you should open a case, since you have the buyers protection. I'm sorry to hear that happen. It happened to me once, but I was the seller and the buyer never received the phone, buyer ended up getting money back and felt like I was scammed. This is why I don't sell phone on ebay.
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Sorry to hear that. I tried to purchase the 5s several times. Paid for one 5s, and the next morning the seller had refunded the money without an explanation. Second phone the seller refunded with explanation: he was unable to get the phone as planned. Third phone, I backed out of the purchase because seller's answers to questions seemed unreliable. Fourth phone, seller backed out; never shipped; and, I am still waiting for PayPal to reverse the charge. This one was the fifth phone, and I thought I had finally found my phone. Can you imagine finding a bar of soap inside of an iphone 4 box?

Re iphone 6, I am sure it is a good phone, but I do not necessarily need the newest phone out. If I could save $200-$300 plus taxes by getting a 5s, that is fine by me.
 
HunnieBunnie said:
Sorry to hear that. I tried to purchase the 5s several times. Paid for one 5s, and the next morning the seller had refunded the money without an explanation. Second phone the seller refunded with explanation: he was unable to get the phone as planned. Third phone, I backed out of the purchase because seller's answers to questions seemed unreliable. Fourth phone, seller backed out; never shipped; and, I am still waiting for PayPal to reverse the charge. This one was the fifth phone, and I thought I had finally found my phone. Can you imagine finding a bar of soap inside of an iphone 4 box?

Re iphone 6, I am sure it is a good phone, but I do not necessarily need the newest phone out. If I could save $200-$300 plus taxes by getting a 5s, that is fine by me.
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Maybe you should just go to the Apple Store or Best Buy or whatever and buy one from them. It seems you efforts to save money are doing the exact opposite.
 
HunnieBunnie said:
This morning I was very excited to receive the brand new iphone 5s that I had purchased from a seller in Noblesville, Indiana. I paid $600 for the phone. I opened the envelope and was immediately worried. Inside was an iphone 4 box. At first I thought I had been sent an iphone 4, but upon opening the box, I discovered that there was no phone inside at all. The seller sent me a bar of soap!! I was so upset. I notified my credit card company, PayPal, and the Indiana police. Hopefully they will be able to nail this thief.

Has anyone ever heard of this sort of thing before? I was so shocked you could have knocked me over with a feather, as goes the old saying. This happened through U.S. mail, so hopefully the feds might get involved, too.
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If you were stupid enough to pay $600 for last years model.... Ok well no one deserves to be cheated. Im sorry this happened to you. At $600 I will sell you my iPhone 5s once I get my 6+ in hand.
 
antiprotest said:
I wonder why he sent you anything at all.
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Probably for my signature. I am sure he maintain he sent what he was supposed to have sent.

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shaunmed said:
maybe the phone is IN the soap, you know for shipping protection. or maybe its like a Russian nesting doll. in any case i'm sure the Putin is involved some how. sneaky bastard.
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Thanks for making me laugh. : )
 
pvmacguy said:
You needed a bath after that beating you took...... $600 for a 5S pft. LOL :rolleyes:
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I sold my USED 5s 64 gb for $609 a few days before the announcement. I do take care of my stuff though and it was in flawless condition. Just because gazelle and other sites tell you your phone is only worth $200, the market is definitely there. HOWEVER, when selling through ebay/craigslist you have to be careful and accept the risk that you can get screwed.
 
$600 for a 5S outside of eBay. You were kind of asking for trouble. Your fault. Hope they can fix it for you, but don't expect people to bend over backwards after mucking things up this bad.
 
davefromca said:
Hmm let us know what happened. Ebay is not going to help but but since you used paypal you may get your money back.
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I feel pretty confident my credit card company and paypal will protect me on this. I have excellent credit and never a problem like this before with anything.
 
HunnieBunnie said:
I saw the phone on eBay, but I did not purchase through eBay.
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Never, ever, ever do this, even if they offer you a discount to "avoid the ebay fees". If a seller asks you to complete a transaction outside of ebay (for an item they have listed on ebay) it's a sure sign of fraud and in some cases it can impact your ability to file a claim.

Fingers crossed you can get your funds back. Makes sure you notify the local police from where the item was shipped as well (if you haven't already).
 
Rafterman said:
Maybe you should just go to the Apple Store or Best Buy or whatever and buy one from them. It seems you efforts to save money are doing the exact opposite.
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Yes, I am leery now of purchasing from anyone but Apple.

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spazma7ik said:
My question is WHY did you do it outside of ebay? To avoid fees?
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Ebay does not charge buyer fees. They charge the seller fees.
 
In case you're interested, I have a 16GB 2nd generation iPad for sale, only $400. It's made of the finest soap around. Just pay me with western union money order.
 
1 - Sure it is a "federal" case, but nobody is going to spend any time dealing with it - unless the same person has done this hundreds of times and somehow raises a red flag.

2 - This stuff happens often. Very often.

3 - Not only should you file a complaint with the credit card company to decline the charge, but you should change your credit card number TODAY.

4 - Buying something that expensive site unseen is a bit naive.

5 - The fact that you have a good credit history means very little if anything. Only thing that could be a problem is if you were fighting lots of credit card charges.

Sorry it happened to you. Sadly, people buying stuff like this get burned often. At least you did not pay through western union or some other method where you would NEVER see your money again.

Good luck.
 
I am impressed with the fact that you have ignored the @$$holes in this thread and have remained positive. I hope everything works out for you.
 
HunnieBunnie said:
Sorry to hear that. I tried to purchase the 5s several times. Paid for one 5s, and the next morning the seller had refunded the money without an explanation. Second phone the seller refunded with explanation: he was unable to get the phone as planned. Third phone, I backed out of the purchase because seller's answers to questions seemed unreliable. Fourth phone, seller backed out; never shipped; and, I am still waiting for PayPal to reverse the charge. This one was the fifth phone, and I thought I had finally found my phone. Can you imagine finding a bar of soap inside of an iphone 4 box?

Re iphone 6, I am sure it is a good phone, but I do not necessarily need the newest phone out. If I could save $200-$300 plus taxes by getting a 5s, that is fine by me.
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Yea that really sucks tho to find a bar of soap or even a rock for that matter inside a box. I've seen some youtube video and the more I think about it the more I don't want to sell on ebay.

I did sell my S5 on Swappa with success but the buyer didn't even leave a feedback. Oh well.
 
HunnieBunnie said:
I feel pretty confident my credit card company and paypal will protect me on this. I have excellent credit and never a problem like this before with anything.
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no offense, but I don't think a credit card company should be on the hook for someone's idiocy.. my two cents <shrug>
 
HunnieBunnie said:
This morning I was very excited to receive the brand new iphone 5s that I had purchased from a seller in Noblesville, Indiana. I paid $600 for the phone. I opened the envelope and was immediately worried. Inside was an iphone 4 box. At first I thought I had been sent an iphone 4, but upon opening the box, I discovered that there was no phone inside at all. The seller sent me a bar of soap!! I was so upset. I notified my credit card company, PayPal, and the Indiana police. Hopefully they will be able to nail this thief.

Has anyone ever heard of this sort of thing before? I was so shocked you could have knocked me over with a feather, as goes the old saying. This happened through U.S. mail, so hopefully the feds might get involved, too.
Click to expand...

Why wold you pay $600 for a used 5S when you can purchase a brand spankin' new 5S 32GB at Apple for $550. This has to be a joke.
 
This is why I won't sell my phone on ebay. I know he was outside of ebay, but the same scam happens in reverse.

You sell your phone on ebay. Seller claims box showed up empty. They chargeback your paypal and he keeps the phone. Happens a lot.
 
Rocko1 said:
This is why I won't sell my phone on ebay. I know he was outside of ebay, but the same scam happens in reverse.

You sell your phone on ebay. Seller claims box showed up empty. They chargeback your paypal and he keeps the phone. Happens a lot.
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I never heard of it before.
 
Sorry about your troubles.

This thread has reminded me of the whole PS3 box on ebay ordeal that people had.
 
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