Ebay fraud advice?

[rusty155]

Hi all,

After some advice if anyone can help?

My little sis recently purchased some goods from Ebay, and was having trouble contacting the seller following the end of the auction. The seller eventually got back to her and apparently has returned from holiday to find that his account has been hacked into. The money has left my sister's account and has gone to the hacker.

She paid via Paypal and has reported the issue to Ebay and Paypal, as has the seller. I have also told her to contact her local Citizens Advice Bureau and Consumer Direct to see if they can help. She has also printed out all transaction paperwork and correspondence and taken it into her bank.

I was just wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation, or are seasoned Ebay veterans and can offer any further advice that has escaped me? Presumably these things can take a while to resolve?

I would be grateful for any advice and suggestions.

Thanks,

Charlie.

[apoth0r]

Probably wouldn't help contacting the C A B until Paypal and Ebay have investigated. They usually resolve the issue themselves in one form or another. If they decide that it wasn't a fraudulent sale then you can start the C A B route.
Paypal and Ebay are pretty good at resolving things though, so stay patient.

[elsiegee40]

My main advice would be to go on the eBay Community boards. There are some very knowledgable regulars there who can help out.

[Edu-IT]

I'm almost certain that PayPal will be able to recover your money. They're usually pretty quick at replying too.

[FN-GM]

How did you get on with this?

Z

[rusty155]

Ahh! I had forgotten about this!

It was very strange indeed - Basically Ebay and Paypal acknowledged that there was fraudulent activity involved and managed to locate the funds from my sister's account to an account in China. However after a couple of days of going back and forth between ebay, paypal and the hacked seller, a parcel turned up at her address. She cautiously opened it infront of the courier, worried that it would be empty but suprisingly she found the goods that she had bid on in the auction, shipped from China! The seller knew nothing of this and was very surprised also! Happy that she had now received what she had paid for, she closed the investigation with ebay and paypal.

Weird huh?!! It would appear that some person in China hacked an ebay account to pose as a legitimate seller but also fully carried out his duties as said legitimate seller!!

All's well that ends well though!!

[enjay]

Huh? How did the person in China come to have the item to be able to send it anyway? Sounds more like someone was "hacking" their own account in the hope that the buyer wouldn't challenge it and they could pocket the money, but when ebay and paypal got involved they came clean.

[flashsnaps]

Thats weird, don't think a hacker would carry out a task like that, I agree with what Nick said.

For furture reference, if you pay by Paypal, then it usually has nothing to do with eBay - but yes paypal have something like a £500 customer protection policy.

[rusty155]

Huh? How did the person in China come to have the item to be able to send it anyway? Sounds more like someone was "hacking" their own account in the hope that the buyer wouldn't challenge it and they could pocket the money, but when ebay and paypal got involved they came clean.

Those were my first thoughts too but it was weird that the money went to China and the item also came from China. The seller didn't seem to have any ties with China unless it was some from of drop-shipping? The seller was also a very reputable one in terms of ebay feedback, something like 99.8% with several thousand feedback. I guess I'll never know what really happened but hey got the item in the end so who cares?!

[flashsnaps]

I know you can't avoid this, but even if a seller has loads of good feedback, there is still a chance that his account has been hacked and the hacker is using it.

eBay accounts are always been hacked, I think a lot of people fall victim to the hackers emails.
Which read

"eBay requires you to update your details, please click the link below"

[rusty155]

Yeah precisely but the weird thing is that, assuming the seller is honest and didn't hack his own account, the hacker continued to use the hacked account for legitimate sales!! The only reason that I can think of is that users with very high positive feedback are more likely to get more bidders / higher prices for their products and so this was the reason for the hack!??

[Athlona]

The same thing happened to me 5 months ago over a iPhone, eBay & Paypal account hacked iphone was £300 Paypal covered £150 so I lost the other £150 Beware I was not a happy bunny at all...