- Jurisdiction
- California
I noticed several listings on eBay for products we manufacture at prices too low to be legit. Also found listings for other products on our website listed too low. I ordered several of the products from the suspicious eBay sellers as part of our fraud investigation. (At first we thought maybe an employee was stealing our merchandise and listing it on eBay.) I received the items but all were shipped to me from the eBay seller(s) using stolen credit cards. Here is how the scam worked:
1) eBay seller lists an item he does not own or even possesses at a low price.
2) Unsuspecting eBay buyer buys the item and pays eBay for the sale.
3) eBay deposits into the seller's account the funds.
4) eBay seller goes to our website and places an order using the name and address of the eBay buyer and uses a compromised credit card to pay for the order.
5) eBay buyer gets the item they ordered shipped directly from us and thinks all is fine.
6) We have no idea eBay was even involved in order and eventually get charge backs for those orders.
We identified over 70 eBay seller accounts doing this scam and provided eBay with our findings. eBay terminated all those accounts. But when it came time to get a refund, eBay started to act stupid. They said for us to get a refund we had to ship the items back to the sellers. Keep in mind they were fake accounts with fake names and addresses AND the seller(s) never shipped anything; the seller only placed online orders using stolen credit cards. On what planet does it makes sense to further enrich the criminal to send them merchandise they never had?!
I would expect that it is illegal illegal to send what is technically stolen merchandise to the scammer. Would appreciate if someone could articulate an argument why legally we did not have to return the merchandise to the scammers to get a refund from eBay.
In our investigation we also received a few items that the scammers ordered from another website. We contacted those merchants and alerted them to the fact they were also getting scammed by these eBay sellers, and we shipped the items back to the retailers that shipped the items to us. We're also having problems with eBay refunding those orders despite eBay knowing the eBay transactions were fraudulent.
I'm 90% sure we could take eBay to Small Claims Court and win, but hoping someone here can assist with legal argument to make to eBay to hopefully make them refund the fraudulent orders without having to waste time in Small Claims Court. (BTW, we also filed a police report with our local PD regarding this scam.) Thanks!!!
1) eBay seller lists an item he does not own or even possesses at a low price.
2) Unsuspecting eBay buyer buys the item and pays eBay for the sale.
3) eBay deposits into the seller's account the funds.
4) eBay seller goes to our website and places an order using the name and address of the eBay buyer and uses a compromised credit card to pay for the order.
5) eBay buyer gets the item they ordered shipped directly from us and thinks all is fine.
6) We have no idea eBay was even involved in order and eventually get charge backs for those orders.
We identified over 70 eBay seller accounts doing this scam and provided eBay with our findings. eBay terminated all those accounts. But when it came time to get a refund, eBay started to act stupid. They said for us to get a refund we had to ship the items back to the sellers. Keep in mind they were fake accounts with fake names and addresses AND the seller(s) never shipped anything; the seller only placed online orders using stolen credit cards. On what planet does it makes sense to further enrich the criminal to send them merchandise they never had?!
I would expect that it is illegal illegal to send what is technically stolen merchandise to the scammer. Would appreciate if someone could articulate an argument why legally we did not have to return the merchandise to the scammers to get a refund from eBay.
In our investigation we also received a few items that the scammers ordered from another website. We contacted those merchants and alerted them to the fact they were also getting scammed by these eBay sellers, and we shipped the items back to the retailers that shipped the items to us. We're also having problems with eBay refunding those orders despite eBay knowing the eBay transactions were fraudulent.
I'm 90% sure we could take eBay to Small Claims Court and win, but hoping someone here can assist with legal argument to make to eBay to hopefully make them refund the fraudulent orders without having to waste time in Small Claims Court. (BTW, we also filed a police report with our local PD regarding this scam.) Thanks!!!