how do ebay scammers get their money?

confoosious

confoosious

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So i just fell victim to a ebay scammer (no worries, paypal dispute filed and I'll get my money back.)

Anyway, I was just wondering how these scammers actually get their money? It wasn't like this was a foreign guy. It was some dude in Florida.

These scammers wouldn't dare transfer the money to their bank accounts right? because of the paper trail.

The only thing I can think of is they use the funds to buy goods from merchants. But wouldn't that have a paper trail of address and delivery and such?

I'm just curious how these guys get their money.
 
From my experience, they don't even give a shit if they leave a paper trail. Internet fraud is such a low-level, confusing crime that no law enforcement department will do anything about it.

I got scammed by some asshole named Ralph Marino from Beloit, WI. He gave me his real email address for paypal (lead to his myspace, Xbox gamertag, etc.). I could see all the stuff he bought on eBay with the stolen money (Xbox games) and I was able to cross reference those purchases with his gamertag to confirm that he was the real scammer. He was. I reported him to every possible website, contacted the police department in Beloit, WI and the one in my town (neither cared and basically told me to figure it out on my own).

The bottom line is these scammers are able to get away with murder online. There's virtually nothing anyone can do until these scammers start taking huge amounts of money (instead of just small transactions).

The way Paypal works is they'll only refund the money if it is still available in the scammer's account. If it isn't, you're SOL. Most scammers will buy as much stuff on eBay as they can after they scam someone in order to empty their account.

All said, it is bullshit. I've been using eBay for 10 years now and have only been scammed once. It sucks that there is people like that in the world.

To make things worse Paypal used to exacerbate the problem by making you wait two weeks before you could file a dispute. Thank God they did away with that nonsense.
 
[quote name='Doomstink']
The way Paypal works is they'll only refund the money if it is still available in the scammer's account. If it isn't, you're SOL. Most scammers will buy as much stuff on eBay as they can after they scam someone in order to empty their account.
[/QUOTE]

Really? Then how can they promise buyer protection?
 
The same thing happened with the seller had no money in their account, I bought shipping labels, they sent me 1/3 of what I ordered. I filed a dispute and won but Paypal couldn't recover any funds so I lost the money. That was the last time I used my Paypal balance to pay for anything, now I use a credit card for all purchases.
 
[quote name='YoshiFan1']The same thing happened with the seller had no money in their account, I bought shipping labels, they sent me 1/3 of what I ordered. I filed a dispute and won but Paypal couldn't recover any funds so I lost the money. That was the last time I used my Paypal balance to pay for anything, now I use a credit card for all purchases.[/QUOTE]

Well that seems kinda stupid.
 
Doomstink hit the nail on the head. It's such a small crime that they scammers don't really care if they leave a trail. Also, I saw a news special a few years back about how various police forces and agencies were being stolewalled by eBay. Fencing stolen goods on eBay has become a massive industry, but eBay was refusing to offer much help in investigations, because they claimed they had to protect the privacy of their users. I really don't know if this situation has improved, but at the end of the day, as Doomstink pointed out, most of these scumbags will simply get away with it anyway, because their crimes are far too small for law enforcement to care about.
 
[quote name='confoosious']So i just fell victim to a ebay scammer (no worries, paypal dispute filed and I'll get my money back.)

Anyway, I was just wondering how these scammers actually get their money? It wasn't like this was a foreign guy. It was some dude in Florida.

These scammers wouldn't dare transfer the money to their bank accounts right? because of the paper trail.

The only thing I can think of is they use the funds to buy goods from merchants. But wouldn't that have a paper trail of address and delivery and such?

I'm just curious how these guys get their money.[/QUOTE]

are you looking for a new hobbie or what?
 
[quote name='confoosious']Really? Then how can they promise buyer protection?[/QUOTE]

Exactly my thoughts. It says when I pay with paypal that my total cost is protected on ebay. Can they just change that on a whim? lol


But I got scammed with an XBOX 360 Elite like 2 years ago.

I paid $320 and it had about 4 games. It was literally mailed to me. It sat at my post office near campus for a day then flew back to Hawaii (I used tracking online). The next day, I contacted the guy, and never heard back. He ended up leaving ebay like a day later and I only got $200 back through paypal because "that's all they could retreive from his account". So I was out like $120. I was so confused though. It was actually 5 minutes from me! Somehow, it did not get delivered and instead got returned to shipper.

That was lame.
 
[quote name='btw1217']Phase 1: Collect money in PayPal account
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Profit[/QUOTE]

Is this a variation of

1) start internet electronic consumer group
2) get credit cards
3) turn off auto renewal
4) profit
?
 
I got scammed a couple times when buying however I got my money back both times, the latest was someone sending me a bad printer ink cartridge, but after I told them it was bad they refunded instantly. Another time I bought a game and apparently the guy wasn't shipping out games to anyone, there was a very long trail of bad feedback, he was obviously a known scammer and I got my refund, it was only about 7$ but I still got it back. The person had good feedback when I placed the order but the negatives started rolling in after it was too late for me.

I always pay with a credit card though paypal too which is kind of a pain because they don't let you use a credit card if you have a balance in your account, you have to empty it into your bank before you can pay with a credit card.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']

I always pay with a credit card though paypal too which is kind of a pain because they don't let you use a credit card if you have a balance in your account, you have to empty it into your bank before you can pay with a credit card.[/QUOTE]

That's what happened to me. I had to use my paypal funds and it wouldn't let me use my credit card. I'll know now to empty my account. you're allowed to have 2. I'll use one for ebay purchases and the other for personal.


This guy is obviously a scammer as his account has been closed. I just figured paypal sucked it up as a cost of doing business and refunded me. But it seems like I'm out my $15.

(Relatively cheap) lesson learned.
 
Sadly, this seems to be a growing trend for buyers and sellers. Either one doesn't pay, doesn't deliver, or claim non-delivery. The Amazon seller thread is equally scary.

Humanity is going to hell in a hand basket. The relative anonymity of the internet and virtual transactions on auction/marketplace sites seem to encourage scumbags to openly steal without a care -- since there are apparently no consequences for perps.

I try to keep my Fleabay buying to a minimum for stuff I can't find elsewhere. Not sure if I'd ever try to sell anything based on these horrors.
 
I don't think I have had any problems getting my money back or keeping my money in both of these situations. So I guess I have been lucky up til now.
 
[quote name='confoosious']Really? Then how can they promise buyer protection?[/QUOTE]

Only if the seller qualifies for Buyer Protection. They don't promise it in other cases.

Also, I wouldn't recommend that anyone avoid eBay completely. In addition to buying stuff on eBay, I am a seller (and an honest one at that). I'd say 95% of the sellers on eBay are good, honest, people. I think I've made around 300 purchases through eBay and only one went sour (and it was pretty suspect in the first place, so I shouldn't have even tried to buy it).
 
Yeah the 2 times I got scammed was 2 times in 10 years of being a member of ebay, and buying a lot of stuff so overall its not bad at all. I like the fact that my money is going directly to another person on ebay when I buy games and is likely funding the hobby of another gamer (I choose my sellers carefully) instead of having my money go to a big box store that does not care at all.

Retail stores are just as bad and can just as easily tell you to go away if you have an item that breaks or if you want to return something because they all have a clause that says returns are subject to manager approval and if the manager doesn't want to accept it then your SOL. Don't get me started on how store warranty's are a scam. I have seen it happen many times. Its just as easy to get scammed at the store as it is to get scammed on ebay.
 
if you get scammed the best thing you can do is file a mail fraud claim with the postal inspectors. using the mail to commit a fraud is a felony. each time i filed one the seller sent asap
 
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