The M3 disappeared in my ebay!

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clarionensis

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My wife yelled very loudly one day: The M3 disappeared in my ebay!
This M3 is the gift she prepared for our wedding anniversary.
How can ebay just leave a message in your message box saying that it is a fraudulent and then removed it? Nothing follow, no explaination.
Do they know she had paid for it?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?
 
hi Tom,
no use. she paid by western union! the seller only accept money order/cashier check.
my wife is smart enough to contact the buyer via ebay message box. same name in yahoo mail replies, same name in receiptant address. so she go ahead with western union. she provide the code via ebay message box too.
now the funny thing is..... how and why ebay knows that seller is a fraudster when we are still waiting happily for the parcel to arrive? why ebay dont remove it before we bid? why ebay dont remove it before we pay? why ebay remove it without further explaination?
 
You're lucky that ebay keeps an eye on fraudulent auctions. They don't need to explain anything else but that. As Tom stated above, she should file a complaint with ebay and paypa, and I'm sure you will receive your money back. They work very hard to rectify these situations.
 
Sorry to hear about your ordeal. Definitely file a complaint with Ebay.

It's too late now - but is very very very rare that I would consider sending payment via cashiers check/money order. And only if I've spoken with the buyer on the phone or in person.

I don't like that kind of cash floating around without some kind of oversight.
 
clarionensis said:
hi Tom,
no use. she paid by western union! the seller only accept money order/cashier check.
my wife is smart enough to contact the buyer via ebay message box. same name in yahoo mail replies, same name in receiptant address. so she go ahead with western union. she provide the code via ebay message box too.
now the funny thing is..... how and why ebay knows that seller is a fraudster when we are still waiting happily for the parcel to arrive? why ebay dont remove it before we bid? why ebay dont remove it before we pay? why ebay remove it without further explaination?
Click to expand...


That she paid by Western Union should have told her that the auction was not good. The first rule of thumb that ebay states is NOT to pay by Western Union. You have no protection if the auction is a bad one. There are hundreds of thousands of auctions going on in a single day on ebay around the world. I can't imagine the logistics to monitor each and every one. That they caught it, is a good thing in and of itself. I'm sorry that it wasn't sooner.

Good luck!
 
Always a Caution

Always a Caution

Clarionensis,

You'll be one lucky person if your parcel ever arrives. Where was the seller located? Typically, a seller asking for money orders or cashiers checks only is a huge red flag. Sellers do that so that the buyer has no recourse to recover their money back. It wouldn't suprise if communication with the seller ends abruptly and the email address goes silent or bounces back. Creating new email accounts is easy. I've never seen Ebay cancel an auction after it's finished so I wonder if this was a multiple item auction, in which case Ebay was protecting other potential buyers.

I'm sure that Ebay will do what they can, but there's little that they can do with fly by night sellers who come and go under cloaked identities once they've scammed buyers.

Good luck
 
hi guys,
IF i know that before hand, i will surely stopped her, but she is just trying to give a surprise to me!
she is fool, i agreed.
if ebay is only for advanced user, i think that is too bad tben!
the seller can response to ebay message is a security fault. ebay has to face it, right?
my wife learned a big lesson now, as it costs 640 pounds!
 
Ebay has done this to me, but only on a cheap little lens hood. They erased the auction with no notice to me or the seller. Fortunately it was delivered, the seller was legit (despite being in china) and all was fine.

So many fraud auctions are on ebay at any given time that they can't keep up-
so they have some heavy handed methods that often wipe out legit auctions.
I typed for half an hour the description and links on an item I was selling, and ebay cancelled my auction the next day, with no explanation, I still had to pay the fee..
Turns out I had a trigger word in my description that some automatic filter caught and automatically deleted the auction.



US postal money orders are relatively safe, because failure to send the camera after the seller gets the money order comprises mail fraud, and the post office will help you in that case. The post office will find you, if they really want to. As long as the recipient is in the US. They will do things like not deliver mail to the guy until he sorts it out for example.

Western union might have some fraud protection, I'm not sure.. don't see how..

Just because someone wants to be paid by something other than pay pal, does not automatically mean it's a fraud. Pay pal takes a bite out of what the seller makes, also leaves a paper trail for those who would rather not pay tax on item they sell. Not paying tax is fair I guess, if one paid sales tax on the new item when bought years ago, then why have to pay income tax on it years later, after having paid income tax on the money to buy it with in the first place?

If the M3 auction made it to the end- or had a buy-it-now, that caused the auction to legitimately end, where you got email saying you won the auction, and the seller charges shipping, then there is a fair chance it's not a scam.
Look for past auctions by that seller name, if he's been selling related camera gear and has good feedback, you may be ok, but if he's been selling nothing but collectible china, then an M3 out of the blue, oops!

The scams are the ones that are buy it now for some insane low price, but make you email first, they want western union, and have some too good to be true free shipping. Mainly they want you to complete the deal oustide of ebay. Also the scam auctions are in the wrong place, like a Leica camera in the car tires catagory.

Hopefully by now the seller has provided the tracking number.
 
hi clintock,
the m3 is buy it now item, nothing cheap.
my wife use the contact seller button to ask for shipping cost, etc etc. then they communicate with emails since the email address is exposed after auction ended.
we just wonder why ebay removed the item from our my ebay suddenly after two weeks but then nothing followed.
we tried very very hard to file in a dispute, hope they will reply properly.
thanks so much for sharing your experience.
 
Does the seller reply to your emails and phone calls? If you click enough links on ebay's site, you can find the mailing address and phone number of the seller.
Hopefully the sale is proper and the listing had a flaw, but there is a chance the account was hijacked. What was the seller's ebay name?
 
i am thinking the same....the account is hijacked! then nobody have to responsible for anything!
i know ebay will just giving me their favorite reply....I understand fraudulent cases can be frustrating and apologize for any inconvenience......
 
The listing was removed because the buyer was fraudulent -- possibly using a stolen account. You are hosed I am afraid. The situation you describe has all the hallmarks of fraud.

Incidentally despite what a lot of posters here say, PayPal will not give you much protection either. All this buyer/seller protection stuff is largely a marketing ploy by eBay/PayPal as is Square Trade (and all the rest of it). I have over a thousand eBay transacitons under my belt as a buyer and seller so I am not just carping here.

The Western Union bit was the tip off though. The seller took Western Union because they are not legitimate enough to get a PayPal account or they are operating out of a foreign country with a banking system not reliable enough to allow PayPal. There are usually other signs of fraud -- its a long complicated story, but you can Google up many Web sites that discuss all of this.
 
thanks david,
you are absolutely right and up to the point.
even though i havent receive the m3 for our 13th anniversary, i appreciate what my wife had done. at least she is willing to try something new (to her only), and now the m3 will be in my heart forever.
i bring out the case here just to share with those newbie in ebay, dont dreaming that ebay will protect you, they will talk to you in lawyer's manor only.
 
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