China Bait and Switch Scam

FriendlyGiant
Contributor
Contributor

Happy New Year All

After seeing an advertisement on internet for Twisted Car (Christmas Offer| Gesture sensing Stunt Remote Control Car, I thought I would have a look. The controls where worn on hand and activated the car moving them forward back and side to side doing crazy stuff. I purchased the cars and paid for shipping from the Shaco Store according to the invoice -SKU: HX1900162KCCH, as I felt assured that the seller was reputable seeing that PayPal was attached as a payment method. The seller’s info from PayPal is Swopply Technology Co.,Ltd and in another place the name kassadin.store appears.

When the cars finally arrived, they were not even close to what was advertised. I contacted PayPal and launched a claim in the resolution center. Emails start back and forth with PayPal as the go between. The seller agreed to take back the items and I was instructed by PayPal to ship items back and get a tracking number and receipt for return shipment, the parcel needed to be back by a certain date approx. 15 days, the shipping out too longer than that. I tried using our account at work to ship with other services but I will only post Canada Post’s charges of $96.37, as they were the most reasonable. This amount to return items that cost $34.97. PayPal did offer to help out with return shipping with an offer of $30.00. Do the math? If I ship back the items and even get my money back, PayPal kicks in 30 bucks, it would still have cost me an additional $31.40 and I end up with nothing but heartache… HMMM…. now it is making sense. What a scam. Thinking about this if 10,000 people like me purchased these items and tried (stressed tried) to return them, most that have a brain would just forget about it and take the lost. I sent PayPal a message stating I was not going to provide a tracking number and someone from PayPal may want to call me about this. Long story short , I called them, went through how things went down between the seller and myself and was told that PayPal does not Vet (investigate) the seller that any scam artist can set up shop (not quite the language) there you have it this seller probably just made $349,700.00 for what likely cost the a quarter of that amount after looking at the items they sent instead of what was ordered., clear profit $262,275.00.  Thinking I may need to move to china and start up a business…. Don’t know what do you think.  Additionally, I made another purchase 3 or 4 days later, ☹ oH oH the same seller, when that item arrived, BINGO same thing not what was ordered, same run around, send item back, tracking number, by a certain date. Another call to the poor person at PayPal who patiently listening to me harp away, and try as they may cannot really do anything other than tag the issue and bring it to the attention of his/her superior. All to which I as the buyer will never be informed of what happens to the seller when things like this go on. BEWARE FRIENDS DON’T BUY FROM CHINA would be my suggestion.

As for PayPal, I fully understand that they have done all they can to return things to square one for me, I still feel the company has a lot to offer for sellers and buyers alike. I agree there is really nothing they can do about dishonest seller’s wishing to bait and switch items I hopes that buyer will not spend more good money to recoup bad. I do feel that PayPal could be more open with the PayPal community as a whole and publish what happens to wayward sellers that obviously don’t give a hoot about ethics. So buyers like myself can check to see if a seller is legit or not before a purchase is made… Open to your thoughts.

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65 REPLIES 65

Jack1951
Member
Member
I got a complete refund but had to return at my expense. Cost of return was more than cost of product and return address was in Chinese (which can’t be returned by UPD or P. O. so I won’t be returning it. I won’t order anything else off Facebook either. There was nothing letting me know it was from China when I ordered it.
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FriendlyGiant
Contributor
Contributor

I would assume that anything on Facebook advertisements is suspect. proceed at your own risk. The local market place seems good enough, as you can at least check out if the ad is real y speaking with the person,, but I would never do anything with another from Facebook unless you can pick it up in person. I not sure if Facebook charges to allow someone to post an ad, but probably.

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FriendlyGiant
Contributor
Contributor

Buyer beware I guess. I would like PayPal to require an invoice from the seller to the buyer, with a clear picture (2" x 3" or larger) of the item being sold with SKU number attached,  SKU number on invoice, date and transaction Id. This information is easily stored and could be used by PayPal to identify a bait and switch (con) artist or company.

If the item received does not match the extract SKU number that is affixed to the item, or the photo provided to the buyer and PayPal on invoice, then this would be reasonable cause for PayPal to reverse the transaction in the favor of the buyer without the need of it costing more money to have the junk bait and switch item returned.

The penalty then would be born by the one perpetuating the scam, and PayPal could go back to offering protection to both parties. in these cases by trying to do what PayPal thinks is right and the bots working away at doing nothing reasonable, leaves the buyer in a vulnerable position.

One last thing PayPal, respond to your customers.

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Another1Frauded
Contributor
Contributor
H.O.L.Y. Crap! What a fantastic idea. I think that is the most logical thing that PayPal could do. It's a pandemic and I thought I hit the Lysol wipe jackpot. For 3 days I pondered if buying from this Lysolclean.com site was legit. The layout and pictures looked legit. (Chinese even had picture of the COVID virus cell makeup. You know, molecules and all. IMAGINE THAT! Ha. The nerve) So, placing my order I get to the checkout and they only take payment via PayPal. I've literally make two purchases thru PayPal and all went well. Reputable American Clothing company. Long story short. I got the jump on PayPal bc two days later I haven't rcvd shipping confirmation and THE WEBSITE HAD VANISHED. I see another website on first page of GOOGLE (I don't have FB. This is all in Google search) but its lysol.somethingelse. I tried login with my credentials from original site but wasn't recognized! I knew right away...I had been had. That's when reached out to payal. They sent me a shipping confirmation from seller. Hmm. That makes me suspicious of paypal. Thank goodness I take screenshots of EVERYTHING I purchase online..cart with items and the final price etc etc. Not sure why I ever started doing that but I'm sure happy I do. I sent all that crap to paypal (prior to the response with shipping confirmation) I have an acct on USPS where I see my packages and mail pieces a few days in advance but there is no shipping weight. My UPSchoice shows weight and FedEx also does, I think. (Obviously I do alot of online shopping) I'll post back with outcome. After reading all of these different types of scams it is only my guess that paypal is somewhat complicit and my Marine Fed bank will be informed of this scam. I suppose after enough banking and credit institutions have to open investigations on the same type of fraud thru PAYPAL... something eventually will come of it. IDK. I'm excited to see what I get in the mail. Bottle caps and pacifiers won't suffice bc I ordered quite a few containers of lysol wipes. I should've known better. My products are coming from California. Chino or Ventura. That's what I'm seeing on my usps informed delivery. I'll post on Wednesday when the shipment is expected to arrive. (I'm copy and pasting a portion of this on a new link just so others can see they ARE NOT IN THIS ALONE. thanks for listening. Again, fantastic idea. Have you shared with PayPal? It just makes sense. Not much else does on this website. Do they not see all of these? Is there an 800 number to speak to a human?
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Markyloo
Contributor
Contributor
I’m reading all these stories and it seems identical to my situation. How many countless others have gone through a similar situation that aren’t on these forums expressing their frustration? I feel like there needs to be a class-action lawsuit against PayPal for enabling these fraudsters to get away with mail-fraud. PayPal should do a better job ensuring that the merchant websites are legitimate, along with Product legitimacy. They are choosing to ignore and make this your issue. This is unacceptable business model and it should have significant consequences. Perhaps a lawsuit will get PayPal to be a little stricter with merchant validation. Does anyone know if there is a class-action lawsuit already under way?
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Dankstranger
Contributor
Contributor
Same happened to me. Beware Fuhai Trading Co., Ltd. Paypal needs to support consumers tricked by these sellers and rip 100% of money back when an issue is identified. Hold the seller accountable and require US based return addresses. I’m out $110 because my resolution was to return product to china. Lesson learned...
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unfairpractice
Contributor
Contributor

PayPal should be held responsible for these fraudulent transactions by not allowing them to use Paypal as payment until the correct item is received by the buyer. What good is the Protection Plan when buyers are getting ripped off. 

 

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9517Lisa
Contributor
Contributor
Maybe it is time for a class action suit
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Blondenblue
Contributor
Contributor

I finally received a refund for the item but at the cost of 61 shipping.  the shipping was not refunded even though paypal said they would refund the money when they were received.  Today they arrived back marked return to sender.  Paypal has refused a shipping refund based on the chinese company not receiving the returned product almost 3 months ago.  Paypal is no longer a trusted advocate for me.  Paypal is as bad as these chinese companies scamming all of us.

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MsMac56
Contributor
Contributor

Completely agree!

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