I bought an item off eBay which was very expenive [above £2000].
Before you judge me I am a trusting person and he was VERY convincing. All conversations were logged via emial and txt message for evidence of all transactions.
1] I paid him through eBay however his fund were held for 35 days so said that he could not send the item.
2] He told me to put some of the money into a bank account and then the rest [most of it] into another PayPal account that he said was not limited.
3] He refunded me the initial money I paid - So I paid some of it into the bank account and then an invoice for service was sent via a different Paypal account which I paid as instructed.
4] He then would NOT provide a tracking number to me as promised and acted very suspiciously. His eBay account was closed, so I did a check on the PayPal address he invoiced me from and it was not business verified as he stated.
5] I reported all of this to the Police and got a crime reference number, they said it did look like a case of fraud.
I also reported it to my bank [for bank transfer], and then PayPal and CC company for the Paypal transaction.
6] PayPal opened a dispute for me for items not recieved. Within 5 min I got a response from him via PayPal with a Royal Mail signed for Tracking Number. This is concerning because A] he told me initially that he was sending via TNT due to insuring such an expensive item, B] Royal Mail signed for is only insured for around £30!.
When looking up the tracking number I get the following:
"Recorded Signed For™ items are only tracked after the item has been delivered. Depending on whether the item was sent first or second class, this may be a few days after posting. Please try again later."
I spoke to Royal Mail who stated that either A] its out for delivery, or B] its never been sent and its just a ref number he got from a slip in the post office, or C] its lost.
7] Paypal has sent me a notification asking for my response:
Status
The seller has responded to our request for tracking information. We haven’t confirmed the tracking information yet but wanted to share it with you.
- Royal Mail tracking # xxxxxxxxxxxx
What happens next
Please review the information and let us know how you would like to proceed.
If you've resolved this problem, you can cancel this claim anytime.
If you received the item but it's different to what you expected, you can change your reason for this claim.
What do I need to do?
I am also concerned that after reading some other cases that now that he has a dispute opened he will now simply send an empty box with no item inside.
What would I need to do in this circumstance, and also what is normally the outcome? I hope there are controls in place to protect the buyer in this EMPTY BOX scenario?
I read the following forum which details HOW TO SCAM PAYPAL AND EBAY and I am very worried.
DO A GOOGLE SEARCH FOR: Archived: How to ship the buyer an empty box and win EVERY TIME
What shall I do if I receive the box?
