Ebay Chinese Scammers

[morpheus]

Hi guys,

I recently purchased 2 items off Ebay for cheap. The prices were too good be true as it turned out.
One thing that I found really annoying was how both of these users had a high rating, over 97% each, and yet, the items they listed, and which I bought, happened to be a scam.
This ordeal has shaken my trust in Ebay and in Chinese sellers in general.

Moral of the Story: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.

[SpAmRaY]

Moral of the Story: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

FTFY

But yeah if someone is selling a HHKB for $30 its not real, and yes this has happened 

[morpheus]

What pissed me off was that they had such high ratings. Somebody should just obliterate their ratings so they never do business again.

[SpAmRaY]

Well if they scammed you then definitely leave negative feedback, but make sure you get your money back first

[morpheus]

Well if they scammed you then definitely leave negative feedback, but make sure you get your money back first

Yeah, I filed a case against both of them. Hopefully Ebay will do the right thing and return my money.

[paicrai]

Well if they scammed you then definitely leave negative feedback, but make sure you get your money back first

Yeah, I filed a case against both of them. Hopefully Ebay will do the right thing and return my money.

china taking over the world
one scam at a time

[Pipe]

Was it a keyboard?

But yeah if someone is selling a HHKB for $30 its not real, and yes this has happened 

I'd love to see how a fake HHKB looks though. If it uses cherry mx switches, I wouldn't mind having it....

[Melvang]

I keep hearing that Ebay favors the buyer most of the time so you might be in luck.

[SpAmRaY]

Was it a keyboard?

But yeah if someone is selling a HHKB for $30 its not real, and yes this has happened 

I'd love to see how a fake HHKB looks though. If it uses cherry mx switches, I wouldn't mind having it....

They don't actually send anything, that's the scam.

[Lanx]

97% is actually really low, never deal with anyone lower than 99 lol, why? cuz ppl freak out if they get a low rating and do anything in their power to get the rating to 5 stars, 97% means they've had tons of low ratings, but they deal in bulk to cancel enough out.

plus did you buy 2 items from the same guy? or got scammed by 2 different guys? you want to list the auctions?

[kishy]

With well over 100 transactions completed with sellers in China, Singapore, Japan and others, including many items that were exceptionally good prices, I think we need more details on the nature of what the supposed scam was.

A very important question, if you are claiming an item purchased was not ever shipped - you are aware that postal shipping time can exceed a full month, right? I've had items arrive (postmarked confirming they were shipped on time) well past that as well. In some of the earlier cases I demanded a refund, then realized my mistake when an item took 6 weeks to arrive, and paid it back to the seller again.

Not saying you don't have a legitimate issue here, and yes, 97% is rather low because of the volumes they deal in, but more details are needed here.

[ideus]

An scam is always a very bad thing anyone can be a victim of. However, common sense is always required to do business safe, and that is our due diligence part.

[Tym]

You'll be fine, I guarantee it. Ebay will side with you.

[baldgye]

Yeah I've bought alot of stuff from Chinese vendors on ebay and never had a problem...

[heedpantsnow]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. The Chinese on this forum are generally very trustworthy.

[morpheus]

With well over 100 transactions completed with sellers in China, Singapore, Japan and others, including many items that were exceptionally good prices, I think we need more details on the nature of what the supposed scam was.

A very important question, if you are claiming an item purchased was not ever shipped - you are aware that postal shipping time can exceed a full month, right? I've had items arrive (postmarked confirming they were shipped on time) well past that as well. In some of the earlier cases I demanded a refund, then realized my mistake when an item took 6 weeks to arrive, and paid it back to the seller again.

Not saying you don't have a legitimate issue here, and yes, 97% is rather low because of the volumes they deal in, but more details are needed here.

97% is actually really low, never deal with anyone lower than 99 lol, why? cuz ppl freak out if they get a low rating and do anything in their power to get the rating to 5 stars, 97% means they've had tons of low ratings, but they deal in bulk to cancel enough out.

plus did you buy 2 items from the same guy? or got scammed by 2 different guys? you want to list the auctions?

The first item I purchased was from a seller who apparently got his account hacked. Ebay immediately unlisted all of his recent items. He was also selling Samsung Galaxy Note 3's for $20.

The second item I purchased was from a seller who has 9 recent negative comments from other users who apparently bought the same item as me, and did not receive their items on time. They tried communicating with him, but there's been no contact from the seller.

[baldgye]

selling Samsung Galaxy Note 3's for $20.

Wait... I'm pretty sure the blame is on you for being so stupid lol... were you the kid who paid like $700 for a picture of a PS3 back in the day?

OH I've just been pm'd that you've won the $12,000,000,000 from Zimbabwe Nation Lottery!!!!!!  ...but first you need to pm me your bank acc details so you can open the account with the funds, its just like a $5 deposit pm me your details and I'll hook you up, I promise I'm not a Chinese too!

[JPG]

Hi guys,

I recently purchased 2 items off Ebay for cheap. The prices were too good be true as it turned out.
One thing that I found really annoying was how both of these users had a high rating, over 97% each, and yet, the items they listed, and which I bought, happened to be a scam.
This ordeal has shaken my trust in Ebay and in Chinese sellers in general.

Moral of the Story: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.

When you think about it, 97% is nice, but it also mean that 3% of the time it went bad. If they are real scammers, they could easily sell a lot of things (high volume) all legit and once in a while sell an item for scam on purpose, possibly making good money out of it and only getting 1 bad rating out of thousands. Not saying it's the case, but it's a possibility. In real life, even with legit sales something will happen sometime and depending how they manage them it will affect their rating, but my theory is still a possibility.

[JPG]

selling Samsung Galaxy Note 3's for $20.

Wait... I'm pretty sure the blame is on you for being so stupid lol... were you the kid who paid like $700 for a picture of a PS3 back in the day?

OH I've just been pm'd that you've won the $12,000,000,000 from Zimbabwe Nation Lottery!!!!!!  ...but first you need to pm me your bank acc details so you can open the account with the funds, its just like a $5 deposit pm me your details and I'll hook you up, I promise I'm not a Chinese too!

But [size=78%]$12,000,000,000 in Zimbabwe $ = 10 cents. So 5$ to win 10 cents is a lot.[/size]

[baldgye]

selling Samsung Galaxy Note 3's for $20.

Wait... I'm pretty sure the blame is on you for being so stupid lol... were you the kid who paid like $700 for a picture of a PS3 back in the day?

OH I've just been pm'd that you've won the $12,000,000,000 from Zimbabwe Nation Lottery!!!!!!  ...but first you need to pm me your bank acc details so you can open the account with the funds, its just like a $5 deposit pm me your details and I'll hook you up, I promise I'm not a Chinese too!

But [size=78%]$12,000,000,000 in Zimbabwe $ = 10 cents. So 5$ to win 10 cents is a lot.[/size]

I had done him the favor of per-converting the win to USD, Zimbabwe was just were the draw took place!

[morpheus]

selling Samsung Galaxy Note 3's for $20.

Wait... I'm pretty sure the blame is on you for being so stupid lol... were you the kid who paid like $700 for a picture of a PS3 back in the day?

OH I've just been pm'd that you've won the $12,000,000,000 from Zimbabwe Nation Lottery!!!!!!  ...but first you need to pm me your bank acc details so you can open the account with the funds, its just like a $5 deposit pm me your details and I'll hook you up, I promise I'm not a Chinese too!

To be fair, I didn't find out that fact until after I bought my item, which I thought wasn't too unreasonable. It was only after I bought it that I checked to see what other things he was selling. Lo, and behold, that's what I found. If you just went off the rating you wouldn't think much of it (well, at least now I know that even 97% isn't reliable).

Also, the Nigerian/Zimbabwe schemes are much more obvious than this one. This is Ebay, and he had a reasonably high rating. Besides, Ebay sent me a message saying that I didn't have to pay, if I didn't already, but of course I already had.

Both of them were, 97-98% which I guess is now meaningless, if you deal with a large volume. To be honest, this was my first scam that I ever had with Chinese sellers. My previous 20 or more transactions went smoothly. It was just a weird coincidence that I got these 2 rotten eggs in a row.

[nubbinator]

97% is actually really low, never deal with anyone lower than 99 lol, why? cuz ppl freak out if they get a low rating and do anything in their power to get the rating to 5 stars, 97% means they've had tons of low ratings, but they deal in bulk to cancel enough out.

plus did you buy 2 items from the same guy? or got scammed by 2 different guys? you want to list the auctions?

And if they're a power seller, you often can't give them the poor rating they deserve since eBay heavily favors them and makes you jump through hoops to give a bad rating.  97% on your casual seller is usually good, but it's generally not a good power seller.

[SpAmRaY]

97% is actually really low, never deal with anyone lower than 99 lol, why? cuz ppl freak out if they get a low rating and do anything in their power to get the rating to 5 stars, 97% means they've had tons of low ratings, but they deal in bulk to cancel enough out.

plus did you buy 2 items from the same guy? or got scammed by 2 different guys? you want to list the auctions?

And if they're a power seller, you often can't give them the poor rating they deserve since eBay heavily favors them and makes you jump through hoops to give a bad rating.  97% on your casual seller is usually good, but it's generally not a good power seller.

Why would leaving negative feedback for a power seller be any different than a regular seller?

[damorgue]

I was recently scammed on eBay and won the case. I did not know that I had to pay to return the crap he sent me in order to get my money bay. It would cost me more to send it back to Asia than I would get refunded, so even though I won I am out even more money because of eBay buyer's protection.

Moral of the story, eBay buyer's protection is worth crap if you loose even though you win the dispute.

[nubbinator]

Why would leaving negative feedback for a power seller be any different than a regular seller?

eBay forces you to work to resolve it with some power sellers before you can leave bad feedback.  Then, if there's any resolution, even an unsatisfactory or piss poor one, you can't leave negative feedback.  It's frustrating and results in some artificially inflated feedback percentages.

[Elrick]

Why would leaving negative feedback for a power seller be any different than a regular seller?

eBay forces you to work to resolve it with some power sellers before you can leave bad feedback.  Then, if there's any resolution, even an unsatisfactory or piss poor one, you can't leave negative feedback.  It's frustrating and results in some artificially inflated feedback percentages.

Actually everything is sorted by PAYPAL.  Ebay only receives the info from Paypal when you are successful in winning the case against a dubious, scumbag seller.  You win by FIRST getting your money back then once you've received your moolah you then can leave a thoroughly noxious feedback on that scumbag.  No one is impervious to any of my feedbacks Good or Otherwise  .

The Beauty of Ebay.

[nubbinator]

Why would leaving negative feedback for a power seller be any different than a regular seller?

eBay forces you to work to resolve it with some power sellers before you can leave bad feedback.  Then, if there's any resolution, even an unsatisfactory or piss poor one, you can't leave negative feedback.  It's frustrating and results in some artificially inflated feedback percentages.

Actually everything is sorted by PAYPAL.  Ebay only receives the info from Paypal when you are successful in winning the case against a dubious, scumbag seller.  You win by FIRST getting your money back then once you've received your moolah you then can leave a thoroughly noxious feedback on that scumbag.  No one is impervious to any of my feedbacks Good or Otherwise  .

The Beauty of Ebay.

I'm speaking from experience.  I've had cases where I tried to leave negative feedback with power sellers and eBay wouldn't let me until I tried resolving it with the buyer first and then, once some sort of "resolution" was offered from the buyer, it wouldn't let me leave any kind of feedback other than positive, so I left none.

[jdcarpe]

Why would leaving negative feedback for a power seller be any different than a regular seller?

eBay forces you to work to resolve it with some power sellers before you can leave bad feedback.  Then, if there's any resolution, even an unsatisfactory or piss poor one, you can't leave negative feedback.  It's frustrating and results in some artificially inflated feedback percentages.

Actually everything is sorted by PAYPAL.  Ebay only receives the info from Paypal when you are successful in winning the case against a dubious, scumbag seller.  You win by FIRST getting your money back then once you've received your moolah you then can leave a thoroughly noxious feedback on that scumbag.  No one is impervious to any of my feedbacks Good or Otherwise  .

The Beauty of Ebay.

Paypal is an eBay company, meaning eBay bought Paypal several years ago.

I'm with damorgue. If you have to pay return shipping to receive your refund (Paypal doesn't refund you until the seller receives the item back), that's a loss to me, even though you aren't the one who did anything wrong.

[nubbinator]

Paypal is an eBay company, meaning eBay bought Paypal several years ago.

I'm with damorgue. If you have to pay return shipping to receive your refund (Paypal doesn't refund you until the seller receives the item back), that's a loss to me, even though you aren't the one who did anything wrong.

I had that happen recently to me.  It was some glow in the dark pigment I was messing around with and it was absolute ****.  Did not work.  Well, I had bought two from the company.  I asked them to pay for return shipping, to let me toss it and get a refund, or to ship me a replacement at a reduced cost if I sent the old one back since they basically had pure profit on the shipping price of the second.  They refused and it cost me 50% of the product's price to get my money back.  Total bull**** that pissed me off, especially since they swore it was glow in the dark, not UV.

[damorgue]

In Sweden at least, any Swedish seller is responsible to retrieve their own product in case they did something wrong.  Eg, they can't even demand of the buyer to send it back if they pay of irt as this can be troublesome for the seller, far away etc. The seller has to arrange a pickup at the buyer's location. If they fail to do so in a certain amount of time, the seller looses all claims on the product and still has top refund. The buyer is required to hold the item for something like a month I believe.

This makes sense to me. If the seller messes up, they should fix their own problem. Almost always though, the buyer will do the seller a favor and send it back if the seller pays for normal shipping or sends a box with prepaid shipping.

[berserkfan]

Morpheus, there are 2 issues.

1) Shipping from China is often very, very long. Lots of Chinese sellers get bad reps because something didn't arrive within 4 weeks or something.

2) There are lots of hackers in China and also lots of people using web cafes or shared computers in dorms. Chinese urban areas are very densely populated and privacy is at a premium and real estate prices are so out of reach that most young working professionals spend years living with roommates. And your roommates literally all crowd into the same room with you.

Yes, don't be surprised that some totally innocent people got screwed when their computers were used by other people for scamming purposes.

[audioave10]

I realize that keyboards are hard to come by in the US (some of them), but I only deal in my same country.
I never have issues that way. Good Luck!

[thesentinel]

One time I bought a chair off ebay. Looked real nice. Promptly was scammed. No offense to any chinese folk but screw buying stuff from that place.

[morpheus]

Haha good news!

EBAY GOTZ MY BACK. I GOTZ MY REFUND. ALL OF IT.

TOTALLY LEARNED MY LESSON.

[Tym]

Haha good news!

EBAY GOTZ MY BACK. I GOTZ MY REFUND. ALL OF IT.

TOTALLY LEARNED MY LESSON.

Told yah so!

[morpheus]

Haha good news!

EBAY GOTZ MY BACK. I GOTZ MY REFUND. ALL OF IT.

TOTALLY LEARNED MY LESSON.

Told yah so!

You were right indeed.

Caveat Emptor my friends.

[ideus]

Morpheus, there are 2 issues.

1) Shipping from China is often very, very long. Lots of Chinese sellers get bad reps because something didn't arrive within 4 weeks or something.

2) There are lots of hackers in China and also lots of people using web cafes or shared computers in dorms. Chinese urban areas are very densely populated and privacy is at a premium and real estate prices are so out of reach that most young working professionals spend years living with roommates. And your roommates literally all crowd into the same room with you.

Yes, don't be surprised that some totally innocent people got screwed when their computers were used by other people for scamming purposes.

I love my privacy. Living in China sounds like the hell for me. INTJs just cant live that way. 

[ideus]

Haha good news!

EBAY GOTZ MY BACK. I GOTZ MY REFUND. ALL OF IT.

TOTALLY LEARNED MY LESSON.

Told yah so!

You were right indeed.

Caveat Emptor my friends.

Congrats and kudos for ebay support.

[berserkfan]

Morpheus, there are 2 issues.

1) Shipping from China is often very, very long. Lots of Chinese sellers get bad reps because something didn't arrive within 4 weeks or something.

2) There are lots of hackers in China and also lots of people using web cafes or shared computers in dorms. Chinese urban areas are very densely populated and privacy is at a premium and real estate prices are so out of reach that most young working professionals spend years living with roommates. And your roommates literally all crowd into the same room with you.

Yes, don't be surprised that some totally innocent people got screwed when their computers were used by other people for scamming purposes.

I love my privacy. Living in China sounds like the hell for me. INTJs just cant live that way. 

you haven't seen India. Three times the population density of China, and its such a people place that Heterosexual guys are in each other's arms all the time, holding hands, sitting on each other's laps, because, frankly, you grow up with no conception of personal space. That's how these guys can endure clinging on to each other when riding public transportation.

Bangladesh? Even worse. This country has a higher population density than Washington - that is, Washington D.C. the City. You can't type a password without somebody being able to see you typing.

[ideus]

Oh my gosh. We are so blessed then, and we need to understand the world is not all the same, to appreciate what we have.

[berserkfan]

and the crappy country where I live in, has a population density about equal to Manhattan Island at night (ie when the commuters have left). It's called a Country. One of my friends actually told me this BS - he was serious about it - he said we're still not too crowded because I can sometimes find a place without anyone around for 50 meters.

[user 18]

97% is actually really low, never deal with anyone lower than 99 lol, why? cuz ppl freak out if they get a low rating and do anything in their power to get the rating to 5 stars, 97% means they've had tons of low ratings, but they deal in bulk to cancel enough out.

plus did you buy 2 items from the same guy? or got scammed by 2 different guys? you want to list the auctions?

Personally, I read 97% positive feedback as 3% chance of getting a bobcat: http://xkcd.com/325/

[morpheus]

97% is actually really low, never deal with anyone lower than 99 lol, why? cuz ppl freak out if they get a low rating and do anything in their power to get the rating to 5 stars, 97% means they've had tons of low ratings, but they deal in bulk to cancel enough out.

plus did you buy 2 items from the same guy? or got scammed by 2 different guys? you want to list the auctions?

Personally, I read 97% positive feedback as 3% chance of getting a bobcat: http://xkcd.com/325/

I chuckled. Thanks for that comic strip.  )

[SirReallySam]

What pissed me off was that they had such high ratings. Somebody should just obliterate their ratings so they never do business again.

Completely off topic, but how do the Cherry ML switches feel?!


o.O

[morpheus]

What pissed me off was that they had such high ratings. Somebody should just obliterate their ratings so they never do business again.

Completely off topic, but how do the Cherry ML switches feel?!


o.O

They feel like a cheaper version of MX Brown, but better than a laptop keyboard. In fact, they make the perfect laptop keyboard, if you want that extra tactility and mechanical feeling.

[SirReallySam]

What pissed me off was that they had such high ratings. Somebody should just obliterate their ratings so they never do business again.

Completely off topic, but how do the Cherry ML switches feel?!


o.O

They feel like a cheaper version of MX Brown, but better than a laptop keyboard. In fact, they make the perfect laptop keyboard, if you want that extra tactility and mechanical feeling.

Someone should do a mod where they implement them into a laptop D: I would buy that laptop!!!!

[morpheus]

What pissed me off was that they had such high ratings. Somebody should just obliterate their ratings so they never do business again.

Completely off topic, but how do the Cherry ML switches feel?!


o.O

They feel like a cheaper version of MX Brown, but better than a laptop keyboard. In fact, they make the perfect laptop keyboard, if you want that extra tactility and mechanical feeling.

Someone should do a mod where they implement them into a laptop D: I would buy that laptop!!!!

Oh shi, that sounds awesome!

I'm sure a Geekhacker could pull this off.

[SirReallySam]

What pissed me off was that they had such high ratings. Somebody should just obliterate their ratings so they never do business again.

Completely off topic, but how do the Cherry ML switches feel?!


o.O

They feel like a cheaper version of MX Brown, but better than a laptop keyboard. In fact, they make the perfect laptop keyboard, if you want that extra tactility and mechanical feeling.

Someone should do a mod where they implement them into a laptop D: I would buy that laptop!!!!

Oh shi, that sounds awesome!

I'm sure a Geekhacker could pull this off.

it would be soooo sweet

[user 18]

97% is actually really low, never deal with anyone lower than 99 lol, why? cuz ppl freak out if they get a low rating and do anything in their power to get the rating to 5 stars, 97% means they've had tons of low ratings, but they deal in bulk to cancel enough out.

plus did you buy 2 items from the same guy? or got scammed by 2 different guys? you want to list the auctions?

Personally, I read 97% positive feedback as 3% chance of getting a bobcat: http://xkcd.com/325/

I chuckled. Thanks for that comic strip.  )

XKCD is pure gold and I highly recommend it.