EBAY sellers in Warwickshire are being warned to be on their guard against fraudsters.
It follows a numbers of complaints to Warwickshire Trading Standards from sellers on the popular online auction site who have been duped.
In one case a seller was advertising sports equipment. The equipment was purchased and paid for using PayPal. They were then collected in person by the buyer.
But a few days later the seller received an email from PayPal stating a chargeback was being made and the payment for the equipment was being removed from the seller’s account.
The reason given by PayPal was the buyer had claimed they had not received the goods – despite having collected them and having told the seller he was happy with the purchase.
To further cover his tracks, the buyer claimed he was experiencing problems with his Paypal account.
This is an example of chargeback fraud. Fraudsters purchase goods on Ebay and other auction websites and pay using PayPal. As soon as they have received the goods they claim they were never sent and seek to get their money back via a Paypal chargeback, leaving the seller without their items and payment.
Fraudsters seek to target sellers who send items via untracked services or try to collect the goods in person.
Sellers can help protect themselves by shipping to a confirmed address using a trackable service.
If the buyer is collecting the goods, consider asking for payment in cash on collection.
Sellers should also scrutinise the buyer’s feedback carefully, to check for previous evidence of chargeback activity, especially before sending high value items.
