Everyone wants a deal right? Of course.
I want to bring your attention to a scam being perpetrated in increasing frequency lately. I'll explain it with three players involved. 1. The Scammer 2. The Mark and 3. The Loser
Scammer creates a sales channel on Amazon or Ebay. In some cases it's actually a hacked account of someone who had been active and in good standing at some time in the past so feedback scores appear great. Scammer lists a popular item for about 30-50% off retail.
The Mark finds it and scoops it up feeling like a champion for getting such a great deal. Paypal payment is made.
The scammer places an order with the Loser (a legitimate vendor that stocks the items in question) using a stolen credit card number and specifies the Mark's address for delivery.
Loser ships to the Mark and everyone is happy for a bit.
Stolen credit card victim notices, calls their bank and the bank initiates chargebacks to all vendors involved. The Loser is out the merchandise as well as a hefty chargeback fee.
It can go one of two ways at this point. The first would be that the Loser already accepts a certain amount of loss every year and they move on trying a little harder not to be scammed again. The second would be filing a police report in the Mark's town. See, the Mark doesn't know any of this happened. They paid for and received goods. However, they are actually stolen merchandise so it is now up to the Mark to make a claim with Paypal or their own bank to initiate a dispute to recover the money for the Loser, who is the rightful recipient of the payment.
It's quite a perfect scam actually because the middleman nature offers a layer of protection. If you can believe it, eBay will not even take a report of an item being stolen merchandise unless it comes from law enforcement directly. Even if eBay does take the auction down, the scammer just moves on with another hacked account.
Long story short, stop being Marks. If the price is too good, it's too good. Look at the feedback rating. Was the last positive from more than a year ago? Was the feedback for baby clothes and then all of a sudden they have 10 grainfathers for half of retail?
I want to bring your attention to a scam being perpetrated in increasing frequency lately. I'll explain it with three players involved. 1. The Scammer 2. The Mark and 3. The Loser
Scammer creates a sales channel on Amazon or Ebay. In some cases it's actually a hacked account of someone who had been active and in good standing at some time in the past so feedback scores appear great. Scammer lists a popular item for about 30-50% off retail.
The Mark finds it and scoops it up feeling like a champion for getting such a great deal. Paypal payment is made.
The scammer places an order with the Loser (a legitimate vendor that stocks the items in question) using a stolen credit card number and specifies the Mark's address for delivery.
Loser ships to the Mark and everyone is happy for a bit.
Stolen credit card victim notices, calls their bank and the bank initiates chargebacks to all vendors involved. The Loser is out the merchandise as well as a hefty chargeback fee.
It can go one of two ways at this point. The first would be that the Loser already accepts a certain amount of loss every year and they move on trying a little harder not to be scammed again. The second would be filing a police report in the Mark's town. See, the Mark doesn't know any of this happened. They paid for and received goods. However, they are actually stolen merchandise so it is now up to the Mark to make a claim with Paypal or their own bank to initiate a dispute to recover the money for the Loser, who is the rightful recipient of the payment.
It's quite a perfect scam actually because the middleman nature offers a layer of protection. If you can believe it, eBay will not even take a report of an item being stolen merchandise unless it comes from law enforcement directly. Even if eBay does take the auction down, the scammer just moves on with another hacked account.
Long story short, stop being Marks. If the price is too good, it's too good. Look at the feedback rating. Was the last positive from more than a year ago? Was the feedback for baby clothes and then all of a sudden they have 10 grainfathers for half of retail?