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Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

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Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#181

Post by filoleg »

_underfl0w_ wrote: post #123
filoleg wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EBay in 2017 was a giant shitshow (and probably still is, but I don't use it anymore). Both their security and support are complete trash, even if you happen to be lucky (like me) and they reply quickly. I woke up one morning to get an email notification thanking me for purchasing a back bumper, a wing, and a few other parts for a 2012 Hyundai Genesis, which I obviously don't have and neither have I made that purchas…

This is really bad advice, but remember that two can play at this game. You have this idiot's real name and address, as well as the make and model of the car they drive. Food for thought.

The story is a bit more complicated (but not by much), however, there is absolutely nothing I can do here. What am I gonna do, show up to some address in South Atlanta demanding whoever lives there to stop using my eBay account without authorization? And that's with the strong assumption that the person whose name and address was used is the same person who actually accessed my account (for all I know, the person living at that address could be totally unaware). EBay has all the info on the perp, but they decided to do nothing, and I am not going to start a civil lawsuit because of $1.2k that got refunded to me pretty much instantly.

Just for the sake of satisfying my own curiosity, I looked further (back when it all happened) into the person who hacked into my account and found some interesting stuff. The perp took some measures to cover their steps, but it was done very poorly:

1. The name and address used for the purchase belonged to a woman who lived at the address used for delivery in South Atlanta (verified that). I decided to check her social media, and saw that she held a job as a nurse or something like that, with nothing suspicious pointing at her actually being the perp. Her account looked pretty "professional" and normal.

2. Suspiciously enough, she didn't even have a Hyundai Genesis car, which is what the parts were ordered for. But then I noticed something interesting.

3. There was a guy appearing in a lot of her pics that looked like he was her bf. He didn't seem to have a job listed anywhere on any of his social media. He did, however, happened to own a 2012 Hyundai Genesis coupe. Also, most of his FB profile pics were either selfies or of his car or of him brandishing guns (mostly in his bedroom, all while displaying poor trigger discipline), which is not really damning on its own, but in the context, it definitely doesn't play in his favor.

Which leads me to a reasonable hypothesis that the guy who got access to my account used the name and address of his gf to ship the car parts he fraudulently bought, so that she takes the fall in case the authorities decide to investigate.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#182

Post by hamandcheese »

amatecha wrote: post #114
ebaySucks123 wrote: post #28

I had the same exact experience the last time I sold on ebay, in 2017. I sold an $800 item. One day before the claim window closed, the buyer filed a claim saying it had never arrived and claiming they emailed me several times and I never responded. I submitted proof of delivery from UPS and pointed out the simple fact that I had received no messages from the buyer through ebay messaging. Ebay gave them a full refund…

Yeah, I've heard stuff like this for years and years and long ago decided I will never sell anything online. Craigslist in-person only.

I once traded an iPhone for a what I thought was a Galaxy S4 on Craigslist, but it turned out to instead be a very convincing (and functional) knock off. The guy even talked me into tossing an additional $20 his way when we met, which I think is part of what sold me.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#183

Post by three_seagrass »

joemi wrote: post #174
three_seagrass wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I told Amazon was going to post a video to social of the third bad delivery at my apartment. It was so comical because even Amazon had posted signs on our property telling the delivery drivers what not to do. Yet the drivers did exactly that right in front of the sign. The first two email complaints went unresponded to. After threatening to put on tiktok, I got a phone call from the regional director in charge of the…

I don't think that was necessarily due to your threat. I've noticed that often the first one or two or even three messages about an issue that I send to Amazon seem to be answered by bots (or people following a poor script) and they miss the point of my message completely, each time, no matter how clear and exact I am.* It's only after multiple messages that a real (free-thinking) human seems to actually read it and…

No, the person who called me specifically said they were freaking out trying to get ahold of me because the social threat had caused the email I sent to be bounced around internally. She called me to talk me down from doing it and make reassurances, even though I had forgotten about it by that point.

Because they only had my email address and building location, Amazon repeatedly called the property agency, who (stupidly) gave them my phone number and details.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#184

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

wtallis wrote: post #113
sevenf0ur wrote: post #59

> If you’re going to sell on Amazon or elsewhere, take an actual video of you packing the camera. You need all the defense you can get against items mysteriously disappearing. Isn't this evidence just as bad as the buyer's account that he didn't receive any accessories? One could just unpack the box right after filming.

> Isn't this evidence just as bad as the buyer's account that he didn't receive any accessories? No, of course not. Buyer didn't provide any details about what was missing or what was received. This isn't a level he-said/she-said, it's one party being forthcoming and the other evasive. Both parties had equal opportunity to lie, but only one put in effort to appear honest. Amazon should at least hold their scammers to…

I think the parent comment meant in the general sense, not this specific case.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#185

Post by joshspankit »

kube-system wrote: post #170
davchana wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am copy pasting my comment from the same thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22388197 The UPS or something can take a photo of the product or item they received. They are not verifying what's inside. They are just verifying the weight, a photo from few angles, available only in case of dispute. Seller can also do that, but a third party doing it with no horse in the race can act like a notary. We are…

Okay. Who is going to pay for this service? I'm not going to pay for it as a buyer. If I file a claim on eBay or Amazon, they'll almost always side with me.

The seller is going to pay as they are the most likely to lose the money if the sale goes south. The smarter ones would increase the price to account for it (if possible).

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#186

Post by throwaway2048 »

p1esk wrote: post #158
TylerE wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn’t really work as on if the common scams is to take a real box, apparently sealed, but with a brick or whatever in it with the right weight

They would take pictures of items before packing.

and then not pack them...

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#187

Post by ficklepickle »

clSTophEjUdRanu wrote: post #116
canada_dry wrote: post #56

This is such a basic issue that I don't understand why USPS or some other shipper w/ bricks-n-mortar haven't stepped up to offer some sort of package shipping certification. If I was the seller it could work as simply as me bringing the item to a shipper who would take their own photos and weigh the items being packaged up as well as some check that the item is as being described to the recipient. In turn the shipper…

There is already registered mail via USPS. The Hope Diamond was delivered to the Smithsonian via registered mail.

I wasn't aware of that story, thanks for mentioning it!

For anyone else that is curious, it was in 1958 and here[0] is a link to a PDF

[0] https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/hope-diamon...

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#188

Post by joshspankit »

8note wrote: post #83
giarc wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a Purolator (Canadian retailer) mailing centre near me, they have this system that weighs the box but also measures the dimensions. The whole rig is ceiling mounted (while the scale is on a counter). I suspect like this could also incorporate a camera that takes a photo of the inside contents.

probably x-rays and not photos

Actually that’s probably an excellent idea as well.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#189

Post by Chinjut »

milankragujevic wrote: post #169
davchana wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am copy pasting my comment from the same thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22388197 The UPS or something can take a photo of the product or item they received. They are not verifying what's inside. They are just verifying the weight, a photo from few angles, available only in case of dispute. Seller can also do that, but a third party doing it with no horse in the race can act like a notary. We are…

Please do not copy and paste comments, only link to them instead, if on HN. See this comment by @dang: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22122334 (and similar comments - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ) * I know I don't have the authority to say this, I just want to be helpful.

To save you a click, what @dang says in the first link is:

Please don't copy/paste comments on HN. It lowers the signal/noise ratio and makes for pain when we go to merge duplicate threads. If you want to refer to something you posted elsewhere, please use a link. Better still, when you see a split discussion, email hn@ycombinator.com so we can merge them. We'll make sure your comment ends up in the winning thread.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#190

Post by lukevdp »

ikeboy wrote: post #147

>I denied the return. And that's your problem. If you deny a return within the return period, you're in violation of Amazon policy, and the A-Z team will rightly rule against you. The correct response is to accept the return, then deny a refund after it comes back to you because it wasn't sent back with the same accessories you sent it with.

I came here to say this also. You can’t reject the return, you need to accept it and then it’s on the buyer to return the item to you.

If it comes back with parts missing, you can do a partial refund. Buyer can still do an A-Z claim, but you’re in a much stronger position, especially if you have proof of how you sent it and how you received it.

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