What's in it for eBay scammers paid by Paypal?

drfish

An eBay seller "sells" a high dollar coin and is paid through Paypal then never ships the coin (because they just stole photos). Since the sale is guaranteed by Paypal/eBay protection , how does the seller profit in this sort of scam?

agentjim007

None, he's an idiot. If he is new PayPal freezes funds and I suppose an established seller might be able to to the funds but then you have PayPal coming after you.

derryb

He only profits if Paypal is unable to determine who he really is. Paypal does know who the receiving bank is.

Nickcap

The only thing I can see is to quickly buy other items to use the money.

LanceNewmanOCC

.
the money can be sent to others (laundered/funneled) along with spending the money. monthly withdrawal limits and verifications limit the enterprise. gotta go legit and then sell a bunch of stuff they don't have to really make out.
.

GrumpyEd

It might work in their favor that the buyers that buy obvious fakes also are ones that might not notice it's fake when they get it. They might not find out until later someday when they decide to sell it.

LanceNewmanOCC

<< <i>It might work in their favor that the buyers that buy obvious fakes also are ones that might not notice it's fake when they get it. They might not find out until later someday when they decide to sell it. >>



a big fat +1 and i have unfortunately seen hundreds of this situation. i have spoken with many.

when i think about how much fraud has potentially been done via ebay it makes me feel like i have a brain tumor that is about to make my head burst.
.

agentjim007

<< It might work in their favor that the buyers that buy obvious fakes also are ones that might not notice it's fake when they get it. They might not find out until later someday when they decide to sell it. >>

This is obvious. The original question states item is never sent, there is nothing for buyer to sit on until it's too late.

TwoSides2aCoin

There are 2 kinds of criminals.
Dumb & dumber. Everyone else who tries is just wasting energy to prove their stupidity.

agentjim007

As a Parole Officer I do recognize a 3rd type of criminal. The smart ones that are never caught. They are out there however they wouldn't try something so stupid.

TwoSides2aCoin

<< <i>As a Parole Officer I do recognize a 3rd type of criminal. The smart ones that are never caught. They are out there however they wouldn't try something so stupid. >>



As an online vendor, let me address a criminal element of our society that goes much deeper than dumb, it goes to intent.


I call it "extortion"

This is where there may be an error in the listing that gives an ebay "buyer" a loophole.
My nephew lists for me and I can't catch every listing and enough folks are kind enough to communicate and give me a heads up.
My helper doesn't realize the frustrations some times and I don't want to RIDE him too hard, so I usually just have to communicate with most customers.


There have been a few occasions over the course of 12 years where a person has this loophole and starts demanding through the system "HOW THE DEAL will go, or else".

Most times it is petty amounts of money, but money just the same. This could add up to billions of dollars stolen through this "intended technique" that is not "illegal, but criminal in nature.

Back to other scammers and thieves.

KeyLargoRareCoins

There is actually allot in it for the seller, for one if he opens up a paypal and gets the debit card sent to him even if he is brand new on ebay all he has to do is ship an empty package with tracking, once tracking shows package arrived the money will no longer be frozen, he can then run to any atm and with draw the cash, obviously they would need to be quick about it but thats not hard with smart phones. The seller can also just sell little items ship them then in a month or so the frozen 21 day hold will be removed, they can then list coins sell them and take off with the cash. Obviously none of this is legal but were talking about people trying to scam ebay