I've bought and sold here on FM, ebay and FB marketplace hundreds of times and I truly believed I knew all the tricks scammers deploy to scam people. I never thought I could be scammed but then I made a crucial mistake - buying from a newly registered ebay seller with no previous feedback.
Few days before Christmas 2025, I was looking for a Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art for Canon. I checked here at this forum and did not see one. I could have tried a WTB but for some reason I decided to check on ebay (something I've done countless times). There was an auction for the Sigma 35mm ending on Christmas day with some 20+ bids already. I only verified the seller was in the United States and started bidding. I won the auction and paid promptly. On Monday the 29th of December, I sent a message to the seller asking for tracking number but there was no response. The next day, I got a tracking number 1Z0TT803YW03274854 from ebay. I monitored this package which was to be delivered to me on 1/5/26. On the scheduled delivery date, I kept waiting for UPS and they never showed up. I checked status again and it read as DELIVERED. I checked with my neighbors and none of them got the package. I called UPS to complain they delivered my package to a wrong address. They asked for my name and address and confirmed to me this package was neither addressed to me nor to my address. It was a package from Macy's clothing store to a customer that happen to live in McKinney, Tx...same city as me.
How could this be? I checked back on ebay to contact the seller, but his account is closed and is no longer a valid ebay account. I contacted ebay support and I was assured I have a buyer protection. I was asked to try to resolve directly with the seller and if no resolution by 1/9/26, they'll step in. I followed the link on the message to send an inquiry to the seller. I can't tell if the message was successfully delivered or not since the account was closed and deleted. I contacted ebay on the 9th that the seller did not respond to my message. They opened an incident on this. Then the next day the verdict was out: The case will be closed because the seller provided information to show the package was delivered to me in Mckinney.
So, the fact remained that the package with that tracking number was delivered to somebody in McKinney but who was that person, it certainly was not me and the package was certainly not mine either according to UPS.
I contacted UPS again hoping that talking with another agent will yield a different explanation, but I got same thing: That package was not mine. It was also sent from Macy's. The only similarity is that the recipient live in my city. However, they could not disclose to me the actual owner of the package. The UPS person also said something about they're seeing more of similar issues where scammers somehow get hold of these tracking numbers which they use to scam people. I cannot understand how this scammer got hold of a tracking number that happen to be coming to my city. I am also surprised that ebay does not have a dedicated fraud department to perform real investigation. I have contacted my bank and they assured me they'll work with ebay on this. I am registered with UPS MY CHOICE which shows every package delivered to my residence in the last 6 months. This package was not one of them and rightfully so since it has been confirmed to belong to another buyer. Whenever I have UPS package coming to me, I normally get email from UPS to show when it will be delivered. There was none of that with this.
I wait patiently for my bank to do their part. I also appealed ebay's ruling with screenshot of my UPS MY CHOICE as well as UPS telephone to verify what UPS said to me.
Just be careful who you buy from. I know what my mistake was and I hope none of the people reading this piece will make same mistake i made.
Same thing happened to me with a purchase of winter gear. The tracking number was for someone living nearby and the weight of the package wasn’t anywhere near what mine should have been. CC higher up I talked to did not seem to want to escalate any further and offered me $50 credit, which I refused and sent additional documentation, but still did not refund me. I closed that CC.
Most important lesson is to never trust eBay. I was scammed years ago. Had to go through the San Jose DA office to get eBay to ban the seller, and even then it only worked after I showed a lot of proof. You and I would have been sued for aiding and abetting a crime, but they don’t care.
In the end, PayPal saved me and reimbursed me ($7,700). eBay was good for nothing.
Thanks for your inputs. I have consulted widely on this. This is a case of wire fraud and theft by deception under Texas and federal law. The seller never shipped the product. He fraudulently sent me an existing tracking number from an unrelated retailer.
Here's the legal way I have been advised to follow. I will be sending arbitration demand letter to ebay legal using both email and certified letter requesting immediate reimbursement of the total transaction amount as well as written confirmation that delivery verification requires address-level validation. If the matter is not resolved within 10 business days, I will file for arbitration seeking damages, fees, and costs as permitted. I will provide screenshot of UPS MY CHOICE showing UPS packages delivered to my address in the last 6 months of which this particular package was not one of them. I will even provide direct UPS telephone number just incase ebay does not know how to contact UPS to confirm the source of that package was Mercy's, not ebay. I will include a police report which I will get later today.
I was also advised to contact Texas AG office. It's only $300 but I will not let ebay get away with this. If for anything, I want to make sure they don't screw another person.
c102690 wrote:
Thanks for your inputs. I have consulted widely on this. This is a case of wire fraud and theft by deception under Texas and federal law. The seller never shipped the product. He fraudulently sent me an existing tracking number from an unrelated retailer.
Here's the legal way I have been advised to follow. I will be sending arbitration demand letter to ebay legal using both email and certified letter requesting immediate reimbursement of the total transaction amount as well as written confirmation that delivery verification requires address-level validation. If the matter is not resolved within 10 business days, I will file for arbitration seeking damages, fees, and costs as permitted. I will provide screenshot of UPS MY CHOICE showing UPS packages delivered to my address in the last 6 months of which this particular package was not one of them. I will even provide direct UPS telephone number just incase ebay does not know how to contact UPS to confirm the source of that package was Mercy's, not ebay. I will include a police report which I will get later today.
I was also advised to contact Texas AG office. It's only $300 but I will not let ebay get away with this. If for anything, I want to make sure they don't screw another person....Show more →
Good luck.
In my case, the San Jose DA office at first reached out to eBay and took eBay’s word over mine. Only after I showed a thread in a watch forum, discussing how people there had been scammed by this same seller, did the DA office reach out to eBay again and did eBay ban the seller. The seller was in Japan and had a high rating, but upon close inspection most of that was because of selling and shipping small items while using that rating to screw over those buying large items and then playing games with shipping info.
This is a common scammer tactic. They hack into an account with high seller ratings and infrequent activity. Then they post an item for sale that is "out of character". And then they send you a bogus UPS or FedEx number arriving to the city you live in. Both PayPal and eBay are well aware of this tactic and usually can detect it and reimburse no questions asked. Ask me how I know
If you live in a single family house and have cameras looking at the street and front porch, you should pull the videos around the time when the package was recorded as delivered by UPS to show that nothing was delivered. Once when I realized that I was scammed at a drone forum I was actually at home at the time of delivery, and the moment UPS notified me that the package was delivered I popped my phone in front of the camera with the clock showing time, then switched to a newspaper website that had a timestamp. The saved the clips from the +/-1 hrs from claimed time of delivery to show that nothing was delivered.
You just reminded me of another important fact I was not thinking about: Yes, I do have ring camera in front of my house and I need to pull that recording as well. I didn't even think about it. I didn't think it was necessary since UPS already confirmed the package was not mine and package got to the rightful owner but it's another piece of evidence to have available as well. This is never a case od package being delivered to a wrong address.
On the day of the delivery, using the provided tracking#, I was able to see the picture of the package dropped at a door which was not mine. Infact, that picture showed it was most likely clothing because it was on one of those padded envelopes and he could not have shipped a lens on a padded envelop. I will see if I can get that screenshot because that's another piece of useful information to have.
Since I left the original message, Bank of America has credited the amount back to me while they engage ebay. They stated that if it is proven I received the package then they will reverse the credit. I am hoping they do not rely enitrely on ebay non-investigation. We'll see how this plays out!
I think that it helps if you are the first person to provide documentation, too. In my case, I took too long and the scammer provided some fake documents, and the CC seemed to take their word since it was provided first. Just a thought.
This is frustrating and a depressing sign of today's society.
A number of people suggested contacting an AG office. Is there any reason one cannot just report this to the police, providing all the information you have from false tracking numbers, video evidence, etc. etc. It sounds like a crime, after all.
That sucks to hear and I'm sorry for all the anguish. I buy tons of stuff online, even on Ebay. But I would never buy from a seller with zero feedback. That's the number one red flag for me.
Also, for those who might buy from Ebay in the future, I learned to never rely on the statistic on the item page indicating how many units already sold. I saw a seller selling DJI gear at "too good to be true" prices. The seller had more than zero feedback and even positive feedback that seemingly didn't look automated to me. And the item indicated something like 50+ already sold, which raised my antennas because no way so many people would go through with purchasing an expensive drone at drop-dead prices. After some research online, it seems the number of units sold can also be fabricated.
At the end of the day, everyone should be wary of buying on Ebay but it can be done. Just need to proceed with caution.
Hope your issue gets resolved and the funds are returned.
Ebay is in real trouble. They are not catching the culprits and loosing money reimbursing the honest buyers. Obviously they are desperate and try to squash the unsustainable drain of money by throwing smoke grenades. It is pure instinct for survival, ignoring what is right I imagine. Coworkers of ebay are most likely reimbursed for success, e.g. closing cases, not for morality.
It starts with making the right contact points within the company as difficult to find as possible, discouraging the use of these links and obscuring their location for the casual user. It all adds up to fewer legitimate complains getting through.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a new account. Many scammers are using compromised accounts with tons of feedback. Look at the user's Feedback as a Seller and see if there's recent positive feedback, or feedback related to the category you're buying. A compromised account may look like the user last sold Beanie Babies 9 years ago, and all of a sudden they're selling a ton of camera gear.
One image is UPS tracking history and picture of the delivered package. You will notice none of the packages look like it contains a sigma lens. Infact, it confirms what UPS told me that the package was from Macy's Retail. The scary thing is the right owner of this package is also at my zip code, not just city.
- Notice the package was delivered at 2:47pm on January 5th, 2026. Now, check the screenshot of my RING camera on the next image and there was no activity anywhere around 2:47pm. The only activity at 2:54 was a stranger dropping a business card on my door.
-Then notice the color of the bricks around the delivered packages. Then compare that to the screenshot from my ring camera. Not same house for sure.
I have made a police report and will take to my bank in addition to what I had provided earlier. Ebay message me that they are closing my appeal because my bank has contacted them.
File a chargeback with your card since eBay is useless. But be warned, ebay may close your account, but, who cares. I'm avoiding ebay. At this point, I truly believe eBay is complicit in scams.
Scam 1
New accounts selling merchandise over $2000. These accounts do not have any new account limits. My account that has been opened for 10 years has a $500 MONTHLY limit. Imagine that.
Scam 2
Newish accounts that make small puchases to gain feedback, then sell a high dollar item $500 or more. I saw this when I saw a Nikon Z 105mm Macro for $600 shipped. I contacted the seller to ask if it had the box, and the scammer responded with "Yes, it does" and than another message "Are you ready to buy, I can give you a final price". So the bogus feedback makes them look legit.
I've reported all these new accounts with ZERO feedback, less than 30-days old selling $2000-$3000 items and eBay said they found nothing wrong. So eBay is most certainly complicit in the scams, somehow, someway they're making $$ out of this because no legitimate company would allow a NEW user to sell a high dollar item with zero verifications.
johnvanr wrote:
Most important lesson is to never trust eBay. I was scammed years ago. Had to go through the San Jose DA office to get eBay to ban the seller, and even then it only worked after I showed a lot of proof. You and I would have been sued for aiding and abetting a crime, but they don’t care.
In the end, PayPal saved me and reimbursed me ($7,700). eBay was good for nothing.
I definitely learned my lesson! I’ve been with eBay since 2013 and this was my first time getting scammed. Obviously I didn’t pay attention to this seller being newly registered because I’d seen about 22 bids on the lens. It was actually days after the auction was over and I didn’t get response to my request for tracking number that I realized my mistake.
Will do my best to stay away for now unless they happen to be the only platform with what I’m looking for.
On an unrelated note with regards to Ebay and a few other online marketplaces, I've always thought the way they calculate seller fees was a super scam. But they've been doing this for many years so assume it's still technically legal.
Ebay seller fees are based on a percentage of the Order Total (sale price + sales tax + shipping), and a fixed Final Value Fee. Buyer earnings are based on Order Total, less sales tax + Ebay seller fees. In essence, as a buyer, I am paying Ebay a percentage of the sales tax. Like I said, it seems scammy.
Recent example:
Sales price = $55.00
Shipping = $7.23
Sales tax = $4.36
Order Total = $66.59
Ebay seller fee = $66.59 * 13.6% = $9.06 + $0.40 Final Value Fee = $9.46
Sales Tax = $4.36
Buyer Earnings = $66.59, less $9.46, less $4.36 = $52.77
Same scam happened to me on Mercari. I purchased a $350.00 lens and was sent USPS tracking info by the seller. I was excited to get the lens and followed the tracking info on USPS to my local PO. I know my mailman and often pickup packages at the top of his route b/c I'm at the bottom of his route and the difference can be 8hrs. I met the postman about 9:45am just as he arrived on my hill and he didn't have a package for me. About 15 minutes later I got a USPS/Mercari notification stating that my package had been delivered. What was odd was the delivery time was 9:15am which was before my mailman started his route.
Long/Short, the package had indeed been delivered but NOT to my address. It was delivered to some business in my city. I went to the local PO show my ID and talked to the supervisor. He couldn't tell me where the package was delivered but he assured me the package wasn't addressed to me.
Evidently there is a scam going around where fraudulent sellers ship worthless items to your zip code with valid USPS tracking numbers. They then upload the tracking # to Mercari. USPS/Mercari tracking system will show the item as delivered but said worthless item usually goes to local some business or store who just toss it.
What saved me is/was on Mercari you have 3 days to accept an item after its postal is registered as delivered. I didn't accept it. Mercari scammers count on buyers not doing anything for 3 days (vacation, laziness, PO made a mistake). Once that 3 day period expires the transaction is finalized and the buyer no longer has any no recourse. As I mentioned I was on top of it an hour after it was marked as delivered. I talked to Mercari, had documentation from the local PO and from my mailman, that no package was delivered to that address on that day. 3 days later I was reimbursed in full by Mercari.
I'm sorry this happened to you.
All that said w/r/t ebay, like everywhere else online you HAVE to be careful. That being said I've gotten some incredible deals there so I will always look there for something that I'm interested in. If I find something I like I look for the usual seller details and take the usual precautions. So far I haven't been burned (knock on wood).
