eBay Potential Fraud?

[BlueHave]

On 31st August I sold a car part on eBay, sent it with Parcelforce Express 48 and then posted up the tracking number. Then this evening I get a message through eBay saying the item has been delivered and signed for but the buyer hasn't received it and the signature isn't his. I've told him to check with neighbours as it's a apartment block but he's adamant no one else has got it.

I posted it to the address on the buyers PayPal and eBay order form. I have a receipt showing the tracking and the address I sent it toon the Parcelforce booking form. I then get a message "have you sent it to the wrong address?, has my eBay/paypal been hacked and my address changed? "

Now this message I find slightly odd. I have posted he item to the right address and have proof it was sent to the correct address but he has opened a case and put my PayPal account in negative balance

Is it as open and shut as it seems or will PayPal or eBay make me refund and claim from Parcelforce.

[supersport]

Sadly after a recent experience with a scammer and eBay I have no faith that eBay will uphold what is clearly a dodgy claim.

Luckily for me, the scammer was also very thick and didn't respond to a the case going in his favour in the required time so I got to keep my money. Which was lucky as I stood to loose about £50 in fees although getting my goods back.

Hope it goes well for you though.

[PurpleMoonlight]

I've had several signed for deliveries not arrive. It is not always the buyer trying to rip you off.

[spookly]

In theory it sounds like you did everything you needed to in order to be covered by eBay/paypal seller protections. But it could get a bit murky if they are going to try and figure out whose fault it is. What might go in your favour is if the buyer has actually stated to eBay/paypal that their account was 'hacked'. That would be an admission that you had done nothing wrong, and had posted to the registered address, and that the fault lays with the buyer for a weak password (or more likely one used on many accounts with the same email address), or with paypal for actually getting hacked (unlikely).

A common scam is to set up interesting looking websites with little to no content, or content cloned from other sites, and offer free user registration. If you sign up to it with the same credentials as used for other things they can then go round the most common sites you might have used with stored payment details attempting to login and buy things.

[Stoofa]

One of the issues here is that Ebay do state that you must use a trackable postage service. Signed-for and any number of courier options are not fully trackable and that is why many buyers do lose out in these kind of situations.
Hands up, I've been stung myself.
I do still use Ebay, not as often as I did, but I do still buy and sell and it has been a while since I've been ripped off. For me, I consider £50 to be my "rip off limit". So in other words, I'm happy to use signed-for and non-trackable services for these items.
Usually these go through without a problem, everyone is happy.
For anything £50+ I only use RM Special Delivery, inform the customer of this and set my postage costs accordingly. If somebody tried to scam me I provide the Special Delivery numbers and that, as a fully trackable service, should show the item being delivered to the right person etc.

I've only had the need to call on this once on an attempted scam. Had the case closed in my favour.

[elanfan]

Royal Mail don't help these situations - you pay for a signed for service and often don't get what you pay for which is I guess them breaching their contract with you. I sent a parcel and checked the signature on line a few days later and it had been signed "Delivered" and hadn't been sent to a Mr Delivered either.

I think I might start putting a note next to my signed for labels "To be Signed For by the addressee only - or to be returned to sender" I'm sure that will come with some issues but might prevent the scam.