Ebay BUYER wants refund 7 months after auction

[melsstuff]

Im posting this question for a friend... there was this ebay auction for an item that was posted in good faith and honestly and sold to a foreigner from another country..7 months after the transaction and good feedback was left by the buyer and then the seller... the buyer emails the seller accusing them of selling a fake because they took the item to the mfg to be serviced to find it was a fake and now they want their money back and then will mail the item to the seller.. also threatened by email to sue and have them arrested, and would not report them to the mfg if the refund was given.. this was very upsetting..this person claims paypal gave them the sellers credit card information...Is this possible? We both feel like this is some kind of extortion..as this buyer sent a paypal link that was designed to collect for a sale and not for a refund.. what my friend is concerned about is this.. its been 7 months sense the transaction therefore it could be a bait and switch scam..what should they do?? would it be prudent to just ignore the threats?? My friend done nothing wrong, they was new to ebay at the time and hasn't sold anything sense..and doesn't deserve this stress. Thanks

[Peligroso27]

Originally Posted by melsstuff

Im posting this question for a friend... there was this ebay auction for an item that was posted in good faith and honestly and sold to a foreigner from another country..7 months after the transaction and good feedback was left by the buyer and then the seller... the buyer emails the seller accusing them of selling a fake because they took the item to the mfg to be serviced to find it was a fake and now they want their money back and then will mail the item to the seller.. also threatened by email to sue and have them arrested, and would not report them to the mfg if the refund was given.. this was very upsetting..this person claims paypal gave them the sellers credit card information...Is this possible? We both feel like this is some kind of extortion..as this buyer sent a paypal link that was designed to collect for a sale and not for a refund.. what my friend is concerned about is this.. its been 7 months sense the transaction therefore it could be a bait and switch scam..what should they do?? would it be prudent to just ignore the threats?? My friend done nothing wrong, they was new to ebay at the time and hasn't sold anything sense..and doesn't deserve this stress. Thanks

This is a scam and if paypal divulged that information they should be sued. Your friend can return the money for selling a fake but he is not required to do so by any law.

[InsaneJane]

It's an on going scam. Paypal won't do anything to your freind. If your friend is worried about it, then they should cancel thier paypal account. They can always open a new account at a later date.

[melsstuff]

Yes my friend ended up going ahead and closing the accounts mainly because they dont use them anymore and 2 because this person saying that paypal gave him their bank and personal info made my friend feel unsafe with paypal and ebay..but the problem now is this foreigner knows my friend's address and there is somewhat a little intimidation going on there through his emails and we are just not sure what this man is capable of.. he could be dangerous..we just don't know. This really puts a sour outlook on selling on the internet. Thanks for all the good advice it has really helped my friend feel better. Blessings and Merry Christmas to all!

[cyjeff]

Originally Posted by melsstuff

Yes my friend ended up going ahead and closing the accounts mainly because they dont use them anymore and 2 because this person saying that paypal gave him their bank and personal info made my friend feel unsafe with paypal and ebay..but the problem now is this foreigner knows my friend's address and there is somewhat a little intimidation going on there through his emails and we are just not sure what this man is capable of.. he could be dangerous..we just don't know. This really puts a sour outlook on selling on the internet. Thanks for all the good advice it has really helped my friend feel better. Blessings and Merry Christmas to all!

tell your friend to take the threats to the police.

[CdwJava]

Originally Posted by cyjeff

tell your friend to take the threats to the police.

The person making the threats appears to be a "foreigner from another country" ... if the buyer is IN another country, the police are going to do just about nothing. They will probably ask him to write out a statement, and then they'll slap a cover sheet on it and call it a report. There will be no further action if this has happened in another country, and not likely any additional action of the buyer lives out of state ... heck, even out of county might find no prosecution.

In any event, he seems to have done what he can to deal with the situation.

And this just once more illustrates why I do not do on-line auction type selling or buying - too many scams. My sister and her hubbie have been victimized (and still they buy and sell) and we take a couple reports each month for such scams - and none involve things we can do anything about.

- Carl