Scammers on eBay (the story of one deception)

Disclaimer : the article is not quite suitable for Habr and it is not entirely clear in which hub to post it, just the article is not a complaint, I think the community will be useful to know how to lose money when selling computer hardware on eBay.

A week ago, my acquaintance asked me for advice, he was selling his old hardware on eBay and was faced with deception by the buyer.
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A second-hand Intel Core i7-4790K processor was put up for sale, the average price for eBay was set. The lot was set up as usual, a photo of the processor with a serial number and an indication that the processor was used, without any configuration.

The processor quickly found a buyer, from Canada, with an account on eBay since 2008 and 100% positive feedback on a large number of purchases.

After the successful transfer of money, my friend went to the post office, sent the processor at his own expense (he decided to make the delivery free of charge). The package arrived in 10 days, the buyer received it and even left a short review - “Great!” And five stars. It would seem that all is well and you can celebrate the successful disposal of the old piece of iron, but no.

A few days after receiving the parcel, the buyer opens a “Return Request” with the following complaint: “Everything is fine, in the processor that I was sent, does not match the description in the lot, I bought Intel Core i7-4790K, and received Intel Core i5-4690K” . To which my friend naturally answers that this can not be, he personally packed the package and is absolutely sure that he sent what was stated (and he never had any i5).

At the same time, eBay offered three options to choose from, full refund, partial refund and refund with the return of the lot at the seller’s expense. The partial refund option involved the intervention of eBay support. An acquaintance offered a refund of $ 1 to draw attention to the request, with the text that the buyer is trying to deceive the seller.

The buyer refused to return and the case turned to eBay technical support. From which my friend received the answer that he has 4 days to arrange the return of the lot at his own expense (to pay the buyer the cost of sending to his PayPal account). I think it is clear that in this case the buyer would simply return the i5-4690K at the seller’s expense. Naturally, the technical support was given a detailed answer describing the situation. But, technical support in this case was entirely on the side of the buyer. After another routine response to returning the lot, a friend decided to just stop wasting his nerves and made a return without sending the lot back.

The buyer received a free upgrade, got his money back and stayed with his old processor.

After a quick googling and reading forums about cheating on eBay, it turned out that this is a common practice.

The scheme is simple:

• A valid for a long time account with positive reviews is bought, or these reviews are collected for a large number of purchases of 1-2 dollars.
• A second-hand iron is purchased from the account, after receiving the parcel a refund is requested. If requested to return the lot, the seller is not sent what he sold. Accounts after a while are banned after several complaints, but since there are no problems to create / buy new accounts, the scheme lives on.

Unofficially, eBay’s tips are as follows: take packages on the video, make an inventory in the mail with confirmation of the contents (is it possible to do this in our mail, for example?) But it is clear that such a number of actions on each parcel is not at all productive. And it is not clear whether eBay will accept them as evidence.

If someone came across a similar one, please write about your experience and how you solved these problems.