A friend smelled something fishy here, but we're not sure how the scam works. He received some Apple airpods from an ebay seller that he didn't order. He opened the package and found them to be genuine. He found the seller with the return address and contacted him. The seller thought he had ordered them, but asked that they be returned. My friend did not do so. Next day, another package with Apple airpods arrives from a different seller. He opened that one too and find them to be genuine. So what's the angle? How do you make a scam by mailing randos $200 items?
That tracking number showing "Delivered" to your zip code is a stand-in for a more expensive non-delivery nearby. The person will put in a claim that they didn't get their iphone or whatever...the seller will show the "delivered" tracking number so the case with automatically close. So someone in your zip code with a similar address isn't getting their product. The scammer then tries to run out the clock with the original buyer and ebay for 30 days and pocket the money. Bonus: good hearted people return the item they didn't order to the seller, so they get the scam item back too. They tend to use legitimate products in the scam shipment because if they ARE caught by authorities, they can claim it was a legitimate mistake. (we sent apple airpods to the wrong address, instead of an iphone to the right address) The best thing you can do is keep the merchandise, but report it to eBay so they can shut the seller down. It happens quite a bit, but not by big scamming outfits because they are risking real products. Usually a small time scammer will run the scam here and there to pocket a few thousand before they get caught. The additional thing is that USUALLY ebay will have to cover the refund to the original buyer eventually, so its coming out of ebay's pocket.
thanks. But still seems weird. Wouldn't you rather do it with a cheaper product? And, why the second seller sending the same thing the next day?
It's a dropshipper that sent the airpods to the wrong address. Keep them. The 'different seller' is the same person. Their software got screwy with addresses. This is a common scam but they wouldn't send a $200 item. Also, **** eBay.
