Fraudulent Use of My Address and Selling on eBay

SandySummer

SandySummer

Member
Jan 4, 2014
859
517
#1
Hi all! I own a business and yesterday the Mailman came by to drop off a package. To my surprise, it was a "rejected/return to sender" and the return address was a woman's name with my business address. The label says eBay and was printed out using Pitney Bowes. I said this person is not me, no one works here by this name and we do not use eBay or Pitney Bowes. I took a picture of the label and the Mailman then took the package back.

I contacted eBay and Pitney Bowes to see about this person using my address but they do not have a record of her as a user. I have filed a report with the Postal Inspector about this but still not feeling great about it.

I also google streetviewed the address and let's just say.... not the best looking place. Really shady/silence of the lambs sort of feel.

Has anyone ever dealt with anything like this? Feel free to PM me.
 
#2
There have been scams perpetrated by both buyers and sellers but usually it's a buyer (supposedly) sending back a return.

(It's usually done with items under $750 where no s.c. is required.)

It works this way.
  • Buyer receives item and requests a return.
  • Seller sends buyer the return shipping address
  • Buyer locates an address in the same zip code as the seller
  • Buyer prints a shipping label and ships a box of rocks, books, newspaper, junk to that address.
  • Buyer follows tracking, watches for delivery and demands refund from seller.
  • Seller doesn't receive item because it wasn't shipped to her address
  • Seller loses case because buyer has tracking showing delivery to the correct zip code
  • Buyer gets refund for returning a box of rocks
It can work similarly with a dishonest seller who collects money for an item, and ships something/anything to another address in the same zip code. In the case of a scamming seller, the seller can't print the label through ebay or paypal because the change of address would be evident.

Something similar to this type of scheme happened to @uadjit a couple of years ago. She was able to prove that her item was sent to a different address in her city.
 
#3
SandySummer said:
Has anyone ever dealt with anything like this? Feel free to PM me.
Click to expand...
As BB says this can be part of a scam but the victim is either the eBay buyer or seller. PayPal and eBay only require proof of delivery to show that an item was delivered to a particular zip code. So if scammers find a random address within the target zip code they can send a package filled with anything or nothing to satisfy that requirement. It's good that you contacted the postal inspector but I'd email eBay CS with a picture of the label. They may be able to identify the involved parties based on the woman's name, address or the tracking number.

I'm sure you feel uncomfortable that your address is involved but most likely it's just a random business that this scammer looked up. I had this scam pulled on me and the package the scamming buyer sent was sent to a vacant townhome in my zip code.
 
#4
Wow!thanj you for your explanations. I didn't know all of that! Hopefully this won't happen again. I just got thrown off because I thought they were using my address for ALL of their business. Anyway case is still under investigation by the Postal Inspector.
 
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