Fraud assistance required!

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

Trying to save money for my first house purchase, I'm selling some of my things on Amazon Marketplace.

Anyhow, the other day I sold a new-condition PS2 game. The customer filed for a return (which Amazon Seller rules state must be granted). Today I received the game in a CLEAR state of age. Item value probably around 10% of what the original was worth.

The item is clearly worn with age and misuse, and not just general postal damage - this jerk is trying to do one over on me!

Question is: what do I do next?

I'm fairly new to this, not a professional seller - and have never had to deal with something of this nature. Do I file a case with Amazon, get the police involved for attempted fraud (which essentially is what this is), or do nothing and pretend I never received the returned item?

Any proper help will be appreciated

[DorsetFox9]

Trying to save money for my first house purchase, I'm selling some of my things on Amazon Marketplace.

Anyhow, the other day I sold a new-condition PS2 game. The customer filed for a return (which Amazon Seller rules state must be granted). Today I received the game in a CLEAR state of age. Item value probably around 10% of what the original was worth.

The item is clearly worn with age and misuse, and not just general postal damage - this jerk is trying to do one over on me!

Question is: what do I do next?

I'm fairly new to this, not a professional seller - and have never had to deal with something of this nature. Do I file a case with Amazon, get the police involved for attempted fraud (which essentially is what this is), or do nothing and pretend I never received the returned item?

Any proper help will be appreciated

play him at his own game. did you have to sign for it? if not then simply say you didn't get it.

[stix]

File a case with Amazon would be my first port of call. Although im unsure how you could prove that the item that was returned wasnt the one you sent. Unless you have photographic evidence. I know it is the principle but how much was the item?

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

play him at his own game. did you have to sign for it? if not then simply say you didn't get it.

I didn't have to sign for it, so this might be one way to go - however if they file any sort of complaint to Amazon it's almost certain that I would be out of pocket at the end of it

File a case with Amazon would be my first port of call. Although im unsure how you could prove that the item that was returned wasnt the one you sent. Unless you have photographic evidence. I know it is the principle but how much was the item?

That's probably the right thing to do. The item was only £20. I have sold probably 30-40 items and have had no bad feedback or complaints upheld. Hopefully Amazon would appreciate I'm an honest person and do not wish to be screwed over

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

Just had a thought!

By filing for a return, the customer has acknowleged that they received the item. Without a signature required on the "returned" item, there is no proof that I received anything, so surely whatever refund this man is after could only be provided by Royal Mail if anyone (as I have not received the original item, merely what I would now consider in legal terms - a gift)

Hopefully someone with a good legal understanding/qualification could clear this up for me. I really can't be bothered to go through any sort of action, and most certainly will not issue a refund. So I think ignoring the situation might actually be the best path here...

[DorsetFox9]

Just had a thought!

By filing for a return, the customer has acknowleged that they received the item. Without a signature required on the "returned" item, there is no proof that I received anything, so surely whatever refund this man is after could only be provided by Royal Mail if anyone (as I have not received the original item, merely what I would now consider in legal terms - a gift)

Hopefully someone with a good legal understanding/qualification could clear this up for me. I really can't be bothered to go through any sort of action, and most certainly will not issue a refund. So I think ignoring the situation might actually be the best path here...

this is what i was getting at. they must have proof the item reached you, or they would need to seek reimbursement from Royal Mail

[BoneDog]

Other dude sounds like a right d*ck who sits at home thinking of ways to rip people off. I'd love to tell him off.

I saw an episode of Judge Judy once where someone was doing the same thing on eBay. Judy was like "You'd do well to spend as much energy on bettering yourself as you do on trying to rip people off. $1000 fine. Get out of my courtroom you scum."

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

DorsetFox9 - yeah sorry I was trying to worth out some sort of legal stance, as I had feeling that as long as Amazon have my bank details, they can just deduct money from my account if I refuse to issue a refund

Other dude sounds like a right d*ck who sits at home thinking of ways to rip people off. I'd love to tell him off.

I saw an episode of Judge Judy once where someone was doing the same thing on eBay. Judy was like "You'd do well to spend as much energy on bettering yourself as you do on trying to rip people off. $1000 fine. Get out of my courtroom you scum."

Yeah I'd love to get the police or someone official involved but it'd be far too much hassle.

As it stands, I have my earnings, and a "gift" - so I'm currently up! If the guy contacts me again, I'll display his full name, address and email address in case you (or anyone else) still want to "tell him off".

[Collymore]

Other dude sounds like a right d*ck who sits at home thinking of ways to rip people off. I'd love to tell him off.

I saw an episode of Judge Judy once where someone was doing the same thing on eBay. Judy was like "You'd do well to spend as much energy on bettering yourself as you do on trying to rip people off. $1000 fine. Get out of my courtroom you scum."

I remember ebay on Judy once. The bloke was selling Psps or something like that and he was just sending the boxes without the equipment! He was so blasae about it in court thinking that he'd done nothing wrong because of his "clever" wording in the adverts. Judy had his arse, it was great.

[Nick]

Trying to save money for my first house purchase, I'm selling some of my things on Amazon Marketplace.

Anyhow, the other day I sold a new-condition PS2 game. The customer filed for a return (which Amazon Seller rules state must be granted). Today I received the game in a CLEAR state of age. Item value probably around 10% of what the original was worth.

The item is clearly worn with age and misuse, and not just general postal damage - this jerk is trying to do one over on me!

Question is: what do I do next?

I'm fairly new to this, not a professional seller - and have never had to deal with something of this nature. Do I file a case with Amazon, get the police involved for attempted fraud (which essentially is what this is), or do nothing and pretend I never received the returned item?

Any proper help will be appreciated

It's theft - report it to Amazon and then the Police. He'll only keep doing it to others if you don't draw attention to him.

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

It's theft - report it to Amazon and then the Police. He'll only keep doing it to others if you don't draw attention to him.

That's right I probably should and might well do. However, there's no proof that what I sent wasn't the same item as was sent back to me, and I doubt the police would bother with a case this petty - so I'd probably have to waste a lot of time and possibly risk losing the money with no result

If all goes according to plan, he'll have ended up having to pay in full for something he didn't really want and will have wasted his original item (plus postage) for a smaller lesson in why not to try diddling people. He's welcome to leave bad feedback, I'm not fussed about selling much more on Amazon as I was going to take what hasn't sold yet and sell in bulk-loads on eBay. Less hassle, no returns.

One thing of note: this is the 2nd bad encounter I've had with a fraudster online and both (men) used a female customer name. The original sold me a bootleg game over eBay, and after I left bad feedback accusing him of fraud, he phoned up the house number and threatened me. I'd love to firebomb these idiots

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

Having thought about this morning, I don't wish to be involved in any fraudulent myself so I'm in the process of writing to the Birstall Constabulary - i.e. "doing the right thing". I'm sure if he has one or two other reports against him, his local police will give him a warning which would hopefully act as a deterrant. That or he'll be arrested, which would be fantastic

Question now is do I contact the seller, and let him know the Police are dealing with his returned item, or wait for him to contact me when he chases up his "refund"?

[Jimothy]

Having thought about this morning, I don't wish to be involved in any fraudulent myself so I'm in the process of writing to the Birstall Constabulary - i.e. "doing the right thing". I'm sure if he has one or two other reports against him, his local police will give him a warning which would hopefully act as a deterrant. That or he'll be arrested, which would be fantastic

Question now is do I contact the seller, and let him know the Police are dealing with his returned item, or wait for him to contact me when he chases up his "refund"?

I'm not sure if you're doing the right thing going to the police, I've never been in a situation like this, but I wouldn't let him know. If he does this regularly and the police decide to pay a visit you'll only be warning him of the likelihood of this happening and giving him chance to cover his tracks.

[Jace]

You need to report it to Amazon chances are he might of tried this a few times if that is the case they will make the decision in your favour. If not then unfortunately they may agree with the buyer and you would of lost out risk of being a seller unfortunately hopefully someone else has already reported them

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

I'm going to report it to Amazon once I have a police case reference - make it look more official. Never reported anyone to the police so I'm sure it won't seem like I'm wasting anyone's time. Also having looked into it a little more, I don't think I'm forced to issue any sort of refund - as a private seller you're likely to sell more with good feedback, and I think the feedback is the only thing at risk. Which isn't a worry.

It's the principal more than the money, I'm sure companies are subject to this kind of thing all the time but I'm having to sacrifice alot of my mint condition games, DVDs and CDs to fund my (absolutely non-extravagant) living, and I won't give in to some scumbag with a poorly thought-out scheme.

I wonder how much he's made so far. I sold the item for £20 (which was the lowest anyone was selling the item in new condition). Used condition copies of the game sell for as little as £1.50 on Amazon, and it's the kind of game you could probably pick up at a charity shop for 50p. My guess is he buys bad condition games in bulk for pennies, then tries returning new condition purchases which are over 1000% of cost. Do that successfully 2 or 3 times a day and you wouldn't need a full-time job. Some small retailers might not actually worry about this as they just want regular turnover and the hassle involved might cost the business more than the loss of the original item