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Most ads I see these days on Instagram are scam. They usually lead to sites that have been built with a quick template and always offer 50-80% discount on littl
by dvcrn 6y ago
Most ads I see these days on Instagram are scam. They usually lead to sites that have been built with a quick template and always offer 50-80% discount on little things I want, for example lamps.
They all offer PayPal so I took the bait once. The scam was clever: they ship something that isn’t what you ordered. Like a jump rope for $1 instead of the $30 lamp (discounted from $200) or drone. To get a 60% refund, you have to send it back on your own cost.
Now it gets more tricky: the parcel might not even be delivered to your address. Mine never arrived but got delivered to a zip code close to mine, but not mine. There are lots of reports of people that receive things without ordering anything and people who never get their stuff. There is also no guarantee what you ship back arrives back at them. If it doesn’t, the company doesn’t refund anything.
I quickly realized this is an obvious scam and asked them to cancel, and opened a PayPal claim before anything got shipped. The company said they are processing my refund and it will take 3 days for my money to be back (which is not how PayPal works). Guess what? In the 3 days, they just shipped something which threw the PayPal claim off because now they have to wait until the shipment arrived and gets sent back (info from PayPal cs).
It’s been over a month and I am still trying to get my money from PayPal back. It’s difficult because I haven’t received anything but the shipping number says it arrived. The site no longer exists and the email I previously used to reach out is gone too.
It’s crazy to me that PayPal enables all of these scammers. They clearly know how to play PayPal to get around the buyer protection.
These days I can’t trust any ads because of this unless I do a lot of research on the site. It’s very likely all scam. I saw similar sites on google shopping (the price comparison product), so it’s not just Facebook.
- babaganoosh89 6y agoIt's better to use credit cards when you can, chargebacks are way easier than that.
- dvcrn 6y agoLuckily I paid with credit card through PayPal and will use that option if the claim doesn't progress in the next few days
- wishinghand 6y agoI've had a similar experience- something sold for a deep discount (MIDI controller), received something else entirely (cheap bluetooth speaker), and was told to keep it instead of sending it back and sell it to recoup my costs while they refund 15%. I recognized it as a scam at that point and saw that the email I paid to was different than their support, and when I replied asking for 100% it was yet another email. Luckily for me, taking it up with PayPal got me my 100% refund, but I was nervous while they went through the motions of asking the seller to settle up with me, which I had to approve or reject, and then PayPal would review further. Screenshots of everything, showing the weird random email addresses, and the fact that their website didn't exist anymore landed in my favor.
- dvcrn 6y agoI am confident that I will get my money back too, it will just take some time. PayPal even called me on my phone to ask details about the case, so it's definitely in progress. But there is a thread on the PayPal forums and a lot of people don't have the luck I have - https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Disputes-and-Limitations/eleenonlinetrade/td-p/2284897 https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Disputes-and-Limitations... It's hard to believe that this seller is able to play PayPal like this though. There must be dozens over dozens of claims against the same vendor at this point.