eBay Sellers using stolen credit cards for ARB Twin sales

Hey gents, time for a story.
SHORT VERSION: I paid a guy on eBay $400 for a ARB Twin, he used a stolen credit card to buy a full price($542) ARB Twin from another company and send to me, he pockets $400. Credit card company redacts charges, company who sold compressor loses money.

LONG VERSION:
Last week I was looking for ARB Twin compressors on eBay. Thought I found one for a steal of a price at $400. I was skeptical because the seller had been on eBay for about a month and only sold a few items. But in typical TW fashion, I said "Fuck it, SEND IT". I figured none the less, I had eBay, Paypal, and my credit card company to go to if I didn't get the item.

About a week a week after I bought it, I still hadn't received tracking info, so I sent the guy a very polite message asking about it. The next day, I got a refund with no reply to my message other than "Item was out of stock or broken". However, today, a ARB twin showed up on my door step from Off-Road Warehouse with no invoice other than a random email address/phone number and my shipping address.

At first I thought maybe it was a SS from a friend or gift from my parents. But as @Littles oh so accurately put "None of us like you enough to spend $550 on you. We basically just tolerate you" Parent's didn't send it either. So I got to investigating.

I called Off-road Warehouse to inquire on it. The credit card and all info, other than my shipping address, did not belong to me. Turns out, after explaining the eBay thing to them, they have lost a lot of money (I think he said like $6000) over the last few weeks to stolen credit cards used to purchase items from them, my story brought the pieces together as I was the first to call and ask about it. The people with the stolen cards buy the items from Off-Road Warehouse (And probably other companies), pocket the money sent to them over PayPal etc, then Off-Road Warehouse loses money when people file claims with their credit card companies.

Off-Road Warehouse is going to send me a return label for compressor in the next 24 hours or so, so I can return it to them and hopefully they don't lose the money on it. I also called eBay to report the seller and eBay is now investigating the guy.

Sucks that Off-Road Warehouse, though I have never bought anything from them before, lost a bunch of money to people who got these things and didn't think twice of it, or they did and said "Who cares, I got a free compressor!"

 

good man.

 

Props for being a stand up individual.

 

I might actually just call them back and try to buy the compressor from them.

 

You wonder about those people who never checked.
Years ago, after a burglary of a retail store I managed, break out took our receipts and all the cash, no one inquired why their checks were never deposited. I say break out as someone had to of hid in the store, going out the back door then.
Duane

 

Yeah, I still wonder about this $500 welder I saw on Amazon. It was a Hobart 210MVP, normally like a $900 item.

Same thing, I clicked the "Fuck it" button. For $500 I'd kick myself if it was legit and I passed it up. Seemed like it was some sort of Amazon sale or something. Several days go by and I get a few other things I ordered, but no welder. I check my order status and the welder is just not there. Nothing. No record of it. It wasn't until I logged in on my computer (rather than on my phone) that I saw the order had simply been "cancelled" with no explanation. I dig in a little deeper and most of the seller reviews has something to do with ordering a ~$500 item and getting canceled with no explanation.

I always wondered what the scam could have been because I never got charged.

Now I see this and it's got my gears grinding again...

 

I had a new eBay seller who was not familiar with the bays policy of delaying payment to the sellers account. Kept saying I had not paid him and he would not ship until he had his money, advised him a few times to verify with the bay their policy. Never saw my items, he also asked me to send PayPal funds to a different addy than what the bay had. My credit card was credited back after I filed a dispute with the bay.
Duane

 

Yeah. I wonder if I still would have gotten my money back even if I didn't message him. Maybe was just coincidence. The guys name on Paypal was "Chung Hoang" but the email address sounded like a made up "American" name. Was like bobbyrickenson18@yahoo.com or something

 

Welp, ended up just buying the compressor from them. Nice guys over there, gave me a deal on it.