I purchased items on eBay that I later learned to be fakes. What's the best option for filing fraud charges?

Question

eBay and Paypal are pretty useless when it comes to protecting buyers and sellers. eBay and Paypal are more concerned with protecting their own interests than those of their users. They offer a ridiculously limited window of time to take any action.

So what do I do if I find out a year later that an item I paid $250 for is a fake and the seller won't refund my money? Is this something I should take to the police? What is my best option?

Answer 1

Chalk it up as a lesson learned, and be more careful when buying stuff on eBay next time.

Answer 2

First you need to contact the seller of the item and tell of your situation. You must reread the sellers description to see if maybe it said something about not being genuine first. If it does say it's genuine and the seller refuses to cooperate then you need to report it to ebay as misleading the customer/wrong item description. Ebay will help resolve the situation but don't expect it to be instant. They will have to investigate to see if you have a legitimate claim. Try the seller then ebay. Good luck!!

Answer 3

I agree with the first poster. After 1 year I would guess your statute of limitations is up anyways. you can try to file a civil lawsuit to recover your funds. Try calling judge judy or one of those wacky shows. They may be strange but they are legal and have legal powers.
Mostly, be very careful with what you buy on E-Bay. make sure you have a recourse for return. i never buy anything that does not include some sort of policy for being able to return it. Then again, I don't buy questionable goods anyways unless i can verify the authentic nature of such goods. Like the original Emmanual Kant book from 1889 that I bought for 99 cents. I bid on it cause it was cheap but made sure I could return it if it wasn't what was stated. It was..and now I have in my possesion a book worth close to $500 to a collector :)