-Sigh- eBay fake...

What was the seller's name!!??

Well, at least it was resolved quickly and favorably.

It just makes you wonder how many people have absolutely no knowledge about fragrances and think it's the real thing. It might not be the seller's fault but I highly doubt this is the first time he's sold a fake fragrance.

One of the problems is stock photos. If you'd been able to see photos of the actual bottle your seller was listing, you would probably have realized it was fake.

I've only ever bought bottles from sellers who took their own photos. Nothing I buy gets faked, but even so, I want to know what the bottle and juice look like!

Too many fakes of new frags and even some old ones, such as By Man. My rule is that if the ebay seller is undercutting the major online discounters (who also sell on ebay) then something's wrong, so it's best to just buy from them or from a BNer you trust.

Name and shame.

Definitely. I've queried photos at least once that I can remember. Outcome was favourable for me on that occasion.

When it comes to fakes, the only ones I've seen have been very, very obvious. The bigger problem for us comes with the very convincing ones I think.

Sometimes you do get what you actually paid for.
When buying from eBay t's probably better to buy used bottles than BNIB.

Agreed.

Certain fragrances simply should not be purchased on Ebay.

Amen to that; I now only buy perfumes with actual photos of the product. A stock photo looks too perfect, like a hamburger in a fast food ad and obviously what you get isn't going to looked Photoshopped in real life...

99.9% of cologne on ebay is fake. End of story. Period. If its too good to be true, then it is.

In that case I have had an astonishing amount of luck with my buys.
I'm pretty certain that only one out of about fifty has been a fake.
The odds of that must run into the trillions to one.

I agree. I have been very successful with eBay purchases. I have gotten two fakes: GIT and ADG. It was pretty obvious both times. I have probably bought 500 legit bottles through the years. Overall I have saved mucho dinero in comparison with retail prices.

I must be lucky then. I've bought over 40 bottles on eBay and I've yet to come across a fake. If you avoid the really popular fragrances (best sellers), are realistic about the price you're looking to pay and only look at testers and partially used bottles, you'll be OK for the most part.

I'm confused as to why you went to eBay as a resort for, as far as I know, an easily obtainable bottle??

I like to buy off of amazon an actual listed amazon retailer, never had any problems

Ebay = scammers marketplace, and I'm sure they make a lot of money off counterfeit fragrances there. I don't understand why there are all these threads "another fake on Ebay" .. duh.. I mean obviously. You could get better values on the REAL deal at places like Marshall's, TJ Maxx, and Ross; and websites like Amazon, and Scentedmonkey..

100ml goes for $57 on fragrancenet with the code 'basenotes'.

PLEASE DON'T AGREE TO SEND IT BACK TO THE SELLER!!!

I'm a firm believer that we have to look out for each other. If you send that fake back to the seller, he or she will sell it again to someone else - possibly one of us. I got burned on eBay by a woman selling fakes. There were signs on the bottle that I wasn't the first person to receive it. She offered me a refund if I'd send it back to her. Oh hell no. I'm not ok with being even partly to blame for someone else getting screwed. I fought that.

eBay and PayPal have no interest in protecting anyone but their business, so they're not really protecting either sellers or buyers. Their #1 goal is to avoid having to ever admit in writing they're being used for illegal activities. eBay and PayPal were both insistent that I ABSOLUTELY had to send the counterfeit back to the person who makes a living selling counterfeits. Oh! Hell! No!

I went to the police. Problem solved. After having already denied me a refund no less than five times (!!) PayPal immediately issued me a full refund.

The only reason I'm not posting the seller's name here is because the police officer I met with specializes in internet crime and said he'd look into setting up a sting if he could find evidence suggesting this wasn't an isolated incident, not just to bust the seller but to get further up the food chain.

It's really worth checking to see if your local police department has anyone who specializes in internet crime. If it does, have that officer confiscate the fake and give you a receipt. Then scan the receipt and upload it to your case at eBay and/or PayPal. And when you speak with someone at eBay or PayPal, do not get off the phone until that person has acknowledged that he or she has seen the police document you uploaded (remember: they record all calls).

You can get your money back without returning a fake to be sold to someone else, and hopefully get a seller or distributer of fakes out of business in the process. Win, WIN.

yet to get a fake from ebay, but stories like this scare me...and from a reputable seller ay ay ay

Good for you.
I am pretty pissed at ebay for doing zero when I bought a counterfeit (the money was nothing, £5, but I later found someone else selling exactly the same fake and they didn't even remove the listing.)
I will look into this police internet crime specialist thing.

wow that's an incredible read. good for you man.

I sell a lot of decants and bottles on EBAY. I always take my own pictures of the Box, Bottle, and decant atomizer. I list the Batch # in the description. I do not allow returns, b/c I don't want to be used to test fragrances for free...but I agree, I won't buy from stock photos...I just saw today a guy with 33 Neg. feedback so far this year. Reading down through they were fake, fake, empty box, fake...I wondered how people could buy from a guy like that...96.9% IS NOT A GOOD PERCENTAGE FOR FEEDBACK!!

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That is a non-verifiable exaggeration. Many are fakes, not even half though. You have to watch for the Creed fakes, true, but Many are everyday people who didn't like what they bought, or were given, and are just trying to resell it. I stick with "used" b/c who is going to go to the trouble to fake a bottle and dump out half, and sell it for less?

BTW...Don't think that b/c it is AMAZON, it is genuine...I find many comments there that they received fakes. Most amazon purchases come from outside dealers too...

Yeah it's 99.9% if your a complete moron. If your of normal intelligence and actually know what your looking at, the chances are probably pretty small.

im sorry

Sorry to hear that. I've been burned on eBay before when I purchased One Million. Some people just have no shame.

Oh come on, eBay's not that bad if you use common sense. My positives far outweigh the bad on there. And I can sell scents there often times that don't move for me on the swap board. Caveat emptor.

http://toolhaus.org/
enter the account name and see a full negative/neutral feedback rating...

interesting page

YOU CAN BUY AUTHENTIC PERFUMES ON EBAY, I HAVE BOUGHT MANY MANY MANY AND SOLD MANY MANY MANY. JUST FOLLOW THE "TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE" RULES AND YOU SHOULD BE FINE.

I too sell on ebay, I consider myself honest and I have always sold guaranteed genuine original real deal frags.
I Take my own pictures...and most importantly, I have adopted the "walmart" customer satisfaction policy that the customer is always right... this is mostly due to the fact that ebay will not protect the sellers. I have sold a couple things that the buyer received and for whatever reason was not happy with (color, size, condition etc) and I IMMEDIATELY refund their money (ebay does not require I send the money immediately, they DO require the buyer send the item back before the refund MUST be issued) But I go the extra mile to make sure everyone is happy. I refund their money right away and I apologize profusely for the wasting of their time if that is the case, or for the misunderstanding. (problems will always happen, what matters most is that you recognize the buyers time is equally as valuable as your own, and no one likes to not be understood) so I work hard to make sure I do EVERYTHING I CAN to ensure happiness.
HOWEVER, despite sending the money back for the items and asking that they return the item (keep in mind these are not bad or broken, just not the right "fit" or "doesnt work for what they needed") and the buyer NEVER RETURNS THE ITEM.
At this point, after having refunded the money I have ZERO LEVERAGE and ebay nor paypal will do ANYTHING to help me get my item back. SO I LOST MY ITEM, MY PROFITS, MY SHIPPING, MY PACKING MATERIALS.

long story short...as it applies to this situation and the fake perfume, demand a refund be made FIRST, then just done send it back. I GUARANTEE ebay will do nothing to you for keeping it. Lord knows I have tried.

WOW! That wasn't my experience at all. eBay demanded that, in order for me to get a refund, I had to send the fake back to the seller. So, I opened a case with PayPal. And PayPal demanded the same thing!

Maybe you got lucky with sellers who didn't want to fight. The seller who sent me a fake really thought she could still find a way to make a profit from me. First, she offered me a refund minus the 15% restocking fee. RESTOCKING A FAKE? No. Then she agreed to refund the full amount, but she needed me to send the fake back and she wanted me to PAY to do so. NO! She swore she wouldn't resell it. I asked if I could break it and send it back that way in order to prevent it from being resold. (I'd already provided her with proof it was counterfeit). She wouldn't agree... obviously, since she wanted to resell it! Both eBay and PayPal fought me too even though I'd provided them both with proof it was a fake. They were more than happy to give me my money back, but only if I sent the item back to the seller, but there was NO way I would agree to do that since I knew the seller would turn around and resell it to someone else, or she'd claim the item was returned damaged in order to prevent me from getting my refund.

I have zero faith in eBay and PayPal in terms of buyer protection. They don't want to get involved with anything that could be a legal matter, which means if a seller fights, there's no protection for the buyer at all unless you're willing to send the item back... but if the seller knows they'll get busted by trying to sell it again, they'll probably claim the item was returned damaged and fight the refund.

The amount of evidence I had in writing against this seller was crazy, but eBay and PayPal still wanted me to return the item!

----- First, let's address the appearance of the fake I received. The color of the bottle was wrong. The color of the sprayer nozzle was WAY wrong (white, not black). The sticker at the bottom was wrong. And the smell? It wasn't even perfume/cologne/fragrance.

----- The seller admitted via eBay correspondence the item was a fake before I even provided visual proof (which I did once I got my hands on a real bottle of the same to shw the differences). BOOM! That should be the end of it, right? Nope. eBay didn't care.

----- The seller sent me a business card with a different eBay ID blacked out, but there was enough legible to see that it didn't match the ID I bought from. I was suspicious, so I forwarded it to eBay and checked with them on the phone. EBAY CONFIRMED THE SELLER HAD MULTIPLE BANNED IDS. Still, they wouldn't find in my favor unless I sent back the item. Now, it's important to note that eBay records all of their calls. I mention this because once the representative said "Oh, yeah, I see 4 banned accounts for this person" I got bumped up to a supervisor. The supervisor told me I wasn't supposed to get that information, and I needed to send the fake back to the seller. I was mad at that point, so I called back and spoke to someone else at eBay for the sake of confirming their records as having proof of multiple banned IDs for this seller. I gave this 2nd representative the seller's phone number and address (home and email). Response? "I do see multiple banned accounts" and I was bumped up to a supervisor who could neither confirm nor deny, but stated that I had to send the item back to the seller in order to get a refund.

----- The seller made all sorts of ridiculous claims, some of which were about eBay rules which a quick call to eBay disproved, and others which were downright comical. For example, she gave me a sob story about being a single mother using this to support her. A few days later, she said the stress of this was bothering her HUSBAND. Single mom with a husband?

----- The seller offered a full refund in exchange for not giving her poor feedback. That's against ebay policies. I forwarded that to ebay. CRICKETS. They do not care.

----- She then tried to bribe me with fake merchandise in exchange for a 5 star review. Obviously, that's against ebay policies. I forwarded that to ebay too. No response. They do not care.

eBay seriously does not care. Buyer Protection is a marketing tool and nothing more. Oh, and let's see... what ever happened to the seller? The seller is still on eBay today even though she has already been banned under different accounts multiple times and has a police record attached to her current ID. eBay doesn't care.

Her scam is really simple: she sells $1 fakes for $50. They don't even have fragrance in them. Mine came with something that smelled like a cleaning product. And if she gets a complaint, she immediately offers a refund, minus a restocking fee, in exchange for returning the item so she can sell it again. And if anybody fights, she drops the restocking fee and, if push comes to shove, offers free stuff, which is of course fake and costs her next to nothing anyway. And that's why she has 97% positive feedback. eBay knows all of this. They have proof including admission from the seller on all counts I've mentioned here. eBay. Does. Not. Care. Their only priority is to keep themselves out of any legal issues. Yes, they offer buyer protection, but if my case wasn't a crystal clear example of fraud, what in the heck is?

And since there's no way for multiple buyers who were sold fakes by one seller to get in touch with each other, eBay has nothing to worry about because you can't prove they already know a seller has been busted for dealing in fraud.

eBay, absolutely positively
without a shadow of a doubt,
does not care.
Neither does PayPal.

Unless you're willing to make it a legal matter, and by that, I mean lawyers involved, they don't care. They just want to find a way to cut it down the middle and make both parties happy, even if one of them is a documented dealer in counterfeits. Again, the seller in my case agreed in writing that she sent me a fake. eBay and PayPal didn't care.

If you really look at how they've set the system up to protect themselves, you'll realize just how little they care about anything other than their bottom line.

That being said... I don't agree that 99% of all frags sold on eBay are fake. But buyer protection definitely isn't something you can count on. The eBay feedback system isn't something you can easily rely on either. eBay was quick to agree with me that what the seller was doing to cheat the system was against their rules (offering me merch in exchange for a 5 star review, withholding my refund until I gave her a 5 star review, etc), and since she did this via messages to me on eBay, they had access to her words as proof of fraud, but they did nothing.

eBay does not care. Their buyer protection is iffy at best.

Oh, and last but not least, I double-dog-dare ANYONE from PayPal or eBay to dispute one single word of what I've said here. URLs to their system instantly prove every word of what I've just said (eBay and PayPal have access to all correspondence between buyers and sellers so long as it's done on eBay. NEVER contact a seller directly. ALWAYS do so via messages on eBay, for your own protection). Plus, they have the police report AND the copy of the seller's business card with a previously banned ID visible enough to see that it doesn't match. And by plugging in her phone number, also on her business card, they can see her other multiple banned IDs on their system.

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And, again, for the record: the only reason I'm not outing the seller here is because I'm hoping she eventually gets busted in a sting.

P.S. Am I bitter? YES. I think it's shameful that eBay and PayPal do so little to keep such blatant and documented fraudulent users out of their system. And, again, if any representative from PayPal or eBay would like to contact me to dispute ONE WORD of what I've said here, PLEASE DO. All they have to do is PM me here and I will happily give them my home phone number because I would absolutely love to discuss this. I'd be thrilled to. They should be ashamed. Absolutely, positively and unquestionably ashamed.

If someone can go to the length that I went to to document fraud and STILL they do nothing about it, they should absolutely, positively and unquestionably feel ashamed. But they don't. And do you know why? I'll tell you why. They don't because THEY DO NOT CARE. A dollar from a crook is just as good as an honest dollar to them.

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I did that. The seller was convinced she could still make money from this transaction. Perhaps I just got one really determined seller?


That's what I did.


All it takes is a seller who wants to fight you. eBay caves in an instant, as does PayPal.


EXACTLY. And as I showed, sellers can cheat that if they want to. Honest sellers probably can't, but if you're selling $1 fakes for $50, you sure can. Read my post above. I mentioned many (but not all) of the ways eBay and PayPal had documented proof the seller was knowingly dealing in fraud. They didn't care. And since the seller is manipulating the feedback system, buyers have no way of knowing. She has 97% positive feedback. If I'd taken her bribe, she'd have 100% positive feedback. eBay knows. They have documented proof. They don't care. Maybe they care for bigger sellers, but they need to care about all sellers when they have documented proof.

There are loads of really nice sellers out there too. I have bought many perfumes on ebay and have yet to receive a fake, but I am buying vintage and used, so maybe a lesser chance of anyone bothering. I've had a few disappointments with carelessly packed breakages and leaks, but that's the nature of the game. Most souls are obliging and will refund. It will always be the crooks who won't play the rules anyway because they don't care in the first place.

There are however certain sellers who I wouldn't touch with a bargepole... if you are always watching the same type of auctions for extremely rare vintage perfumes..... and the same seller (not naming any names) comes up time and time again selling the rarest kind of Chanel Cuir de Russie (amongst similar types) in the extremely vintage bottles for huge amounts and seems to have an unlimited supply of such things????? .......And all the sales are private????.....Maybe it is a real genuine person who has collected it for years and has a warehouse full... really eh???? Even a listed complaint appears to have been authenticated as fake by Chanel.... BUT.... the sales keep on going and the clients seem happy. Why? Maybe the fakes are littered with real. Who knows? You just need to keep your own eyes sharply peeled.

I also agree about Amazon. Just be careful, it is the structure that is good and efficient, but the sellers are still all private. It is just a more trusted umbrella.

99% of '99% statements' are 100% BS.

I had more problems with sellers on ebay with claims of 'pure essential oil' that show up as dilutions than with fake frags but I usually stay away from the most popular faked frags. I did get caught on a couple I didn't know were popular to fake until afterwards but got full refunds without having to send the bottle back each time.

Sorry for your bad buy.

I find it quite easy to pick out what's fake or not with a decent amount of certainty when buying on ebay.
Beyond some standard alerts like no 100ml, no stock photo's, it really is a question of communicating with the seller.
If in doubt I would make a thread on bn and ask for the expertise of other posters, i've done that a few times with immediate results.

That's laying the "SMACKDOWN"!!

I tend not to buy the very common designer frags on ebay. Too high of a risk of a fake. Niche/rare stuff tends to be pretty safe for the most part. *knocks on wood*

Yeah, in the end, the seller I dealt with knew she was selling fakes. She admitted she sold me a fake. But she was persistent because she thought she could still get $50 out of the transaction, if not from me then from someone else when I returned the bottle.

I think most sellers on eBay are very good, and this is where eBay buyer protection comes in. It helps keep good sellers honest. But if you're dealing with a crook, eBay and PayPal aren't on your side. They're not on the buyer's side either, really. They want nothing to do with any of it. I'll continue to use eBay. I've had lots of good experiences and only two bad. In one case, the seller screwed up and made it right in the end. No harm done. But this particular case I wrote about above really taught me a lot about the inner workings of eBay. I can definitely see how a crook could make a lot of money with eBay. That's a shame.

I wonder if it would count as libel if we listed each of the sellers we suspected. I would love to, but would only be worried about this in case an innocent party got accidentally mixed up in the bad bag. It would have to be worded so carefully and each seller perhaps ought to be given the right to defend themselves really. It may just get BN into trouble and we wouldn't want that. Perhaps it could be a 'pass-it-on-to-whoever-wanted-it-private-PM' that got added to. I suppose that might work but only to prevent a purchase and not to be used as a libellous weapon.

I don't really know how it could be done. Maybe here but without exactly mentioning names.

an ancient Italian South saying goes like this "saved money is wasted money!" so sorry for you, mate...besides I much prefer buy stuff in shops, the parcel full of juices is so solipsistic, I had to get a few of them since I was buying vintage but only from local shops I know.... too traps and frauds on the net....... I stopped using it when I got 130 $ stolen from my card!

I don't think names of bad eBay sellers should be named here. There is potential for abuse and for liability.
Buyers who name names may also find they have exposed their eBay ID, with consequent loss of privacy.

I just noticed something that is very suspicious. I looked up Le Male on amazon and none of the listings had any reviews. How is that possible? Did they remove the reviews because of complaints about fakes or did I miss the page with all the reviews somehow? Or something else?

UPDATE: I had to search for Le Male on Amazon through google to find the pages with the reviews.

So you agree to return the bottle, take off the spritzer, squirt black ink into the juice, put the spritzer back on, and send it back...

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I also try to look for EBAYERS who are members of Basenotes, with massive posts...Not a sure thing, but helps

It's not only that Ebay seems to protect the fraudulent sellers, but also punishes legitimate ones. Example: I've been selling several perfumes this year, and suddenly Ebay blocks my account for a month. Explanation: they want to avoid the sale of counterfeits. What the hell? If I have 100 % positive votes on all my sales, what gave them any kind of hint towards me supposedly selling fakes?
Lousy, lousy Ebay.

Lol, I want you guys who buy eBay cologne to post high res detailed pics of your box and cologne bottles so I can ruin your world. I'll prove they are fake. You are just gullible and wearing fake cologne.

Yeah, right. You should know.

how do you do that? I mean how do you check if an ebay user is a basenotes member?

thanks

Lol,I want you to post high res detailed pics of all your posts. We'll prove you are an idiot.

Go ahead hot shot, make my day.