Ebay Buyer Sales Tax Scheme Headache!

[BobC]

Originally Posted by nwobhm

Or put a physical address on file of a known business.... say a hotel. They receive mail for guests all the time. Scamming addresses doesn't take a whole lot of thought. I have seen a good number of mail scams over the years. They usually start with an address change.

I don't doubt it!

It just seems like sooooo much work and effort by the buyer in the OP's case to save a few dollars on sales tax. Why bother going to all that technically illegal hassle and trouble for less than $10? Unless.......maybe the buyer didn't want the purchase after all, and thought this might be a way to get the seller to drop it and get out of it without a non-payer black mark?

[nwobhm]

I was thinking more along the lines of the buyer was looking to get the entire purchase for free.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by nwobhm

I was thinking more along the lines of the buyer was looking to get the entire purchase for free.

I understand, but thought I addressed that when I mentioned in an earlier post how the seller would have the buyer's email as evidence to show Ebay he requested the address change.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by BobC

I understand, but thought I addressed that when I mentioned in an earlier post how the seller would have the buyer's email as evidence to show Ebay he requested the address change.

Problem would be that after eBay turned down the buyer, the buyer could then tell either PayPal or his credit card that he didn't receive anything and they would probably believe him without giving the seller a chance to provide any evidence to the contrary like eBay could do.

[Kutcher55]

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing. I probably would have made the same mistake but now thanks to you, I won’t.

Definitely don’t mess with the guy. Not worth making unknown enemies over small $.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by jayshum

Problem would be that after eBay turned down the buyer, the buyer could then tell either PayPal or his credit card that he didn't receive anything and they would probably believe him without giving the seller a chance to provide any evidence to the contrary like eBay could do.

Now you do have a point there, but why even bother with the address change then? He can just claim he didn't get it.

And why did he have the original address going to a state without sales tax? If he wasn't planning to pay anyway, what difference does the sales tax make? I assume if you file a claim and get refunded the purchase price, it would include the sales tax since the sale technically never occurred then. Unless Ebay and Paypal are doing something that I wouldn't expect.

The fact that the buyer specifically used a non-sales tax state for his Ebay shipping address of record sure points to sales tax maybe having something to do with his scheme. Just saying, and have to agree with the OP along that line of thinking.

[Fred]

I don't get it. Just how much sales tax could be on $76? How much does it cost to re-ship an item from one location to the other? To me, that's just too much hassle for a $76 item.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Fred

I don't get it. Just how much sales tax could be on $76? How much does it cost to re-ship an item from one location to the other? To me, that's just too much hassle for a $76 item.

Fred, That's part of the question, why would someone do all this for not really much of anything? The whole thing makes very little sense.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Fred

I don't get it. Just how much sales tax could be on $76? How much does it cost to re-ship an item from one location to the other? To me, that's just too much hassle for a $76 item.

This purchase was only $76, but that doesn't mean he isn't buying higher priced cards and trying to do the same thing.