Is This Ebay Buyer Trying to Scam Me? URGENT!

[bmichaels556]

Hey there, I really appreciate the help you guys.

 

I sold an old RX 480 8GB on Ebay. Not long after, the buyer contacts me talking about having issues installing drivers with some screenshots about it and whatever. "Oh, I went to a couple different computer stores and they both told me there's something wrong with it. I tried everything." 

 

So I was thinking, "Fine... I guess for whatever reason, the card just isn't doing what it's supposed to. I'll have him send it back to me and give me a refund."

 

So he sounded receptive to that. And so I get this thing back in the mail, and there are some things that are really concerning to me right now. First, that the card is absolutely spotless. I sent it fairly clean, but it looks like it just came from factory. Another thing... The serial number sticker on the back? It's peeled off and only partially sticking.

 

To me, this is looking like he swapped my card with a dead one. I actually hadn't taken a picture of the damn serial number because I'm a moron, but even if I did, it wouldn't matter if he swapped the sticker, and it looks like that may be the case. Squeaky clean, sticker peeling off.. This just sounds to me like a scam. Probably as simple as him getting screwed with another purchase and trying to swap it with mine. 

 

Granted, I'm only going to really lose the return shipping cost. The error that he showed seems like it might be solved with a BIOS flash. Even still..

 

What are your guys' thoughts?

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, bmichaels556 said:

What are your guys' thoughts?

If you have any pictures of the one you sold, inspect them carefully and see if there are any differences, like e.g. maybe there's a scratch somewhere that's not on the one you received, or maybe some resistors or capacitors are in a slightly different position.

[Spotty]

What model RX480 is it?
 

3 minutes ago, bmichaels556 said:

To me, this is looking like he swapped my card with a dead one. I actually hadn't taken a picture of the damn serial number because I'm a moron, but even if I did, it wouldn't matter if he swapped the sticker, and it looks like that may be the case. Squeaky clean, sticker peeling off.. This just sounds to me like a scam.

So you're thinking he had an exact same model card that was dead, bought your card, swapped serial number stickers on the cards, then shipped you back the dead card and kept your working card?

Have you tried using the card to see if it works?

[bmichaels556]

2 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

If you have any pictures of the one you sold, inspect them carefully and see if there are any differences, like e.g. maybe there's a scratch somewhere that's not on the one you received, or maybe some resistors or capacitors are in a slightly different position.

Didn't take extensive pictures of it because I'm a moron. And it's not like I marked it in an inconspicuous spot either. Then again, not a bad idea for the future. Both, I mean.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

So you're thinking he had an exact same model card that was dead, bought your card, swapped serial number stickers on the cards, then shipped you back the dead card and kept your working card?

There are plenty of people who do exactly that, so I, certainly, wouldn't be surprised in the least. Harder to prove, though, unless OP has some good-quality pictures of the original.

[bmichaels556]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

What model RX480 is it?
 

So you're thinking he had an exact same model card that was dead, bought your card, swapped serial number stickers on the cards, then shipped you back the dead card and kept your working card?

Have you tried using the card to see if it works?

It's a Powercolor Red Devil.

 

I think it's a very real possibility. 

 

The card worked 100% when I boxed it back up a few months ago. I'm going to pop it in later today I think, just to see what's going on. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

Test it in your system and see if it works. If it doesn't, they may well have swapped it. 

 

Look at the pictures you have of the card and look for differences. If you can't find any solid distinguishing features and the card you got back is dead... you're kind of out of luck. You can try raising a case with eBay, but unless you have irrefutable evidence, they'll side with the buyer pretty much every time (sometimes, even when you do have good evidence, they'll still go with the buyer)

[Spotty]

3 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

There are plenty of people who do exactly that, so I, certainly, wouldn't be surprised in the least. Harder to prove, though, unless OP has some good-quality pictures of the original.

Yeah, apparently people do it with RTX cards where they buy the RTX2080Ti etc and swap it for a cheaper model and return it to Amazon. Either they just put a RTX2060 in the box and keep the RTX2080Ti or they do a complete cooler swap on the cards so the cooler shows "RTX2080Ti" so any average joe amazon employee that might check it thinks its the right card.

Wouldn't surprise me if someone did the same on ebay... But... Usually the simplest answer is the right one.
Possible that they just wiped the card with a cloth and/or blasted it with some compressed air to clean the card before installing it in their system, accounting for why it looks clean and why the sticker might be damaged. If the card didn't work then that probably just comes down to user error or shipping damage.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

Usually the simplest answer is the right one

Well, it kinda depends on what you think is the simplest answer In my experience, the simplest answer is that eBay is chock-full of scammers and you're more likely to come across one than not. Anyways, I dunno which one of us is right and it's pointless to argue about semantics.

[Spotty]

11 minutes ago, bmichaels556 said:

The card worked 100% when I boxed it back up a few months ago. I'm going to pop it in later today I think, just to see what's going on. 

If you have the original box the card came in, does the serial number on the card match the serial number on the box?

If they did indeed swap serial number stickers it won't help, but if they just straight swapped cards and shipped it back in the box you sent then the serial numbers wouldn't match.

[DoctorNick]

You send him the card a few months ago? And then he is coming back, now? Tell him to go.. beep himself.

[Bombastinator]

He claims he took it to a couple of shops.  They might have cleaned the card.  Are there interior codes you might have records of you can check?  Are there other places than the sticker which also have a serial number or is it just that one sticker?  Automobiles usually have serial numbers in multiple places.

[bmichaels556]

2 hours ago, DoctorNick said:

You send him the card a few months ago? And then he is coming back, now? Tell him to go.. beep himself.

Oh, no. Just that when I used it last, it was fine. No, I only sold it like a week and a half ago.

[bmichaels556]

39 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

He claims he took it to a couple of shops.  They might have cleaned the card.  Are there interior codes you might have records of you can check?  Are there other places than the sticker which also have a serial number or is it just that one sticker?  Automobiles usually have serial numbers in multiple places.

That's a good question.. On the box yes, but I probably mixed up boxes since I had like 4 of these back in the day.. So yeah, the box's serial mismatches, but that's not really evidence in this case.

 

Yeah, would anyone else know of other places where a serial number might be that I could actually check on in front of me?

[Bombastinator]

I was thinking a serial number might read out in software somehow if you could install it.  The way classic car people do it is by checking serial numbers on various parts of the car.  The VIN is a serial number, but there’s a separate one for the gram, the engine block, etc.. Video cards are single parts but they’re made up of a bunch of other smaller bits each of which may or may not have its own serial number which may or may not be associatable with your original card.  Could be a pile of research even if it’s possible which it might not be.

[bmichaels556]

6 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I was thinking a serial number might read out in software somehow if you could install it.  The way classic car people do it is by checking serial numbers on various parts of the car.  The VIN is a serial number, but there’s a separate one for the gram, the engine block, etc.. Video cards are single parts but they’re made up of a bunch of other smaller bits each of which may or may not have its own serial number which may or may not be associatable with your original card.  Could be a pile of research even if it’s possible which it might not be.

You freakin' genius... I am absolutely going to try this later today when I have the time. THANK YOU!

 

At least it's something to try, and that's a great start.

[GenericFanboy]

I mean, quite sure you had drivers. is there no such thing as "latest activity" so you can show it was working before you sold it?

[Bombastinator]

15 minutes ago, bmichaels556 said:

You freakin' genius... I am absolutely going to try this later today when I have the time. THANK YOU!

 

At least it's something to try, and that's a great start.

I doubt it’s a new thought.  Classic car people have been doing that for decades.  That it isn’t a regular thing already implies there may be a dead end somewhere.  This could be a problem already solved with the answer being “no”.

[Bombastinator]

The only other thing I can think of if you’re looking online for references that might help, is that a classic car that is verified as being not a hodgepodge of parts assembled from other vehicles is the term “numbers matching”. There are numbers matching cars and non numbers matching cars.   Iirc there is a particularly desirable version of a fairly common corvette of which more are running today than were ever built.  Very very few of them are numbers matching cars though.

[bmichaels556]

On 11/14/2019 at 9:34 AM, GenericFanboy said:

I mean, quite sure you had drivers. is there no such thing as "latest activity" so you can show it was working before you sold it?

I... I'm an idiot, I have no idea what you're saying. lol sorry.