How do I reach eBay Trust & Safety / security team? Suspicious shipping on a €11,899 gold purchase

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Summary: elwinkl reports a problem with an eBay seller in which a gold bar worth €11,899 was purchased but not delivered. Instead, the package contained only a note referring to a later delivery, even though a real delivery was shown. elwinkl tried to respond through buyer protection and PayPal procedures and is looking for ways to contact eBay’s security team. samantha@ebay from eBay confirms that the payment dispute case was accepted, but the refund still depends on the payment service provider. elwinkl expresses dissatisfaction with how quickly a negative review of the seller was removed.

Hello everyone,

I bought and paid for a 100 g gold bar for €11,899 from a commercial eBay seller. In the meantime, a sequence of events has unfolded that I would like to report to eBay Trust & Safety or the safety team — not just as a normal “item not received” case.

Here’s a brief summary of what happened:

Purchase and payment on 09/08.
The seller later announced that they would only obtain the bar from C.HAFNER.
At the same time, several shipping labels are created for me (UPS Standard, UPS Express Saver and FedEx).
A UPS tracking number is stored on eBay as the shipping number for the gold bar I bought.
This UPS shipment was actually delivered.
However, there was no gold bar in the package, only a letter stating that it was a “proforma” shipment and that the actual bar would follow separately later by FedEx.
So eBay is already showing a real delivery for the order, even though the item I bought was not delivered.

I tried to reach eBay through the normal buyer protection process. There I can’t officially report the case yet because of the stated delivery date. I then opened a PayPal case as a precaution. Since then, eBay understandably no longer allows a parallel buyer protection case for the order.

But my main concern is not a second buyer protection case; it’s that eBay reviews this incident from a security perspective. A real tracking number for a deliberate proforma/empty package used as proof of shipment for an item worth €11,899 seems to me at least in need of explanation.

My question:
Does anyone know a working way to escalate such a case directly to eBay Trust & Safety / security department / seller review? Is there a special contact, callback option, or a suitable reporting category that doesn’t just end up back in the normal “item not received” workflow?

I have documented all messages, tracking information, the package, shipping label, and the enclosed proforma letter and can provide proof of the entire process.

Thanks for any advice.

elwinkl

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Posted 3 weeks ago · Edited 3 weeks ago·Last reply 2 weeks ago

10 comments

elwinkl

OP2 weeks ago · Edited

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Update: was refunded today (: - The rating was also deleted without comment - but eBay must know what it is doing. This can be marked as resolved here

samantha@ebay

Mentor2 weeks ago

Community Support TeamView listings

Hello @elwinkl

The seller has accepted the payment dispute case and it is currently with your payment provider, who has not yet made a final decision.

You can therefore get back in touch with the payment provider.

Thanks for the tag @perfect-sally

Best regards

Samantha Sturm

samantha@ebay

Mentor3 weeks ago

Community Support TeamView listings

Hello @elwinkl

I took a very close look at it. To begin with, the seller has already accepted your payment dispute, and the refund is on its way to you.

Thanks for pointing out the delivery process - I have passed this observation on internally accordingly. You also always have the option to report sellers directly via the platform, then it goes straight to the specialist department.

Thanks for tagging @perfect-sally and @petersmodellbahnstuebchen

Best regards

Samantha

elwinkl

OP3 weeks ago

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Thanks, he wrote to me too. According to a business report, he has an annual turnover of EUR 110,000. He says he has gold bars worth millions in stock and sends empty packages to get the payment released (and maybe to obtain the goods from that?). I have a loss because the gold price has risen in the meantime and I now have to buy it back at a higher price. Would recommend being careful

elwinkl

OP2 weeks ago

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Hello @samantha@ebay ,

thanks again for checking. You wrote that the seller has already accepted the payment dispute and that the refund is on its way to me.

However, in PayPal the case is still shown as “Waiting for seller response”, with a response deadline until 24.08.2026.

Since this is about EUR 11,899, I would be very grateful if you could please check once more whether the acceptance or refund has actually already been processed bindingly in the eBay system.
Thank you very much!

elwinkl

OP2 weeks ago

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@mia@ebay Since Samantha is probably offline - could you help?

perfect-sally

Mentor2 weeks ago

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@elwinkl

Samantha is present and will get back to you here again. But first: if the payment service provider is involved, ebay can't really say much about it and won't be able to help anyway. ebay also has no influence over the information from the payment service provider.

@samantha@ebay could you please take another look? Many thanks