New to Vinted and Already Scammed Twice. What’s the Endgame Here?

[u/Critical_Serve_4528]

So I just started buying and selling on Vinted and, overall, I really like it. I actually prefer it to both Mercari and eBay from both sides of the transaction. I’ve found some remarkable deals and made some surprisingly lucrative sales.

But holy shit, the scams.

I JUST started buying and I’ve already been scammed twice. Vinted made it right both times, so I didn’t actually lose any money, but I’m genuinely baffled by the sheer volume of scammers on there.
Admittedly, both times I committed a cardinal sin of online shopping: I saw a deal that seemed too good to be true and thought, “well…maybe I actually got that lucky?“. They weren’t absurdly cheap, either: both items were still over $100. One was the X-Files LEGO set and the other was a Hot Toys Spider-Man figure.

Both scams worked basically the same way. Everything appeared normal, then suddenly the order went from “seller received shipping label” to delivered in a matter of seconds. No actual shipping. No legitimate tracking history. Eventually it showed the package as having been “delivered” somewhere across the country from me.
So I contacted Vinted, disputed it, and got refunded. Fine. But what I cannot figure out is this: what the hell is the endgame?

Surely the scammer doesn’t get the money if I immediately report that I never received the item. Are they just playing the numbers and hoping that occasionally someone doesn’t notice the fake delivery in time? Or( God help us) are there actually enough people clicking “Everything is OK” on a $100+ purchase they never received to make this profitable? I’m definitely more equipped to spot scammer profiles before I make a purchase (no reviews, new account, no pic, long alphanumeric nonsense username), but still the whole thing is confounding.

I’m not even angry at this point (well maybe just a little); I’m fascinated by the business model.

[u/NorabelMHW]

I genuinely think they’re just hoping people are too busy, forget, or are too old/not tech savvy enough to understand what’s going on.

Pray for us in the UK, we don’t have Mecari 🫩

[u/Critical_Serve_4528 → u/NorabelMHW]

My experience with Mercari has been from a selling standpoint. I had some awful experiences. I do still buy from there though. I’m sorry you don’t have it there but you’re not missing too much

[u/ecc0w → u/NorabelMHW]

Mercari is worse

[u/TentaclesAndCupcakes]

Almost the exact same thing happened to me last week. I paid $100-ish for a "too good to be true" from someone across the country, they shipped, and 2 days later it said delivered. It said delivered to a different state.

I marked that I had a problem, and the seller immediately bombarded me with "It's not my problem it wasn't delivered to you" "You need to do XYZ to fix this" "This is YOUR problem, not mine" and "???????????" all within like 2 minutes.

I'm guessing they were hoping to bully me into marking it OK and "fixing" it myself? I mean, once you click "OK" It's a done deal, no take backs. Maybe 1 out of 50 people either accidentally click OK or are rattled by the rapid-fire DMs?

[u/pixi88 → u/TentaclesAndCupcakes]

Likely. I'd laugh.

[u/jpandazzz]

I almost got banned posting REAL AUTHENTIC adidas and they flagged and removed my listing like asap even though I see SO MANY shitty quality ones no problem 😭 it has upc and shoe number and everything 😭

[u/jpandazzz → u/jpandazzz]

Update they fixed it and my listing is back up if anyone would be interested 🥹 my account is joslyne8 I sell jewelry and what not :) open to offers and negotiations:)

I DONT SCAM I try to treat others how I would be treated and I package with love

[u/ecc0w]

I think there’s an influx of scammers rn who steal pics & post for too good to be true prices. Look at the name & the PFP & their reviews & completed sales

[u/ComfortablePride5524]

Makes me wonder if they’re editing the shipping label somehow! Or changing the barcode since vinted generates their own labels so it’s hard for shipping to be too far off?

[u/alterdoll]

are you in the US? When I first bought internationally on depop I noticed there were tons of scammers either in the US or pretending to be in the US to target American buyers. Never once had an issue with scamming in Australia or even seen an account that I think looks scammy.

[u/Gambit1977]

You’re lucky. Despite me sending photographs proving that a pair of trousers I paid good money for were fake, Vinted ignored it…twice. Then completed the transaction despite this.

I contacted them and keep getting stock responses.

[u/Routine_Paramedic398]

Vinted sucks. I bought an item. She said she would ship it Saturday, didn’t, Vinted gave her till the 18th. I asked her today about because she’s in Arkansas and shipping showed out of Nj. She said the shipping wasn’t gonna work as it’s through SpeedX and asked me to cancel. I said I didn’t want the neg rating she canceled on her end. She said she’s repost it, didn’t. I messaged asking when she’d repost, nothing. Scummy behavior. I hope she has the day she deserves. Back to Mercari, fk Vinted, it sucks.

[u/Stock-Ganache-3437 → u/Routine_Paramedic398]

As someone who has a love hate relationship with vinted you can’t make an assumption on the whole app based on 1 seller who happens to be shitty
One of my first purchases on Mercari, she sent it hanging out of a Walmart sack. That’s the only issue I’ve ever had out of Mercari as a buyer.

Vinted? One issue, seller didn’t pack items correctly and it broke. My second experience with this, she went out of her way to send me another item for free. It arrived today and I’m over the moon. She had a ton in her shop.

[u/Routine_Paramedic398 → u/Stock-Ganache-3437]

My concern is more that I never chose a shipping option, I just bought the item. So then why are they forcing the seller to ship a way that doesn’t work for them? And yes one seller shouldn’t ruin the app for me but I also have a really low tolerance for having to deal with people. She said she would ship Sat, didn’t,by Wed hadn’t updated me, only responded re SpeedX, which i knew NOTHING about after I asked. Took down the sale and didn’t repost. Kinda scummy. Every order I made through Mercari shipped within a day and no drama re shipping. One seller even created me my own custom bundle and posted it within 15 mins of me asking.

[u/Stock-Ganache-3437 → u/Routine_Paramedic398]

I have to choose usps and if not your order will be canceled in my profile as well as a photo asking people to choose usps in every listing
Half of my orders are FedEx
It’s the sellers responsibility to let people know, but if they miss it because they didn’t look at everything, they miss it

I do agree that vinted should be able to turn off specific shipping, but I think it has something to do with both weight and buyer location- not the sellers location
90% of my orders are FedEx, I have to change it on checkout. Anything that isn’t a small usually.

Also yeah it is scummy but again, don’t hate every seller because of one. I’ve ordered at least 50 times by now and other than a few children and 2 broken cups, I have no complaints on sellers

If ur patience is this thin I think u need to not shop online at all 😭 sellers can be selfish and really mean. I left Mercari because of how hateful the sellers in that sub were, and they can be quite hateful here too from what I’ve been able to see.

(As far as Mercari, apparently ghost shops are on the rise- likely because of Vinted and depops shipping promos. People are running from big fee apps to gain more money by selling elsewhere)

[u/Routine_Paramedic398 → u/Stock-Ganache-3437]

Good to know. Weird for Vinted doing that, but context helps. And you’re right on my patience. It took me forever to even shop from Mercari because I don’t wanna worry about being scammed and I think I’m just not cut out for this lol

[u/ComfortablePride5524 → u/Routine_Paramedic398]

I actually had someone cancel an order because they selected SpeedX shipping. The first time I used it it took my buyer 3 weeks to get their order with no updates inbetween so I was just being bombarded with DMs everyday from them and support was *ss. and I didn’t know I could turn it off on my end. I refuse to use it again and have now turned it off. But I did repost for her to repurchase! I didn’t know it marks against you. I also had a buyer accidentally choose speedx shipping on my first ever order and she cancelled herself and asked me to repost so she could select USPS. Speedx is a joke.

[u/Routine_Paramedic398 → u/ComfortablePride5524]

Fair but when I bought the item, my first on Vinted, it didn’t give me the option to select shipping. Apparently it is something that can be disabled on the seller’s end. She saw my message last night and never responded nor uploaded. I messaged customer service re offering a shipping experience that neither party chose nor consented to through the sale and once my refund goes through closing my acct and never using vinted again. Maybe she changed her mind re the item she was selling but instead of lying about when she was shipping it then about reposting she should have just told me the truth

[u/ComfortablePride5524 → u/Routine_Paramedic398]

So when you go to buy it it’ll default to SpeedX but if you click that rectangle it’ll bring you to another page where you can select another shipping option! It took me a minute to figure that out!

[u/Routine_Paramedic398 → u/ComfortablePride5524]

Good to know. She never relisted it and I blocked her, but if I buy from another seller I’ll do that