Thank you everybody for your considered responses, I'm still none the wiser as to why I'm seeing more of these now than I have done in the past or even how the 'sellers' can make money out of the scam. It seems like a lot of effort over several years, possibly by organised criminals to try and defraud people but the only people I can see it defrauding are those that fail to notice that their 'bargain' hasn't turned up and don't claim on Ebay's money back guarantee in time.
I think there has always been fraudulent activity on Ebay (and on all the other big online emporia) but it seems to have ramped up recently. When I first started noticing it, it was late last year and it seems to have got worse as we hit the Brexit deadline and new systems were rolled out that were gathering VAT from foreign suppliers to deal with new HMRC rules.
I spent about £30.00 on trying to buy the stuff and have had it all refunded all within two days of starting this. I'm not out of pocket - but I didn't expect to be (though Ebay did refund to my paypal account rather than to my bank card for some reason...)
I think there has always been fraudulent activity on Ebay (and on all the other big online emporia) but it seems to have ramped up recently. When I first started noticing it, it was late last year and it seems to have got worse as we hit the Brexit deadline and new systems were rolled out that were gathering VAT from foreign suppliers to deal with new HMRC rules.
I spent about £30.00 on trying to buy the stuff and have had it all refunded all within two days of starting this. I'm not out of pocket - but I didn't expect to be (though Ebay did refund to my paypal account rather than to my bank card for some reason...)
