Question
I sold a set of books on a secondhand marketplace. I had originally purchased the books from an acquaintance. Since I intended to resell them, I read/handled them carefully and kept them in clean condition before selling them.
The buyer asked whether I had purchased them this year, so I told them that I had purchased them at the beginning of this year. Since there are many scams involving complete book sets, I proactively took photos of the inside of the books and the books that had not been used and sent them to the buyer.
The very next day, I packed many of the books into boxes and shipped them by courier.
A week later, the buyer contacted me and said that the books were not the ones they had expected. My books were from the 2017 edition, whereas the buyer says they wanted the 2018 revised edition.
However, the buyer never asked me during the transaction whether the books were the 2018 revised edition. They also did not contact me immediately after receiving the package. Instead, they contacted me a week after receiving it and requested a refund, saying that these were not the books they wanted. I refused.
They then threatened to report me to the authorities. Because of this, I have been stressed and stopped responding to their messages, but they keep sending me texts. They say that because I did not disclose that I had originally purchased the books from an acquaintance, they are going to report me for fraud.
At first, I had sent them photos showing the condition of the books, but they also started complaining about the condition of the books.
If they report me, will I have to go to the police station? Am I in a situation where I am required to give them a refund?
Answer
Fraud is established when a person intentionally deceives another person and thereby obtains a financial benefit. Therefore, if you listed the complete set of books on an online secondhand marketplace and the information in your listing was false, and that false information influenced the other person's decision to purchase the books, fraud could potentially be established.
It is not possible to determine this based solely on the question you provided. However, based on the contents of your question alone, it does not appear that you intentionally deceived the buyer.
That said, an accurate determination would require reviewing the specific contents of the listing, so I recommend consulting with a legal professional.
If there is a possibility that the elements of fraud are satisfied and the buyer reports you to the police, there is a high likelihood that you would be required to participate in a police investigation.