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View Full Version : Ebay: Is this a scam?



Matt Meiser
10-08-2007, 1:19 PM
I sold an item on Ebay and specifically said I would only ship to the US. Someone contacted me and asked if I would ship to the UK and I said no. Then when the auction ended today, he bid at the last second an won. I emailed him to find out what was going on and he replied that his brother in the US pay me and will be shipping to it to his brother who will handle it from there. Assuming I only accept Paypal (as I stated in the auction) and ship to the confirmed address on the account that pays me, does anyone see any unusual danger here?

Doyle Alley
10-08-2007, 1:32 PM
There are things that our English brothers simply cannot get over there (dado blades for example). If he really wants something in this category, he may be willing to go to extremes to get it.

There are some videos on Youtube talking about how Paypal scammed them. you might want to check them out before proceeding.

John Bailey
10-08-2007, 1:35 PM
I can't tell you why, but I'm suspicious. Doesn't sound right. Make sure you have the money before you send.

I would transfer the money from PayPal to your bank account (hopefully you have a separate account for internet dealings) and make sure with your bank that, in fact, the money had transfered.

In any event, let us know.

John

Matt Meiser
10-08-2007, 2:14 PM
Thanks for the responses guys. It could very well be legit, but it is really suspicious, and it is definitely a violation of Ebay policy for him to have bid since his listed address is out of the area where I said I would ship (even before he asked.) Just based on my gut feeling and this fact I emailed him and suggested that we agree to not complete the transaction which will allow me to get my fee back. I doubt he'll pay me based on that email, which means even if he doesn't agree, I can still get my fee back from Ebay. If he does pay, I'll have to reject it I guess. The feedback is of secondary concern to me but I told him we should either agree to leave each other no feedback or positive feedback. Either way I won't leave him feedback until I receive it.

I also sent the backup bidder a Second Chance Offer. He only bid $3 less, so that's not too bad.

David G Baker
10-08-2007, 2:45 PM
Matt,
I have done this several times in the past and did not have any problem. Most of the time it was someone that lived in Canada and frequently made trips to the US. I was irritated that the bidders did not contact me prior to bidding but the transaction went fine. The only thing I would recommend it that the money part of the transaction be 100% confirmed prior to shipping. I would let the buyer know that the shipping may be delayed for 2 weeks or more due to the unusual way the bidder is having you ship the item.

Joe Pelonio
10-08-2007, 3:06 PM
It could go either way. I too have sold to Canadians then shipped to a border town in the US, where they had a PO box at a postal/shipping store.

On the other hand, if it was a lot of money, I'd say you did right. It's not worth the risk. If it's a scam he'd send you more than the amount due and ask you to send a check to his "brother" to pay for the international shipping. You'd send the check and be out that money when his PayPal account turned out to be fraudulent. This can happen when someone phishes another person's PayPal account. Many of them do come out of the UK (no offense to our British members) and typically have a free e-mail account like Yahoo.

Matt Meiser
10-08-2007, 3:23 PM
Another concern--he has Hotmail and his brother, who has now contacted me, has MSN. Both have a lot of mispellings.

Leigh Costello
10-08-2007, 5:46 PM
Matt,
Walk away from this guy. I had this happen to me and it turned out to be a bad transaction. Fortunately, I did not have any repercussions. Misspellings from a British customer with ties to the US. I would really walk away. Good luck whatever you decide.

Terry Kelly
10-08-2007, 7:30 PM
It's a SCAM..I had the same thing happen to me a few months ago..I didn't fall for it... I asked alot of questions when I seen they just registered the day they sent the question and a day after I sent the questions they were no longer a member....

Greg Funk
10-08-2007, 7:36 PM
Matt,

For any questionable transactions I have always found it useful to talk to the individuals involved. It will give you an opportunity to get some details on them and just a general feeling on how legit they are. If they are British you wouldn't normally expect a lot of spelling errors.

Greg

Phil Thien
10-08-2007, 9:10 PM
Why didn't he just have his brother bid, pay, and ship? Now he wants you to accept winning payment from a non-bidder. I'd say no-way.

Chris Damm
10-09-2007, 8:27 AM
If you get your money before shipping, what's the problem?

Matt Meiser
10-09-2007, 8:41 AM
The problem (that I can think of) is that Paypal can back out the payment if the guy has somehow hijaacked someones account.

They continue to make me suspicious. The brother sent payment. It did have a confirmed address. But the buyer seems to have ignored the email I sent telling him I wouldn't go through with it. So I refunded the payment restating that. Even with the confirmed address I'm still worried because the whole thing is wierd. Maybe its just bad communication, but I can't be sure. The brother's email address on his Paypal account is different from his Ebay account--this one's a Hotmail account. Anyway I'll risk the feedback reprocussions over the financial ones. Also, I received a response back from Ebay saying that I shouldn't go through with the transaction because of the risk. They said to go ahead and file a dispute and they will refund my fees.

This will probably be the last time I try to sell on Ebay--I usuall sell stuff on there every once in a great while. Its getting more expensive and more risky in my opinion--to the point where it probably isn't worth it.

Jake Helmboldt
10-09-2007, 10:23 PM
I would walk. Though at this point I have another reason for not using ebay at all. Their customer service regarding security sucks! Someone managed to get my credit card info and opened an ebay account. They informed me of the activity by email, but won't give me any information at all. It took them several days to even respond to my email about the incident (they don't have any phone number for security violations). They have not been at all cooperative and suggest cancelling my credit card (no kidding!), and contacting the police.

"Hi Police, someone, somewhere, somehow got my credit card info and opened an ebay account and charged $4 to it. Go get them and arrest them!" We'll get right on that sir!

Ebay won't give me any info at all claiming member privacy. Some tool stole my identity and they are concerned about protecting their privacy but suggest I call the police with no information to propvide to them! ARRRGHHH! Who are these morons?

Jon Lanier
10-09-2007, 10:46 PM
I'd contact the folks at Ebay. Or just sell it to the next highest bidder.. or put it back up ..?

Matt Meiser
10-10-2007, 9:49 AM
Thanks guys. I sent the next highest bidder a Second Chance offer and he took it. His bid was only $3 less than the winner so not a big deal. And it was a normal transaction.

John W. Willis
10-10-2007, 6:44 PM
Matt, I had a very similar thing happen from a UK bidder and when I took a look at the winning bidders info he had no transactions on his ID and when I contacted eBay they were very vague but told me that they would refund their fees and suggested that he would be banned AGAIN from bidding. They would offer no further details.

A few days before I had received several of the eBay phishing questions and when I looked back over them lo and behold his user name was on one of them.

Paul Johnstone
10-11-2007, 8:46 AM
I sold an item on Ebay and specifically said I would only ship to the US. Someone contacted me and asked if I would ship to the UK and I said no. Then when the auction ended today, he bid at the last second an won. I emailed him to find out what was going on and he replied that his brother in the US pay me and will be shipping to it to his brother who will handle it from there. Assuming I only accept Paypal (as I stated in the auction) and ship to the confirmed address on the account that pays me, does anyone see any unusual danger here?

Ship to the confirmed address. Make him pay the extra dollar or so for delivery confirmation. If it's a confirmed address, I believe the payment clears quite fast. You will have his money and delivery confirmation that the package arrived at his brother, as he requested. I think it's safe.

Scott Loven
10-11-2007, 9:46 AM
I have sold over 6000 items on ebay over the last 8 years and have had 3 charge backs on paypal. To ME it is worth the risk. I did get my money back on all three by the way, but it was a PITA. Some one who uses Paypal has 30 days to reverse the charges. In one case the package went to Canada, the customer refused to pay the customs charges, claimed that the package was never delivered, and had the paypal charges reversed. I eventually got the item back and only lost the postage charges and auction fee. On another, also to Canada, the customer reversed charges claiming non-delivery 6 days after the auction ended! I was able to show proof of delivery via the customs receipt and got the charges reversed after a month. This would not be the case had I not sent it to the official paypal address. Having said this, I do send items to whatever address some requests it be sent to all the time and have never been burned yet.

Matt Meiser
10-11-2007, 9:57 AM
Yesterday I got another email from the brother (with a cc to the brother)--I reiterated what I'd already said and told him not to contact me again.

Then I got an email from the bidder insisting I sell it to him--and saying he didn't believe I contacted Ebay, but that he did and they said everything was fine. I told him we were done discussing it. If he wants to give me negative feedback, fine, but I told him how we handle the feedback is up to him. If he leaves me feedback I'll leave the same for him. Since I have an email from Ebay saying it isn't safe, I feel I'm in the right.

Not that it matters anyway because the back up bidder is receiving it today according to UPS. At the worst, Ebay will try to get the $10-ish final value fee out of me, I'll get some kind of warning, and a negative feedback. I have the email from Ebay saying not to send it so in the end I'll win out on the first two and maybe the third. And I'm guessing the bidder won't give me a negative because he doesn't want one in return.

IF I sell anything else on Ebay, I'll have to add these to my terms
"Item will only be shipped to the bidder, not a third party."
"Seller reserves the right to not complete the transaction and file a dispute with Ebay if any of the above terms are violated."

Its getting to the the point where the terms on auction have to be longer than the description of the item. I've sold probably about 100 items on Ebay over the past 8 years. I haven't gotten burned financially (yet) but I have had two bidders give me negatives--one mad because he bought something used and expected it to be in new condition and another who never paid until after I got my final value fee credit and resold the item and was then mad I didn't sell to her. Both were back in the good old days of money order payments being safe.

andy brown
10-21-2007, 8:27 AM
Hi,
60% of children leaving school in England cannot spell, read or think. The other 50% are bad at maths as well.
Andy.

Mike Hood
10-21-2007, 10:23 AM
This is EXACTLY why I stopped using both eBay and PayPal. I was burned many times and frankly... eBay and PayPal could care less in most cases. I had several cases that started out similar to this and I ended up eating the product cost and shipping in the end.

Walk away from the guy, or have his brother pay. If he wants the product, it'll all work out OK that way.

You really should limit your eBay settings though to only accept bids from the countries you feel comfortable shipping to.

Another problem in many countries is the ability to track items for proof of delivery. If you can't prove he got it... he'll be able to charge back and get away with it.

I hate both eBay and PayPal :mad:

James Jaragosky
10-22-2007, 9:04 PM
For what it’s worth here is my take on how I deal with ebayers:
Check their feedback and how long they have been a member of ebay.
If they have little or no feedback, run away. But if they have 30, 40 – thousands of buys or sales go for it.
If they just created the account run away. but if they have been around a few years it should be is ok.

Randy Denby
10-22-2007, 10:24 PM
uh-oh....I guess my plans to sell some stuff on ebay is not going to be easy. I have never sold there, nor know much about it . :o

Matt Meiser
10-23-2007, 8:50 AM
Ebay was neutral on this one. The forwarded me emails from Ebay saying that it was OK for his brother to pay as long as I shipped to the brother's confirmed address. But I had emails saying the opposite. So they refunded my fees, but removed the non-paying bidder strike against him. I've told him he is free to leave whatever feedback he wants, but I'll leave the same for him if he does. Haven't heard from him again.