Just Checking I'm in the Right

trencherpilot

My wife had put her phone up for sale using my ebay account, (that isn't the problem) However I adjusted the listing to accept only UK bidders and put the usual will not post to your Uncle, brother, cat in Nigeria! In big letters, Will not ship to Nigeria under any circumstances.

As you can probably guess where this is headed, you'll not be surprised to know that a newbie, with 0 feedback, bought it last night, been a member for less than a day. Guess where 'Marylin' wanted it posting to as there was 'an urgent needing of this model phone in our Lagos head office'

The usual cr*p about send me your invoice I will pay all postage costs.... however neglecting to put BY THE WAY I'M A SCAMMER on the bottom!

I sent an email back last night saying 'unfortunately in your haste to rip us off, you failed to notice the bit about not posting to Nigeria!! So you have wasted my time and yours and my money as I now have to relist the item. This is what happens when you try to scam people!

Am now waiting 7 days and going to NPB them.

Was that the right thing to do?

Is there a way I can report the username as a poss scammer?

Sugar_Coated_Owl

Yes, you've done the correct thing. You made it very clear that you would not be posting the item to Nigeria. Wait 7 days then file a NPB. You'll probably find that the scammer becomes NARU in a few days.

Could you not do a second-chance offer to save you from having to re-list the item?

rainbow_carnage

hi. i've sold a few phones on ebay. there are a couple things you can do to prevent this from happening again. first, set your seller preferences such that only bids from countries you're shipping to are accepted. obviously, if the scammer is registered in the uk, this won't stop them. second, use paypal and require immediate payment. the auction will not close until the person has paid.

also, you don't have to wait the 7 days. e-mail ebay about the scam via their safety centre. they will cancel the scammer's account in a few hours. the auction result will be cancelled, as will your closing fee.

frivolous_fay

Forget the 'I will not ship to Nigeria' messages. Why would a scammer bother reading your auction terms?

Set your buyer requirements to be a bit more strict... I suggets the one that prevents people with less than 5 feedback and no credit card on file from bidding.

soolin

I also put the bit in my auctions about not shipping overseas as I am aware of the scams, and so far it has worked with me. I'm not a big seller of phones, possibly only three in the last 6-8 weeks but all sold successfully to UK bidders and with no contact whatsoever from scammers.

Scammers need to be in and out quick, the more people they target the more potential they have of being closed down by ebay. If they can see that their 'mark' is on to them they often won't risk trying to scam you, sometimes though they do get desperate and hit every single phone seller, but it is rare.

Personally I think a warning in the auction does *usually*warn them off, they have nothing to gain by losing their account by targetting someone savvy.

Soo

trencherpilot

rainbow_carnage wrote:

first, set your seller preferences such that only bids from countries you're shipping to are accepted. obviously, if the scammer is registered in the uk, this won't stop them. second, use paypal and require immediate payment. the auction will not close until the person has paid.

Rainbow,

Did put prefs to UK only, and I know that instant payment may put the scammers off, but just don't want the risk of them paying and causing hassle..... not that they usually do.

Have now reported them to Ebay as a poss scammer.

chirpy007

Sorry to go slighty off here but how did the price "you got" compare to what you would recieve from envirofone or similar company.

trencherpilot

chirpy007 wrote:

Sorry to go slighty off here but how did the price "you got" compare to what you would recieve from envirofone or similar company.

Are they the mobile recycling outfit? We're talking about £100 for the phone as it's not that old and still in demand.