Suspected scammer won eBay item - What do I do now?

patwa_2

HellHello. I'm really getting worried about this as I don't know where I stand on this issue. I know it's probably been discussed many time but would still appreciate you rhelp.

I listed a new Acer Laptop on eBay with a minimum sale price of £849. The item has now sold, but a few hours after the ending time I got this e-mail from the buyer.

================================
Hi seller,am plead to be the winner of this item and this item
is Birthday gift for my son who study in west africa...and i know you
only ship within Uk...it because am presently in
Malaysia for a business trips and i won't be back Untill next
2wks...so i've call the Royalmail office to know how much it will cost to
west africa...i was told GBP100,{add GBP100 for the shipping}as i will be
paying you through via
paypal..
here is my son's address
Name; Cole Johnson
Address;6 odukoaya felele layout challenge
City;Ibadan
State;Oyo
Country,Nigeria
Zipcode;23402
================================

To me this just oozes fraud, as I'm sure you'll agree. But I know eBay have gone downhill recently if what I've been reading is correct, at least as regards handling disputes like this. Had this been a genuine buyer, I wqas going to write back and tell them that if they wanted to pay by Paypal, I would have to wait until the money had cleared to my bank account, but with this being a fraud, I'm debating whether I should even write back to him/her. I mean, the honest thing to do would have been to write to me BEFORE the auction ended, advising me of their problems and asking if I would mind shipping internationally. Not to mention the Royal Mail offices are not open at 03:42 in the morning. Also, the buyer just assumes I'll up and follow their instructions, it's more of a demand than a request.

I don't know how to approach eBay on this, I want to recover my seller/final value fees, and I know there's a dispute resolution center at Paypal, but which one do I use, eBay or paypal? Also, whereas I know most scammers don't follow up on 'missed opportunities' there is the whole issue of sales being binding with eBay.

Any advice would be appreciated. This s the first time this has happened to me with eBay and the 'official' nature of it scares me a bit, if I'm brutally honest.

Sorry for the rushed style of this post. I'm at the computer centre at Uni, as the router at home went down and the one computer that does have net access is rather slow. Which also means I have pages of outstanding e-mail to sift through, which just rounds off a really stressful week.

Thanks very much for all your continued help.

Cheers and take care.

Hussein.

withywood

i agree, i did a google on zipcode and found many scams using that zipcode and hes seems to of changed his name from allen jack aswell

cafenervosa_2

Don't risk it, that sounds a sure scam. I'd never touch Nigera after all the things I have heard. Ship to UK only. Even if the Paypal payment clears into your bank they can still take it back by making your account negative, don't risk it.

cafenervosa_2

Just another thing. If your going to do it and they want to pay by paypal, tell them you are going to wait 45 days for the payment to fully clear. After 45 days with Paypal the payment can't be retracted as far as I know.

frivolous_fay

cafenervosa wrote:

Just another thing. If your going to do it and they want to pay by paypal, tell them you are going to wait 45 days for the payment to fully clear. After 45 days with Paypal the payment can't be retracted as far as I know.

Is that correct if the buyer paid with stolen card details?

rosysparkle

Don't believe any paypal emails you get regarding this transaction, they will be faked.

To get your fees back and the scammer kicked off:
1) Report them to ebay using this link:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/contact_us/_base/index.html

Select: Selling and managing your item > Continue > Problems with a buyer or sale > Buyer paid or attempted to pay with fake/stolen funds > Continue > Email Us.

2) Report for fake contact details (they will be fake):
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/identity-false.html

Then they will be suspended. Don't reply to their emails, just keep an eye on their ID and once they are suspended (or if they already are NARU)

3) Open the NPB dispute:

http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CreateDispute

After that you can relist and if your phone sells the second time your relisting fee will be refunded too. If you relist before completing the Unpaid Item process you will not be eligible for a relisting fee refund.

To minimise the chance of Nigerian scammers, block low feedback bidders without a credit card on file, set up your listing to ship only to the UK.

Keep an eye on your bidders, use the advanced search to see what else they have been bidding on and block their bids if they appear to be dodgy.

cafenervosa_2

frivolous_fay wrote:

Is that correct if the buyer paid with stolen card details?

I am not 100% sure but I would not risk it, I have over 2,000 feedback.

Whats the buyers feedback like, if its 0 or under 5 dont even consider doing this deal.

withywood

this what i found on another site when i googled that address
I want to ship the item to my son in Nigeria.I will add 100 USD to the the shiping cost to nigeria.kindly help me to shipout the item immdetly you recive payment confermation from paypal.
here is my son address
name Allen Jack
ADDRESS.6 ODUKOYA FELELE LAYOUT CHALLENGE
CITY;IBADAN
STATE;OYO
CONTRY;NIGERIA
CODE;23402
PHONE NO;234020835777693

lazymoezy

Dont go ahead with it, simple as that!

SkipClick

First thing I would do change your Buyer Requirements so you can block out that country NIGERIA under "Block buyers who are registered in countries to which I don't ship.".........

patwa_2

Hello. Just got my internet back up and running, and also got an upgrade that no-one told me about but hey, who am I to complain?

Got another e-mail from 'the scammer'
================================
Hello,
Have made the payment and your money have been dectued from my newly paypal account,kindly help me to shipout the item to my son today immetely you recive payment notification from paypl.Please get back to me as soon as possible.
HERE IS MY SON SHIPING ADDRESS
NAME COLE JOHNSON
ADDRESS;6 ODUKOYA FLELE LAYOUT CHALLENGE
CITY.IBADAN
STATE;OYO
COUNTRY.NIGERIA
ZIP CODE;23402
===============================

Going to start the whole eBay refund claim dance later today or maybe tomorrow. And yes, I did get a Paypal message, but the fact that there were asterisks in the subject line as if to say 'Hey, I'm a fake, READ ME!' kind of gave it away. Going to check my own paypal account just in case.

Thanks for all the support. Guess this is a little scary the first time it happens. glad to know I'm not about to have the men in black swooping down on my head anytime soon.

BTW, could the scammer cause trouble by reporting me to eBay for a non-shipment if they wanted to, and how far would they get? Obviously their scam would presumably come out in the end but could there potentially be problems?

Cheers and take care.

Hussein.