Is this a possible scam?

burnleymik

I basically purchased an item from a seller with zero feedback, but I use paypal so i thought I would be protected.

Anyways, I made payment, but it was showing in my ebay as "payment pending". After checking paypal it seems the seller has to accept the payment.

I emailed the seller asking if they were going to accept the payment and if they could please let me know when they were going to ship the item.

I didn't hear anything for 48 hours and then I recieved a message through ebay from the seller stating they were having problems with their Paypal account and the best thing to do would be to send the payment to their daughters account (he supplied email) as a gift and he would immediately ship the item.

Am i being paranoid or is this weird? Surely I would lose my buyers' protection if I did this? How should I proceed?

thanks in advance.

forgotmyname

Dont send the payment. Reclaim the payment and tell them to update the sale or invoice you for GOODS with the other paypal account.

That way you should be covered by paypal protection. Dont send gift or other. Make sure it says goods and lists the item properly.

soolin

Normally asking for payment to a different paypal account is not an issue. However asking for it to be sent as a gift makes this likely to be a scam so do as forgetmyname suggests

buggritt

It's probably a new user who has mucked up their paypal address. The majority on here see scams wherever you look.
Tell them to sort their paypal out.

soolin

buggritt wrote: »

It's probably a new user who has mucked up their paypal address. The majority on here see scams wherever you look.
Tell them to sort their paypal out.

Did you miss the bit about the gift payment then?

Telling the seller to sort it out is exactly what has been suggested as that way no one is embarrassed if this turns out to be a genuine problem, but also no one has sent an unsafe gift payment either.

Crowqueen

I think they know what they are doing - someone who was confused about the system would not have specified a gift payment. They might simply have asked the buyer to send payment to the daughter's address, or asked for help with sorting out the problem with the unclaimed payment at their end.

People do sometimes make assumptions when it is an innocent situation, but for this kind of item, this kind of request rings alarm bells.

buggritt

No, didn't miss anything.
Imagine a new user, daughter has an ebay and paypal account but is not - like you - an expert on safe paypal payments, or invoicing outside of ebay.
A gift payment could seem the quickest way to sort it out.
I would be interested to know the amount of money we are talking about here, as that would be a useful indicator of a potantial scam.
Disagreeing with the gurus on here isn't vey popular is it?
12 angry men - great film.

soolin

buggritt wrote: »

No, didn't miss anything.
Imagine a new user, daughter has an ebay and paypal account but is not - like you - an expert on safe paypal payments, or invoicing outside of ebay.
A gift payment could seem the quickest way to sort it out.
I would be interested to know the amount of money we are talking about here, as that would be a useful indicator of a potantial scam.
Disagreeing with the gurus on here isn't vey popular is it?
12 angry men - great film.

Whatever your reasons for wishing to disagree on each and every thread just to be different, I don't think we would be doing anyone any favours by ignoring potential issues.

There is absolutely no harm here in merely asking the seller to sort out their paypal account so that a safe payment can be made. Likewise, if OP was experienced on ebay they may well have chosen to use the daughter's address but sent it for named goods rather than a gift.

I agree with Crowqueen, a seller who apparently has made a mistake (and I agree with you that this is an easy one to make- we've all done it) yet sees the potential for a gift payment to an unassociated account should be treated with caution.

By all means, you pay however you wish for your goods, but for the benefit of newbies and those less experienced on ebay I will continue to warn about gift payments

buggritt

I already agreed a gift payment is not a good idea - hence the sort paypal out line.
It was the "looks like a scam" comment I objected to. Colouring this buyer's attitude towards a seller on the scantest of evidence. I would still like to know how much we are discussing.

ashleypride

buggritt wrote: »

It was the "looks like a scam" comment I objected to.

Why are quoting text nobody has written?

buggritt wrote: »

I already agreed a gift payment is not a good idea - hence the sort paypal out line.

And why would that be?

burnleymik

Firstly, thankyou all for the replies.

The amount of money isn't much ~£30.

This is the exact message I recieved from the seller:

It turns out the problems with my paypal wont be sorted for another 2-3 days. If you want to cancel that payment and send it to [EMAIL="XXXXXXXXXXXXXX@live.com"]XXXXXXXXXXXXXX@live.com[/EMAIL]. This is my daughters paypal and i will get it despatched tomorrow. The easiest way to send the money is as a gift. Sorry for the inconvenience

Many thanks


- XXXXXXXXX

I agree it could be perfectly innocent, but if I do as he asks I lose my protection as a paypal buyer do I not?

Also, why would they specify "as a gift"?

I am always a little wary on ebay because of the number of scams and scammers, but I do wonder if sometimes I may be being a little paranoid.