Fake address but confirmed in paypal? Help please?

con?fused_3

Hello,

A buyer has purchased an item from me on ebay. There contact/postage address on ebay is fake, I have given an example below:

Mr T
????? street
??????
Post code


They did not respond to my messages or the unpaid item dispute but have now paid by paypal and have contacted me to close the dispute. They have not revelaled their real address to me and have implied that I should close the dispute first.

Also fake address on the paypal payment is confirmed. This is obviously not a real address and I thought that only addresses which have been validated with a credit card are confirmed?

I am concerned that they will reverse the payment once I close the dispute and I could lose the item and final value fees.
I am considering delaying dispatch of the item, so I can be sure it is not an unauthorised transaction. Could anyone give me their advice?

rsykes2000

How do you know for sure the address is fake ? If so, DON'T SEND THE ITEM. If definitely fake, report them to ebay for incorrect contact details.

wileycat

You need to check the postcode against the address. If the address is fake it shouldn't have been able to be verified, so you could contact Paypal and find out what they think on the issue.

con?fused_3

Hello,

The address is incomplete and is made up of question marks. This address matched the paypal payment and is confirmed. I have contacted ebay but it could be a while before they respond.

I just dont understand it as I have received the payment ok.

soolin

The confirmed bit has always surprised me as well. I have a confirmed paypal address and I can change it to my sons uni address and it still shows as confirmed! Weird or not?

Soo

OliviaH_2

con?fused wrote: »

Hello,

A buyer has purchased an item from me on ebay. There contact/postage address on ebay is fake, I have given an example below:

Mr T
????? street
??????
Post code


They did not respond to my messages or the unpaid item dispute but have now paid by paypal and have contacted me to close the dispute. They have not revelaled their real address to me and have implied that I should close the dispute first.

Also fake address on the paypal payment is confirmed. This is obviously not a real address and I thought that only addresses which have been validated with a credit card are confirmed?

I am concerned that they will reverse the payment once I close the dispute and I could lose the item and final value fees.
I am considering delaying dispatch of the item, so I can be sure it is not an unauthorised transaction. Could anyone give me their advice?

Hi there,
my advise to you would be NOT to close the dispute, but to contact customer services and inform them that the address is definately not valid. In the meantime, DON'T even think of sending the item, better safe than sorry. I assure you, you won't get your money in the end, so better to lose the sale than lose your money.
I know because this has happened to me in the past.
Good luck.
OliviaH

frivolous_fay

Just a thought... could be Chinese script failing to convert?

You often see feedback left for Chinese traders that looks like ??????????? ?? ? ????????

digerati

You should report to eBay that the buyer's contact details are invalid so they will eventually be NARU'd by eBay.

False or missing contact information

I'd also report the email address to PayPal so they can flag it as connected to 'potentially fraudulent activity'.

greenstreetprince

if you have the postcode and a door number, run it through the royal mail address finder and see what kind of a match you come up with

con?fused_3

Thank you for your responses. I have decided that it is best to refund the payment.

I am sure that the address is fake. eBay has still not responded to me, but no surprises there.

I have read in paypal that an address can be confirmed for other reasons, see here.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/securitycenter/sell/SellerConfirmAdd-outside

So I think this buyer must have applied for paypal credit? What concerns me the most about this is if buyers can edit their paypal and ebay addresses and still have them show up as confirmed, then how does this work with paypal's seller protection policy? and I thought there was a low risk of chargebacks if the address was confirmed.

frivolous_fay

Ebay don't respond to emails, at least not in a prompt or sane way. Reporting is the only thing that MAY get a result.