EBAY SCAMMERS. (My story)

KerryAnne96

This is what i wrote on eBay, forums. http://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/I-think-someone-is-trying-to-scam-me-Advice-please/td-p/2540496

I have a Wedding Dress up for sale on eBay.
I did originally have a spare email address attached but have since removed it after I got an email that gave me an uneasy feeling.

I firstly received an email to my AOL account from olaoluscott15@gmail.com (As i now know a known scammer on Craigslist-google his email) simply saying "is the dress still available?" (It also said it underneath in German?)
Thinking this was a bit strange as the man had clearly contacted me via my active listing. Anyhoo I tried to reply, but the email kept getting bounced back to me saying Recipient has their spam filter on, feeling even more suspicious by this point. I went to my old gmail account and replied "Yes, how can I help?" (it went threw.)

I then received this response, from a DIFFERENT email from a Richard Johnson courtneyd5dd@gmail.com than I had responded too!.....(again a known scammer on Craigslist- again google his email address.)

"Thanks for your mail. i will appreciate more pictures.. I am ready to buy it now for my son as a surprise promise gift, And due to the nature of my work, phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted but i squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an email regarding it. i would be glad to pay for it as soon as possible though i will not be available to come for an inspection due to my tight schedule. Kindly get back to me with the following questions below:
1) Are you the Owner?
2) Pick up Location?
3) Your PayPal Email ID to effect the payment
4)what is The final Price?

I would be glad to make the payment immediately through PayPal so kindly get back to me with your PayPal ID. You need not to worry yourself about title transfer and shipment, i will instruct the shipping company to handle that therefore in order to complete the transaction do get back to me with your PayPal ID and total cost so that I can make the payment asap. I will be waiting for your reply! Thanks.."

I replied, "Can you please copy and paste your message into an eBay message as id like ALL correspondence to be made via eBay message, Thank you." His response was this "Im interested . You should reply me to my email address courtneyd5dd@gmail.com" (Erm I thought i already was!!???) I replied "No! Look I now know you are a known scammer & you have been reported!! Goodbye! Funny I have heard nothing since.

Mind when I have a gut feeling that something is wrong i`m usually right! And that smacked of a 411 scam (African.) to me, and my friend simply because he seemed so insistent about having my PayPal details.

I thought I should warn people to be on the lookout for this person.

soolin

One question.why did you have your email address on the auction? eBay may well have seen that as an invitation to deal outside of eBay, it is also a magnet to scammers.

Other than that, just ignore these scammers, one day they may well have to get a real job if we can only persuade people not to fall for them.

KerryAnne96

Hi, As i stated it was an old disused gmail account.
My two messages too and replies from the scammer have now mysteriously disappeared from my Gmail account?? I have since changed the password just in case.

cattie

I'm surprised that you even bothered replying! I know if it were me the emails would have been deleted straight away with no response whatsoever. I wouldn't be willing to waste even 5 seconds of my life on the senders.

I must admit though that I never open an email from a sender that I'm not familiar with. It all gets clicked on as spam.

KerryAnne96

Hi, I normally dont but when i`m desperately trying to sell a £300 (inc postage) Wedding Dress, I unfortunately did have to open the enquiry.

soolin

If you are a new seller then you need to be aware of these scams, you have no need at all to put any email address on the listing, if a buyer has a question then they can send it via the eBay system where you can report if necessary. Do not encourage buyers to contact you via your own email.

Also, looking at your thread on eBay, make sure you do change your postage options and have a read of the sticky postage thread here on MSE. Your buyer need only pay what your auction states, if you want it insured ( and you do) then add the additional postage costs to the item start price.

Lastly, I think you may be a little,optimistic in trying to sell a wedding dress for £300 , have you checked the competed listing in eBay to see what the ball park figure actually is?

Gleeful

soolin wrote: »

If you are a new seller then you need to be aware of these scams, you have no need at all to put any email address on the listing, if a buyer has a question then they can send it via the eBay system where you can report if necessary. Do not encourage buyers to contact you via your own email.

Also, looking at your thread on eBay, make sure you do change your postage options and have a read of the sticky postage thread here on MSE. Your buyer need only pay what your auction states, if you want it insured ( and you do) then add the additional postage costs to the item start price.

Lastly, I think you may be a little,optimistic in trying to sell a wedding dress for £300 , have you checked the competed listing in eBay to see what the ball park figure actually is?

I totally agree with Soolin - you will be lucky to sell the dress for £300. Maybe it is different with plus sizes but I opted to keep my wedding dress as it wouldn't have netted much on eBay, as the market for used wedding dresses is not strong.

soolin

Gleeful wrote: »

I totally agree with Soolin - you will be lucky to sell the dress for £300. Maybe it is different with plus sizes but I opted to keep my wedding dress as it wouldn't have netted much on eBay, as the market for used wedding dresses is not strong.

I have bought 2nd hand wedding dresses before now for a friend who 'does things' to them and reinvents them as part of the US craze of masquerading. I have bought good makes for as little as £30 -£ 50 delivered that originally had RRPs well over £1000. It is actually quite sad.

I still have my wedding dress in a box somewhere, but as I am older and was married at 18 it is now definitely 'vintage' and about 3 sizes too small!

Gleeful

soolin wrote: »

I have bought 2nd hand wedding dresses before now for a friend who 'does things' to them and reinvents them as part of the US craze of masquerading. I have bought good makes for as little as £30 -£ 50 delivered that originally had RRPs well over £1000. It is actually quite sad.

I still have my wedding dress in a box somewhere, but as I am older and was married at 18 it is now definitely 'vintage' and about 3 sizes too small!

Yeah, I'm glad I'm keeping mine!