Ebay scam?

angryparcel

Mexas wrote: »

Thanks I have made the adjustments. Do you also block buyers who Don't have a PayPal account?

I guess I'll have to wait to see if they pay.

all payments made through ebay are through Paypal, so ebay users will have paypal accounts

seashore22

I wouldn't send a paypal invoice to just any old email address that the buyer requests. Keep everything via ebay and check and double check any "paypal" payment received from this buyer.

It is a well known scam to send a payment email to the seller so that they think they have been paid when they haven't. This is obviously more true for high end, expensive items and phones are particularly targeted.

kalsha

Angryparcel, why would you block "Are currently winning or have bought 1 of my items in the last 10 days and have a Feedback score of 5 or lower"

What is wrong with someone bidding on more than 1 item from you in the last 10 days. What am I missing here?

Mexas

To wrap this up i got a message off the buyer late last night saying

Sorry I bought two stuffs online today in which your phone was among , I'm a freelance photographer residing in Australia but presently working in the United Kingdom , I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience I may cause you with the description , I will like you to send me pictures of the Samsung s8 to email@dodgy.net)
Kind regards

Fair enough i thought, but as it was late i decided to leave it until the morning.

When i woke up this morning i had a nice message from eBay:

Hello x,
We had to cancel bids for the buyer, xxx, because they aren't registered on eBay:
Samsung Galaxy S8 Smartphone

We've also made it easy to relist your item if it was removed. Although the item is no longer available in search listings, you will find it in the Sold section of My eBay. For more information

So in the end it was a scam...

seashore22

Asking for direct email contact and more photos was a bit of a red flag and you were right to be cautious.

soolin

angryparcel wrote: »

all payments made through ebay are through Paypal, so ebay users will have paypal accounts

That might be true of new sellers in some categories but for longer term sellers we can still offer a whole range of other options. However I do agree that virtually no buyer ever chooses to pay by anything other than paypal.

OP,this was always sounding like a scam but if you follow the normal selling instructions on ebay and paypal the scammer would have had to give up as it wouldn't have worked. This would only have worked for a more naive or new seller. As above the buyer didn't realise they had access to your email account once they bought something and was fishing for you to give it to them so they could send a fake 'you've got funds' email from paypal.

For newbies reading this the way to protect yourself and not waste time, but still remain polite 'just in case' is to just send an invoice via ebay and ignore any other requests from the buyer. Then do not send the item until it shows up as a transaction in your paypal account, always safely opening paypal and printing labels from there will mean you cannot be scammed with fake funds or non payment, don't cut corners- always refer back to your paypal account.

Camman123

It looks like a copy-paste template job which the buyer forgot to change out the item name. I'd personally avoid.

soolin

Camman123 wrote: »

It looks like a copy-paste template job which the buyer forgot to change out the item name. I'd personally avoid.

This is another old thread that you have resurrected , things do move quickly on MSE and bumping of old threads is not always useful.

Lisbon

Camman123 wrote: »

It looks like a copy-paste template job which the buyer forgot to change out the item name. I'd personally avoid.

Are you just trying to build up your post count by responding to old posts?