Ebay scam buyer

Jonboy12

Hi All,

This is a bit of a long shot but I thought I'd ask for any advise if there was anything we could do.

My niece who is 17 has just used ebay for the first time and sold an iPhone for £500 to someone in cypress with postage costs of £52.
Everything seemed to be fine with the seller and they said they would send payment.
Along the way it turns out she gave the buyer her email address in the messages they had on ebay.
After the sale she got an email from eBay saying the buyer had paid so she posted the item.
It was after she sent the item she went into her PayPal account to see it had no money in it.
It turns out the email she received saying the money had been sent was a fake email from the buyer...
She's been in touch with ebay but they aren't being very helpful, so it looks like she has lost the phone and any money.
So I just thought I'd see if there is anything she could do?

Thanks for any help.

soolin

Jonboy12 wrote: »

Hi All,

This is a bit of a long shot but I thought I'd ask for any advise if there was anything we could do.

My niece who is 17 has just used ebay for the first time and sold an iPhone for £500 to someone in cypress with postage costs of £52.
Everything seemed to be fine with the seller and they said they would send payment.
Along the way it turns out she gave the buyer her email address in the messages they had on ebay.
After the sale she got an email from eBay saying the buyer had paid so she posted the item.
It was after she sent the item she went into her PayPal account to see it had no money in it.
It turns out the email she received saying the money had been sent was a fake email from the buyer...
She's been in touch with ebay but they aren't being very helpful, so it looks like she has lost the phone and any money.
So I just thought I'd see if there is anything she could do?

Thanks for any help.

Unfortunately I can't see anything you can do here, the fact that phone was sent to Cyprus makes it worse as you can't even get the satisfaction of reporting a UK buyer to auction fraud.

I'm also concerned that your niece has fallen for such an obvious scam, it might pay if you could gently suggest that before she uses eBay again that she finds a basic tutorial or something to protect herself. No one should be sending anything without doing a basic check, not only to see if payment was received but also just to see whether payment shows as 'OK to send". These are basic checks.

Not only that but even sending a mobile overseas is a no no, RM won't insure mobiles even sent tracked and signed and insured , again a basic check would have got this information.

theonlywayisup

A sad but not unique story. Unfortunately the scammers favour those who will fall for their scam.

Is the phone blocked?

Your niece has no protection by paying as she did, despite being "under age" for an eBay account.

A lesson learned. Hopefully more than one lesson.

Marcon

What a rotten introduction to ebay for her - but what is a 17 year old doing using ebay - don't you have to be 18 both to use ebay and to have a paypal account?

Jonboy12

soolin wrote: »

Unfortunately I can't see anything you can do here, the fact that phone was sent to Cyprus makes it worse as you can't even get the satisfaction of reporting a UK buyer to auction fraud.

I'm also concerned that your niece has fallen for such an obvious scam, it might pay if you could gently suggest that before she uses eBay again that she finds a basic tutorial or something to protect herself. No one should be sending anything without doing a basic check, not only to see if payment was received but also just to see whether payment shows as 'OK to send". These are basic checks.

Not only that but even sending a mobile overseas is a no no, RM won't insure mobiles even sent tracked and signed and insured , again a basic check would have got this information.

Thanks Soolin

She likes to think she is an adult and knows what she's doing, I will gently suggest that she reads up on it before using it again or at least ask for advice first...:)

Jonboy12

Thanks theonlywayisup

Not sure if the phone is blocked.
A lesson learned indeed...

Jonboy12

I also thought this, but I only herd about what happened today. Don't think she'll be using it again until her 18th...

RFW

Report it to the Police via Action Fraud https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud

Dox

RFW wrote: »

Report it to the Police via Action Fraud https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud

As Soolin has already pointed out, no point reporting - this is a Cyprus based buyer.

Gary123456790

Do report the phone as stolen - as it will get blocked and will be of no use to the scammer, whatever country they are in.

Thanks.

k3lvc

Gary123456790 wrote: »

Do report the phone as stolen - as it will get blocked and will be of no use to the scammer, whatever country they are in.

Thanks.

I'd love to believe you but experience suggests otherwise - a BBC documentary a couple of weeks ago named a specific country where high-end phones were useable despite any 'stolen' marker on them