Scam Buyer

brunettegirl

I put my first item to sell on ebay over the weekend now aside from the fact that bidding seemed to go crazy the item sold for 1220, the item isn't worth this amount. The winning bidder only opened their account yesterday and made the final bid. I sent tthe invoice, however I had an email from them saying they want me to ship it to Nigeria! Im very suspicious about it, but i also think 3 of the other bidders are also scammers 1 also opened their account yesterday and the other has been inactive since 2007. What is the best cause of action for me to take. Can I offer it to the next bidder or do i have to wait to see if they transfer funds to paypal? I read some things on ebay about scams and possible stolen credit card, if the funds appear in paypal how do i know if it is fraud??????

Please help not sure what to do next.

charlies_mum

Whatever you do, DO NOT ship to Nigeria, it is a well known scam. Check where in the World the other bidders are, then offer the item to one of them (providing they aren't in Nigeria as well).

gunsandbanjos

Definately a scam, do nothing at the moment. Do not reply to the email asking you to send it to Nigeria, also dont click any links in the email they send you.
Chances are ebay will pick up on this soon and will cancel the bids allowing you to get your listing fees back and you can relist. Make sure when you relist that you set your buyer preferences to (try) and stop this kind of thing.

kevinyork

Im guessing it might be a mobile phone?

Dont ship it outside of the UK and I would only ship a mobile in the UK to a verified Paypal address by a recorded method.

Its a bit of a pain but you might need to wait for them to be a non paying bidder and go through the unpaid item dispute process if eBay havnt suspended them before that time.

If you get an email which looks like a Paypal email advising you that the money is waiting to be claimed or something similar this could be part of the scam. Dont click on any links in it but check directly in your Paypal account instead.

Good luck.

brunettegirl

Can I relist it as a new item as Im suspicious that the bids below are also scams.....

soolin

If it is a phone then do as kevinyork suggests and when you relist take off the options to ship outside the UK and change your seller preferences to exclude bidders from countries you don't ship to.

This Nigerian scam is a blooming nuisance, it is getting rarer now as people have realise dhow to stop it by using their seller preferences, but even though you saw through it it does still waste your time.

soolin

If you are attracting scammers then your preferences are not set strongly enough, I sell phones occasionally and have never yet had a scam bid. before you do anything else, go and sort your seller preferences, stop these scum from wasting your time.

It might well be worth even adding a note to your auction along the lines of 'I am aware of the 419 scam and will not ship outside the UK'.

brunettegirl

it wasn't a phone its a laptop, however your right i don't think i have set preferences - didn;t know i could! will check when i log on later - i can't get on at work.
This is my 5th attempeted scammer already had 2 with amazon, which surprised me i use amazon all the time and never had any problems - unlucky i guess

gunsandbanjos

I had the same issues with a laptop a couple of months ago, ebay were really good and picked up that it was a scam and sorted it out for me:D

brunettegirl

I emailed them to say that I was supicious it was a scam - awaiting a response from them.

soolin

I wouldn't have wasted my time with an email..just report it all to ebay and relist