Something VERY WEIRD going on while selling this item on eBay

[mcmx]

Originally Posted by Play

When establishing whether a I buyer is a scammer or not, look into the following:

• Feedback (the obvious one to go to)

• Member registration date (how long have they been around)

• Buying activity (how frequently, and when was the last time)

• Selling activity (what have they been selling, and at what value)

When you combine those factors, you can sort of tell if their going to pull off a scam or not.

1st buyer: 2 feedback, registered in 2006, zero selling activity, buying feedback from 'over a year ago'. From California.

2nd buyer: 250 feedback, registered in 2007, zero selling activity, 3 positive buying feedback within last month, 8 positive buying feedback within last 6 months, the rest are from over a year ago. From California.

The above 2 addresses on the accounts are 45 mins away from each other, both surrounding Los Angeles area. One seems to be an auto business and the other a print shop. One is a guy, one is a girl. Tons of people in LA, though... so they could very well be totally unrelated.

3rd buyer: 150 feedback, registered in 2003, 5 selling feedback from 'more than a year ago', 3 buyer feedback within last month, rest are from over a year ago. Buyer is from Wisconsin. Address belongs to a house.

* No current items for sale or recent completed listings for either buyers.

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It's tough to imagine someone would waste 3 very solid accounts like that in attempt to scam. Neither do I get what the attempted scam would even be. I wasn't messaged by any of these people. I haven't noticed anyone trying to trick me or deceive me so far.

[mcmx]

Originally Posted by peghmeypong

Definitely a professional scammer. I get them all the time on iPhones.

They usually ask for my email or a PayPal invoice and then send a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ PayPal email.

I've had that before, but this isn't one of those. I didn't receive a single message from any of the buyers so far.

I agree with james13v. It's easy to say it's a scam, but what part about this is a "scam"?

[TOOKNAPA]

Originally Posted by james13v

So your answer is " I have no idea how they are scamming this person. But they are dealing with a professional scammer".

no, my answer was " do some research and use your brain" and at the same time you should learn how to read

[MM78]

I'm gonna say these are hacked accounts, no other real explanation.

[mcmx]

Originally Posted by MM78

I'm gonna say these are hacked accounts, no other real explanation.

Probably the same person/hacker behind them all... Do you think so?

[MM78]

Originally Posted by mcmx

Probably the same person/hacker behind them all... Do you think so?

100% Guarantee it, just so you know.....you can even buy hacked accounts, so I don't see why it wouldn't be the same scammer.

[glacier922]

I wonder if these hacked accounts keep emailing my accounts to ask if my stuff is foo foo.

[james13v]

Originally Posted by TOOKNAPA

no, my answer was " do some research and use your brain" and at the same time you should learn how to read

You made the claim. When a person asks you to back up the claim, you can't tell them to " go read." I mean, I guess you "can". It's a free country. But it makes you look silly.

[TOOKNAPA]

Originally Posted by james13v

You made the claim. When a person asks you to back up the claim, you can't tell them to " go read." I mean, I guess you "can". It's a free country. But it makes you look silly.

Yes, you are right, I am silly, and you are right, it was only a coincidence

Originally Posted by james13v

You made the claim. When a person asks you to back up the claim, you can't tell them to " go read." I mean, I guess you "can". It's a free country. But it makes you look silly.

I don't think so.

Tooknapa thinks this is a scam of some sort. He/she mas not know precisely which scam or may not want to discuss these scams in open forums, to avoid giving anyone ideas. Often we get questions which appear 'dodgy'.

I happen to agree with them, as you know. I don't know which scam it is. Mocked-up PayPal email, hacked PayPal, stolen credit cards, switch the parcel etc etc etc etc etc.

You can't be too careful in this game. Wherever money changes hands, someone is out to get you. Tooknapa's advice: "Avoid. Looks like a scam".

You want to shoot people down that offer you advice, they stop offering it

[wtfebay]

Originally Posted by james13v

You made the claim. When a person asks you to back up the claim, you can't tell them to " go read." I mean, I guess you "can". It's a free country. But it makes you look silly.

I think its the language barrier...he doesnt understand fully what you are saying, so his responses have been what they have been.

Also, America may be a 'free' country but Thailand criminalised freedom of expression in 2014.

Unless you regard the internet to be the 51st State like your federal government.

[Play]

Originally Posted by mcmx

1st buyer: 2 feedback, registered in 2006, zero selling activity, buying feedback from 'over a year ago'. From California.

2nd buyer: 250 feedback, registered in 2007, zero selling activity, 3 positive buying feedback within last month, 8 positive buying feedback within last 6 months, the rest are from over a year ago. From California.

The above 2 addresses on the accounts are 45 mins away from each other, both surrounding Los Angeles area. One seems to be an auto business and the other a print shop. One is a guy, one is a girl. Tons of people in LA, though... so they could very well be totally unrelated.

3rd buyer: 150 feedback, registered in 2003, 5 selling feedback from 'more than a year ago', 3 buyer feedback within last month, rest are from over a year ago. Buyer is from Wisconsin. Address belongs to a house.

* No current items for sale or recent completed listings for either buyers.

------

It's tough to imagine someone would waste 3 very solid accounts like that in attempt to scam. Neither do I get what the attempted scam would even be. I wasn't messaged by any of these people. I haven't noticed anyone trying to trick me or deceive me so far.

2nd and 3rd buyer seem genuine. Unlikely to have been hacked accounts.

1st buyer, depending on the value of the item, I would proceed with caution. They seem to be really new to ebay, its that sort that cause issues later.

The better question to ask would be what is the value of the item and what category does it fall under. That would help better in establishing if its a scam, as some categories/item values are more prone to scams.

[mcmx]

And of course... just got the e-mail from eBay.. for the 3rd time:

"eBay listings removed - unauthorized user of buyer or bidder account"

Originally Posted by Play

2nd and 3rd buyer seem genuine. Unlikely to have been hacked accounts.

1st buyer, depending on the value of the item, I would proceed with caution. They seem to be really new to ebay, its that sort that cause issues later.

The better question to ask would be what is the value of the item and what category does it fall under. That would help better in establishing if its a scam, as some categories/item values are more prone to scams.

No need to proceed with caution for the 1st buyer. It looks like eBay deleted the account (or may be just a suspension. I know my account said I was 'no longer a user' during a suspension years ago).

The 2nd and 3rd buyers' accounts are still standing. Although the transactions were completely canceled by eBay in every case so far, so I can't proceed with anyone, unless they begin to message me saying they'll buy (which has not happened yet)

It's high hundreds, clothing/apparel/accessory related. Although I've had very few watchers over the course of the last 2 weeks.

[MM78]

Just out of curiosity, is this item really expensive? rare? high in demand?

[mcmx]

Originally Posted by MM78

Just out of curiosity, is this item really expensive? rare? high in demand?

It's not really rare or in high demand (only had 1 watcher at most for each time I've listed it. Even after being up for a full week) And as mentioned, pricing is in the high hundreds.

[ebaymage]

Quite interesting i never seen such thing happened before.

[mcmx]

As soon as eBay cancels the transaction, thankfully they automatically give me a credit for the final value fee. Although each phony transaction still counted against me selling limit. Good thing I'm not selling much else right now and that they recently increased my limits.

I have since re-listed the auction after this 3rd attempt, this time checking off the setting 'Require immediate payment for Buy It Now' and it seems to have helped. The listing has actually been up for 3 days without anyone messing with it.

I know the general advice is to avoid calling in/contacting EB/PP.

That said, as I mentioned earlier, when selling high value items, I've often had scammers buy it and send me the "please send me a PayPal invoice to..... Blah blah blah" email. In each and every case, I've contacted eBay through the live chat feature and had my selling allowance restored.

Rather than wiping the transaction off the allowance, it increases your allowance to give you what you had. Example: Allowance £650, moody transaction £450, allowance will be increased to £1100 with £450 used up.

The hidden benefit of this is that the allowance stays permanently on the account. I've had allowances raised by £4000 and that has remained on the account permanently (when scammers try to outscam each other, idiots).

Perhaps you all already knew that, something to think about if not.

[oompaloompa]

Originally Posted by wtfebay

There is one way around the immediate payment for buy it now auctions. If you click add to cart, you have the option to request total from seller....the item will still be "sold" but they have bypassed the immediate payment requirement.

ohhhh, that is quite good info, didnt know that........

[oompaloompa]

the buyer accs are obviously linked somehow, one happened to go down and the others are maybe on some kind of hold, the user of those accs wanted to buy your item so kept trying....

maybe it was the attempt to buy your item that ebay was watching, eg. whoever bought it was a linked acc?

[fox20c]

This guy is using a cracked ebay account to try and get you to invoice him. This is an old ebay scam and has been around a while, seen it many times before. You will usually see it with higher priced items or very popular items (iphones, and other high end electronics). What can help a little bit is to run the listing as an auction. Not the optimal solution but it does cut down on scammers.