If you sell your bags on Ebay - watch out for this scam

T

tinyturtle

O.G.
Dec 5, 2010
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#1
The scammer will follow and watch your item. As soon as someone buys it, they will make up an account name that is similar to the actual buyer's account name. Then they message you asking you to send the bag to a different address - it's usually an excuse that they are traveling or visiting a relative and need the bag to be sent to a different address. If you do not send to the address that Paypal or Ebay has on file for the actual buyer, you have no seller protection and will lose your money and precious handbag. So no matter what, always ship to the address that is on file on Ebay or Paypal.

Fortunately, I didn't fall for the scam but I just want to warn others. Happy holidays and safe shopping and selling!
 
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#2
tinyturtle said:
The scammer will follow and watch your item. As soon as someone buys it, they will make up an account name that is similar to the actual buyer's account name. Then they message you asking you to send the bag to a different address - it's usually an excuse that they are traveling or visiting a relative and need the bag to be sent to a different address. If you do not send to the address that Paypal or Ebay has on file for the actual buyer, you have no seller protection and will lose your money and precious handbag. So no matter what, always ship to the address that is on file on Ebay or Paypal.

Fortunately, I didn't fall for the scam but I just want to warn others. Happy holidays and safe shopping and selling!
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If the address is not a Confirmed address in PP I don’t ship. If they want to ship to a different address they can log into PP and change it there. Otherwise no way I’m shipping.
 
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#3
scorpiosgirl69 said:
If the address is not a Confirmed address in PP I don’t ship. If they want to ship to a different address they can log into PP and change it there. Otherwise no way I’m shipping.
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Just a note: Address in paypal need not be "confirmed" for seller protection. As long as you ship to the address shown in paypal (and will be the same address shown on ebay), you have protection.
 
#4
This recently happened to me as a buyer. A seller contacted me and said I'm sorry I can't ship your item to another address. I said what made you think I wanted it to go to another address and they said I messaged them. In this case the person who messaged them didn't even have an ID similar to mine.
 
#5
To add, the way it likely works is that if the seller says the item wasn't paid for yet, the "buyer" (aka scammer) sends a "receipt" that appears to be from paypal saying that the item is paid and you should ship. But the email isn't from paypal and no money was received.
 
#6
tinyturtle said:
The scammer will follow and watch your item. As soon as someone buys it, they will make up an account name that is similar to the actual buyer's account name. Then they message you asking you to send the bag to a different address - it's usually an excuse that they are traveling or visiting a relative and need the bag to be sent to a different address. If you do not send to the address that Paypal or Ebay has on file for the actual buyer, you have no seller protection and will lose your money and precious handbag. So no matter what, always ship to the address that is on file on Ebay or Paypal.

Fortunately, I didn't fall for the scam but I just want to warn others. Happy holidays and safe shopping and selling!
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How can they make up a similar name? Ebay ids are asteriked out (or they are on the UK site anyway) for all bidders, the winning bidder and on feedback.
 
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#8
BeenBurned said:
Good point!
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It can work out, a friend found it out when there was a no received claim, you can look at their feedback and if they have sold something before, you can click on that listing and get their user name.

She managed to catch a buyer who tried to do the "not received" despite that there was somebody signing for the item (however not the same name) and then the "buyer" was stupid enough to list exactly the same item she claimed as not received as for sale.
 
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#9
Gabs007 said:
It can work out, a friend found it out when there was a no received claim, you can look at their feedback and if they have sold something before, you can click on that listing and get their user name.

She managed to catch a buyer who tried to do the "not received" despite that there was somebody signing for the item (however not the same name) and then the "buyer" was stupid enough to list exactly the same item she claimed as not received as for sale.
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Many years ago, I had a similar case where the item hadn't been scanned on delivery. In this post from 2011, I described a scenario in which I didn't believe the buyer and followed her listings for 18 months until she listed my item that she'd claimed not to have received.
 
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#10
BeenBurned said:
Many years ago, I had a similar case where the item hadn't been scanned on delivery. In this post from 2011, I described a scenario in which I didn't believe the buyer and followed her listings for 18 months until she listed my item that she'd claimed not to have received.
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Omg that’s terrible and I admire your persistence. Do these people who lie realize they’re stealing/scamming people?! They’re criminals! It’s terrible. I don’t see how they sleep at night.
 
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#11
BeenBurned said:
Many years ago, I had a similar case where the item hadn't been scanned on delivery. In this post from 2011, I described a scenario in which I didn't believe the buyer and followed her listings for 18 months until she listed my item that she'd claimed not to have received.
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I don't know how it works on your side of the pond, but here anybody can claim (unless your postman knows you) to be somebody else, or have a friend answering the door and accepting the mail, then pretend that you don't know the person. On the other hand, also the posties are often so busy, they just hand it to a neighbour and it can show up as delivered, you however have no idea who it was delivered to.... It is a bit of a mess
 
#13
tinyturtle said:
The scammer will follow and watch your item. As soon as someone buys it, they will make up an account name that is similar to the actual buyer's account name. Then they message you asking you to send the bag to a different address - it's usually an excuse that they are traveling or visiting a relative and need the bag to be sent to a different address. If you do not send to the address that Paypal or Ebay has on file for the actual buyer, you have no seller protection and will lose your money and precious handbag. So no matter what, always ship to the address that is on file on Ebay or Paypal.

Fortunately, I didn't fall for the scam but I just want to warn others. Happy holidays and safe shopping and selling!
Click to expand...
How does the scammer know the buyer's ID? I thought only seller can see the buyer's ID.
 
#14
True, it's only the seller who knows the true user ID. From what I've seen, ebay makes up an alternate user ID that isn't even close to the actual person's username, and then asterisks the middle out. This ID changes for each transaction even for the same person. For example if I'm the winner on several different items, and then log out and check any of my winning bid IDs, they are all different. And then if I look at feedback for that item, the ID is changed yet again.
 
#15
lightwave said:
True, it's only the seller who knows the true user ID. From what I've seen, ebay makes up an alternate user ID that isn't even close to the actual person's username, and then asterisks the middle out. This ID changes for each transaction even for the same person. For example if I'm the winner on several different items, and then log out and check any of my winning bid IDs, they are all different. And then if I look at feedback for that item, the ID is changed yet again.
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You can search for a username as the buyer, so if you have the name of somebody you know buys a lot of expensive items and monitor it? Or if it is the same person who then under the original name will claim that the item wasn't received?
 
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