Ebay Scam Advice Needed

[largeunit]

I'm selling an old Mackie board on Ebay. One of the many inquiries about the board I received through Ebay was an obvious scam, and I did not respond to it:

"I am an agent interested in immediate purchase of this Mixer for one of my clinet in africa. And after several consideration over the advert placed on the ebay website, my client has really shown interest on it, i will like to know how much willing to sell the Mixer because the payment would be issue by sending you Cashiers Check.
Will you be accepting a Cashiers Check? The cashiers check that will be drawn by my client would include the cost for shipping this Mixer to my client and my commission would be included on the same Cashiers Check.We shall solely be responsible for the shippment of the Mixer.
you can contact me asap via email for futher questions as regards this transaction or call me on +2348033957635 if you really show willingness in selling this item asap.Thank You and I am expecting your response asap"

I did not respond to it, although I did forward it Ebay fraud, and thought no more of it.

Then today, the person who sent this inquiry won the auction. They have zero feedback. I can see the scam coming from a mile away - but I'm not sure how to handle it. I've never had a scammer actually win one of my auctions.

1. I am concerned about negative feedback if I blow the guy off. I have over 50 positives and he has 0.

2. I want to sell the item to a legitimate buyer. Should I go to the next highest bidder?

[psytechguy]

Insist that they pay by USPS MO or through PayPal. If they don't comply, file a non-paying bidder claim with eBay to recoup your final sale fee.

[HudHudson]

My biggest complaint about eBay's regimen for dealing with non-paying bidders is that you have to send a bunch of notices over a number of days (10?) before you can apply for final value fee credits and then make a second chance offer to other bidders. When I sell on eBay I want my cash fast. I always make sure international bidders contact me first and pay via PayPal or bank wire or I just cancel their bids to be safe.

[largeunit]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will post on here how things turn out.

p.s. I don't think I can insist on a USPS Money Order or Paypal at this point since I did not specify that in the listing. I say money order, cashier's check or Paypal...

[everybody's x]

that asshole did that to me last week on my mackie 32.4

he did the buy it now on like 5 different guys in one day.

report him and relist it
flame his feedback immediately, because ebay will shut him down again but they need a red flag, if he gets a shitload of negative feedback at the same time. Ebay will pull his membership which will credit your final value fee back immediately instead of going through the normal process

[GRiFF]

I had something similar, the scam goes like this...


They will send you a check for say £3000, you'll sell them the item - lets say it was for £200 and they ask for the difference to be wired to them via Western Union.

Beware! These guys will send you a legitimate looking cheque, so legitimate in fact that your bank will most likely clear it.
You'll be clapping your hands with joy for anything up to 3 months after the event. Then out of the blue you'll recieve a letter saying that yourl heavily overdrawn.

Get this...even though your bank clear the cheque initially they will discover its a counterfeit and you'll be expected to cover the amount that was sent via Western Union all that time earlier.

My alarm bells started ringing the moment he offered me well above the going rate for an item, but I just had to see where it was going - I did not do the transaction you'll be pleased to hear.

Ebay need to start taking more responisibility for their business. There are many other scams to.

Just type 'Ebay Scams' into Google, you'll see what I mean.

[largeunit]

Originally posted by GRiFF
I had something similar, the scam goes like this...


They will send you a check for say £3000, you'll sell them the item - lets say it was for £200 and they ask for the difference to be wired to them via Western Union.

Beware! These guys will send you a legitimate looking cheque, so legitimate in fact that your bank will most likely clear it.
You'll be clapping your hands with joy for anything up to 3 months after the event. Then out of the blue you'll recieve a letter saying that yourl heavily overdrawn.

Get this...even though your bank clear the cheque initially they will discover its a counterfeit and you'll be expected to cover the amount that was sent via Western Union all that time earlier.

My alarm bells started ringing the moment he offered me well above the going rate for an item, but I just had to see where it was going - I did not do the transaction you'll be pleased to hear.

Ebay need to start taking more responisibility for their business. There are many other scams to.

Just type 'Ebay Scams' into Google, you'll see what I mean.

Yes, I'm aware of this popular scam. What I am trying to figure out is the best way to handle a scammer actually winning my auction.

[psytechguy]

Originally posted by largeunit
Yes, I'm aware of this popular scam. What I am trying to figure out is the best way to handle a scammer actually winning my auction.

Since this is such a common eBay scam these days, and you've already fowarded their first attempt on to eBay's fraud section, I'd email the winning (fraudulent) bidder and just straight out let them know that you suspect they are a fraud and that you are cancelling their bid and offering to the second highest bidder.

They'll either:

1. Disappear

2. Whine, in which case you can tell them that because of your suspicions you'll go through with the deal ONLY if funds are payed by USPS MO or PayPal AND cleared first before you ship.

3. Give you negative feedback.

If they give you negative feedback it's not the end of the world. You have a chance to rebut this and it's there for the record. Meanwhile you can get on with offering your item to the second high bidder. The very worst case scenario is that you get a negative feedback and have to pay the final fee (which I doubt you would have to do if you refer eBay to the email they sent you.) If this happens then just live and learn.

I am very definite and restrictive about who I will do business with and how I will accept payment. I've had to adopt that policy to protect myself from these jerks. Most honest folks understand.

If you're dealing with folks honestly, don't let the **sholes out there try and intimidate you with the threat of negative feedback. It's not the end of the world.
I have bought from folks with negative feedback on occasion with no problems at all. You have to take all the feedback comments with a grain of salt. You can usually tell if someone is inclined to do shaky business, and with 50 positives, I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

Good luck!

Mike

[largeunit]

Update...

I immediately gave the scammer negative feedback. Someone else also did a few hours after I did. That was 4 or 5 days ago. Today I got this email from Ebay:

From: ukrswebhelp@ebay.com
Subject: FIB NOTICE: Suspicious Bidder Alert
Date: December 18, 2004 3:20:02 PM EST

Please be aware that we have recently cancelled bids for the buyer noted above due to our inability to confirm his or her contact information and/or the failure to complete recent transactions. The buyer's privileges to trade on eBay have been temporarily suspended while we investigate this matter further.

Our records indicate that this buyer recently attempted to complete a transaction with you. Since the buyer is not currently registered on the eBay site, you may consider the transaction null and void if you have not already shipped the item.

If you have already shipped the item, we advise you to consider taking the following steps at this time:

1. Contact the company that was used to send payment to verify whether or not funds have cleared.

2. Contact law enforcement in the area where the buyer lives if you find that the funds are fraudulent. Be sure to be as specific as possible, including names, addresses, phone numbers or any other information that you may have about the buyer. If a detective is assigned to your case, please ask him or her to contact us so that we can assist in the investigation.

3. Contact the shipping carrier to determine whether or not it may be possible to stop shipment on the package.

4. If your package was shipped via Royal mail , you may be able to file a mail fraud complaint at:

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/j...diaId=15500181

5. In the event that you are not able to receive funds for this sale, you can file for a credit of your Final Value Fees, provided it has not been 45 days or more since the auction ended. To request a Final Value Fee credit, please follow the steps below:

1. Click the ""site map"" link at the top of any eBay page.

2. On the ""Site Map"" page, click the link ""Request final value fee credit"" under the ""Seller Accounts"" heading in the middle column.

If you have any concerns or questions about this situation or any other eBay-related issues you can visit our help system by clicking on ""Help"" on the navigation bar at the top of any eBay web page.

Regards,

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay International AG