What does Ebay do to prevent fake buyer accounts?

[duncbe6]

Today made my very first sale on ebay...or so I thought.

After the bidding closed I immediately sent the buyer an invoice and a few hours later a direct message. Heard nothing back and started to get suspicious.

After looking over the buyer account I did a google search of the shipping address and discovered that it's the street address from the old television show The Munsters. The actual street name does not exist in the city the buyer claims to live in and the buyer's name is a the name of a character in a Japanese anime series.

On top of which, the account was created the same day as the bid was made.

After contacting Ebay I was told that my only option is to wait 48 hours to file a case and then wait another four days after that for the buyer to make payment before I cancel the transaction. If I don't do it that way, the customer service agent said I might have to pay the seller's fee on a transaction for which the buyer never made payment (assuming it's a fake account, which it 100% is).

It's shocking to me that on Ebay, bidding on items that you have no intention of paying for is as simple as using a dummy email address to set up a fake ebay account and within a matter of hours, or maybe minutes, you're able to start bidding on items.

Wouldn't a 24 hour wait period after setting up a new account make sense?

This is my first ebay sale...and most likely my last.

Thanks for listening.

...rant over.

[chiaretta]

What difference would 24 hours make?

NONE.

You are new, and while I cannot see what the item was most new sellers are targeted by scammers especially on high end items.

That said why would you start worrying when the item sold today, didn't you take the time ALL buyers have a minimum of 48 hours before sellers can take any action?

If for any legitimate reason I'm not able to pay within the first couple of hours a seller pestering me will wait up to 47.5 hours before they see their money, all the others will be paid as soon as humanly possible

[duncbe6]

The buyer's street name does not exist in the city they claim to live in.

What else do I need to know regarding the veracity of the account?

[chiaretta]

You will still need to wait the 6 days as advised.

What I told you is for your future sales, after 17 years, close to 7.000 purchases and with a fully correct first and last name and mailing address I know your sale terms are against ebay's policy and unenforcable, you may want to keep that in mind

[duncbe6]

My sales terms?

How on god's earth would you know what, if any, sales terms I have?

I haven't listed any sales terms--either here or directly with the buyer.

Let me ask you a question: What would you think if you closed a sale and later saw that the shipping address provided by the buyer said the following:

"Elvis Presley
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, The White House"

What would you deduce from that?

[takikawa4]

I see you stated that you won't ship to non-confirmed PayPal addresses. However, a confirmed address hasn't been necessary for quite a while. You can ship to any address listed in PayPal. Don't know, though, what a PayPal confirmed account is.

If you're absolutely SURE the address isn't a good one, you should be able to cancel the sale with "problem with buyer's address"; I don't believe that will give you a strike against your account.

[tarpedge]

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@duncbe6 wrote:
The buyer's street name does not exist in the city they claim to live in.

What else do I need to know regarding the veracity of the account?

---

@dunce, it is not uncommon to stage a placeholder name and address to prevent the seller from shipping before payment.

The buyer selects a shipping address from a drop-down list at checkout. Depending on the address, this could add sales tax or change the shipping cost if you use calculated shipping. Hence, the placeholder address.

You won't ever know the desired shipping address until after payment is made.

[duncbe6]

Appreciate your comment, as it actually is helpful.

As an inexperience Ebay user, I'm sure my comments make me look like an ignorant rube.

After reading through quite a few thread on this community forum, I'm just genuinely surprised at how common scamming seems to be on ebay and how little protection there is for sellers. It makes it sound as though ebay is The Shawshank Redemption and every time a new seller posts a listing, the legions of scammers out there begin chanting "FRESH FISH!, FRESH FISH!, FRESH FISH!"

As someone who was only looking to sell one item, it just doesn't seem worth the risk.

I'm not selling 100 items a month and no big deal if I lose a few items in the process.

...selling on Amazon looks to be a more reliable option.

[duncbe6]

Is it common to stage a placeholder name under an account that was created the same day the bid was made?

Because according to their account, this person became an ebay member TODAY.

Either way, thanks for the advice.

[tarpedge]

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@duncbe6 wrote:
Is it common to stage a placeholder name under an account that was created the same day the bid was made?

Because according to their account, this person became an ebay member TODAY.

Either way, thanks for the advice.

---

It is a buying strategy: Open a new account so that your significant other and their offspring will not recognize the ID, should they happen to notice.

And stage a placeholder address, because you're not sure yet if you're going to bid or BIN, and whether to have it shipped to the beach house or to the lodge in the mountains.

[chiaretta]

It's you who mentioned expecting payment within the first 24 hours and that you started being suspicious because your item hadn't been paid today, or yesterday, depending on your time-zone.

That would make me mad, and I'm far from a beginner, and have a real name (the only one I ever had) and a real mailing address (the place I've been living at for more than 8 years now) registered on ebay and Paypal.

While you are right about your buyer's name and address the issue above remains valid

[duncbe6]

I never said that the buyer's not making a quick payment or responding to my message was the issue.

Nor did I never demand or suggest that payment had to be made within 24 hours.

The issue is the fact that the buyer's account was created the same day the bid was made, combined with the fact that the name and shipping information on his account is all fake. If the buyer turns out to be legitimate and the payment is made, I will gladly return to this thread and admit to be a paranoid idiot.

...but I'm 99.9% certain that's not going to happen.

[chiaretta]

Someone stating, and I'm quoting your initial post verbatim, "After the bidding closed I immediately sent the buyer an invoice and a few hours later a direct message. Heard nothing back and started to get suspicious.", really gives me pause.

And I do have a full real name, only ever had one, and my ship to address is the place I've been living at since February 2009.

You are avoiding the issue, and unless you start facing it you may well face more troubles than a fake name and address someone else took the time to explain

[jessicaestellesix1979]

Sounds like a kid or some person being ugly. I've been selling on eBay now almost 2 years and I have to say for the most part most customers I have dealt with are honest.  I haven't encountered a fake buyer account  if it was me I would just go ahead and cancel the transaction at buyers request and relist it.   Even if the buyer did pay for it I wouldn't ship it to someone providing an address that doesn't exist.  I'm not really sure how a buyer can scam someone by creating a fake account.  It's just headaches for the seller.  Amazon has same problems as eBay both offer buyer guarantees.  Amazon sellers deal with exact same thing eBay sellers do,  unless you ship your items into Amazon and have them deliver it, which eBay offers that with eBay valet.   If you're just wanting to sale and Item every once in a while you may want to consider eBay valet. I'm sorry your first experience with eBay was this. 

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

The eBay registration name and address is supposed to be "real." But it really does not matter to a seller because the only required valid name and address is the one attached to the Paypal payment.

You do not see a ship-to name and address until you receive an actual payment. For example, I have 6 addresses in Paypal, some in my name and some for other recipients. At check-out, I can specify any name and address as long as USPS can identify the destination.

By the way, buyers don't need to register on eBay or Paypal in order to BUY on eBay. Anyone can buy as a guest user and pay with a debit card or credit card whose information is not provided to a seller.

~~C~~