myUS.com address in Sarasota FL

[Anonymous]

I am selling something for the first time on Ebay, actually 2 separate items and within minutes of posting the first one I got an offer for the full price.  When I checked the buyers profile it said "Send a video of the item purchased to the following email address" and there was a gmail address.

It seemed weird but ok. They were happy with the item and went ahead with the purchase.

But then within minutes of posting a 2nd item this morning, it was purchased  at full price immediately. But it was a different user account. BUT th ey had the same message to send them a video to the same email address.

Is it common for people to use multiple accounts like that?

Then when I put their address into google it comes up a possible ebay scam and says that people use a service called myUS.com to receive their mail internationally and there was potential that they would claimn they never received the item.

I am not really sure how to proceed. Is there anyone out there with more experience that could provide any insight?

[woodland_gnome · Accepted solution]

Have you ACTUALLY been paid or did you get an email from "eBay" or "PayPal" or the like SAYING you had been paid?  And I'm not seeing any active listings or completed listings on your account (but it can take some time for them to appear on the latter after they disappear from the former).

You are a new seller. You are going to attract more scammers than legitimate buyers. To keep the scammers from committing to buy your item (and tying it while you go through the unpaid item process AND making the stakes higher to go along with their procedures rather than normal eBay ones) don't use auctions or Best Offer. List as fixed-price Buy It Now only and set the BIN to Immediate Payment Required. Click "Payments managed by eBay" in the "Preferences" section of the "Complete your listing" page of the new listing flow and check the box for "Require immediate payment when buyer uses Buy It Now" at the top of resulting popup.  If you insist on using Best Offer be sure the option towards the bottom of your Buyer Requirements page is set to require pre-authorization of payment when making an offer.

Note that anyone requesting you to contact them outside the eBay message system (email or text or phone) is almost certainly a scammer trying to get your contact information (e.g. to send you a fake payment message). Any mention of a gift card is also a red flag (they make the real money getting sellers to buy gift cards to send with the package for which they "pay" extra in the fake payment message).

Respond to any message wanting you to text or email or call that you only communicate via eBay messaging, and cancel for non-payment after the 4 days is up if s/he has already committed to buy. Make sure your Buyer Requirements are set up to block anyone with 2 or more unpaid cancellations in the past 12 months and those with primary shipping addresses in locations you don't ship to (and opt in or out of the pre-authorization experiment as your situation warrants). Add anyone who doesn't pay to your Blocked Bidder/Buyer List (and anyone wanting you to contact him/her outside the messaging system). But the scammers can create new accounts a lot faster than eBay can remove the ones that prove to be scammers. And some have the skills to hijack established accounts to scam with, so don't think it's only new accounts that can get you. Be wary of anyone requesting anything out of the normal flow of eBay business (you list, possibly they ask legitimate questions solely with the messaging system, someone uses the buttons you choose to buy/win the item, they pay, you ship to the address given with the payment, eBay tells you on the website--don't rely on email or text messages and don't click any links in them--that the funds have cleared and it's OK to ship).