Accidentally bid on item from new seller (account created just for the listing in question). Scam?

[bongofury60115]

I just placed a bid on a computer processor,  reasonably priced, but not in the 'too good to be true' range.  After bidding, I noticed that the user had 0 feedback and that the account was created specifically for the listing on which I bid (I got sloppy, I guess).

I emailed the seller, asking for some sort of assurance that they are legit.  But what could I really do beyond asking them to claim to be on the level (and if they aren't, its not like they would admit it anyway)? No response yet.

My question, I guess, is: how likely would you say I am to get scammed by buying from a new user with no reviews who created the account specifically for the auction in question (never having been a buyer before, much less a seller)?

My gut is that this is a scam.  I would think it is normal for a user to participate as a buyer for some time before trying their hand as a seller.  That they should create an account and jump immediately into selling is a big red flag, IMO.

Can I cancel the bid? Is the Buyer Protection Program effective if I do get scammed? More generally - does this listing stike others as suspicious. or am I overly paranoid?

[*help_no_brakes*]

How does one" Accidentally bid" on an item? 

I find that I need to view the photos, study the description, check the Seller's feedback, decide on the maximum amount I am prepared to pay, enter that amount & then confirm the bid. 

Am I doing something wrong? 

As you have bid on an auction I am unable to comment on the "too good to be true" aspect which would only apply to BIN.

The first item I listed on eBay was on an account created specifically to sell the item.

11 years later I'm still selling & no one has accused me of being a scammer...yet...lol

I don't WHY you would have asked the seller if "they are legit"...they are probably bemused. 

You can't cancel the bid but you can ask the seller to do so.

Is the eBay Money Back Guarantee displayed on the listing? 

If so &you pay through eBay checkout then of course you have protection. 

Without seeing the listing there is nothing in your OP to arouse any suspicion from me.

Imho you are being "overly paranoid".

Here endeth the lesson. 

[1420_gifts]

bongofury60115 wrote:

I just placed a bid on a computer processor,  reasonably priced, but not in the 'too good to be true' range.  After bidding, I noticed that the user had 0 feedback and that the account was created specifically for the listing on which I bid (I got sloppy, I guess).
- All eBay accounts start with a 0 feedback. Obviously their account was opened "specifically" to sell an item, and may have only have one item to sell, and/or are "testing the waters" until they get the hang of it before selling other items. The Seller isn't guilty of any wrongdoing yet, so give them a chance. They have to learn to walk before they can run.

I emailed the seller, asking for some sort of assurance that they are legit.  But what could I really do beyond asking them to claim to be on the level (and if they aren't, its not like they would admit it anyway)? No response yet. - They are a new seller, and maybe don't have notifications set-up, haven't checked their email, etc. Typical of new users that are learning the system. Some get it right away, others don't. No one opens an account and knows everything right away.

My question, I guess, is: how likely would you say I am to get scammed by buying from a new user with no reviews who created the account specifically for the auction in question (never having been a buyer before, much less a seller)? - No obvious indication of a scam based on your info. Buying on eBay prior to Selling is not a requirement. Buying doesn't give you the experience necessary to sell on ebay. Selling over time and learning from your mistakes gives you that experience ( and coming to the Boards for help/guidance from very experienced Sellers - like I did ! )

My gut is that this is a scam.  I would think it is normal for a user to participate as a buyer for some time before trying their hand as a seller.  That they should create an account and jump immediately into selling is a big red flag, IMO. - I opened an account on eBay just to sell an old phone and to "see what happens here", and then listed and sold multiple items after that first item was successfully purchased, LONG before I made my first purchase on eBay. The very first account created on eBay was to sell an item, which was necessary before a Buyer could even exist.  If you walk past an empty Gift Shop, you are a just a "passerby". If the Gift Shop has items for sale, you become a "potential or prospective buyer". If you enter the Shop and buy something, THEN you become a Buyer. You can offer to buy an item that isn't for sale, but you don't become a Buyer until they agree to sell it to you. Selling has to exist first, and is exactly what the Seller whose item you bid on is doing - IMO. Buying from a Gift Shop does not give you the experience to Sell an item in a Gift Shop.

Can I cancel the bid?  - " Bids can be cancelled under certain circumstances. If there are 12 or more hours remaining on an auction, you may be able to retract your bid in the following situations:

• You made a mistake when you placed your bid, such as entering $50 instead of $5
• The item description changed significantly after you placed your bid
• You're unable to contact the seller

If you want to retract your bid for any other reason or there’s less than 12 hours remaining on an auction, you’ll need to contact the seller to ask if you can retract your bid. The seller must cancel the bid on your behalf. "

Is the Buyer Protection Program effective if I do get scammed? - It's effective if you can't settle a problem directly with the Seller first, and then only if you follow the proper procedure to file a claim. Ebay protects Buyers far more than Sellers, they have to or buyers would be scared off ( doesn't mean I agree with it ). There are plenty of scammers on both sides of the Buyer/Seller equation.

More generally - does this listing stike others as suspicious. or am I overly paranoid? - You didn't provide any info on the item ( listing title or listing number ), so no way for someone to help you determine an answer whether the item looks "suspicious".

Your "paranoia" seems to be based only on a Seller with a 0 feedback and no DSR's that you can't make an evaluation of. Consider that you are selling items and ALSO have no DSR's for a buyer to make a determination of your past sales, other than 6 Positive Feedback as a Seller, and you have only 2 positive feedback in 12 months. Positive is good, but 6 isn't very far from 0.

Hope it works out for you : )

[mudshark61369]

@bongofury60115,

"I just placed a bid on a computer processor,  reasonably priced, but not in the 'too good to be true' range".

A reasonable starting bid price is how an ebay auction should be set up. If the price is too low the seller could end up giving the item away, if it is too high, it will get no bids, or might as well be a Buy It Now (BIN) listing. 

"After bidding, I noticed that the user had 0 feedback and that the account was created specifically for the listing on which I bid". 

I started my selling career with an item I listed the day after I created an ID for selling.  The first month or so I only listed one auction per week, to get a feel for selling.  Many sellers start out slow, and we all start with (0) feedback.

The fact that the seller has started their first item in a decent price range, indicates they may have some experience on ebay, even if it has been buying only up until now.  I never sold on this ID, but started one only for selling. 

Things I would have checked before bidding on a (0) feedback seller's item are:  Even with a reasonable starting price, is the item still expensive? 

What country did the seller register in, and  how long of an estimated delivery time does the item have.  A newbie may have a 2-3 day handling time, just to cover themselves.  If the seller's item location is a domestic one, but last estimated delivery date is more than 10 days,  I would hesitate to bid.  Have you clicked on the Payments & Shipping tab to see what shipping method is given, and if it is a domestic service, such as USPS?

Does the description give me enough information about the actual item, including photos, or is it full of prefilled Mfr. information only using stock photos? That's especially important if the item is used. 

You should look carefully at those things now!

  "My question, I guess, is: how likely would you say I am to get scammed by buying from a new user with no reviews who created the account specifically for the auction in question (never having been a buyer before, much less a seller)?... My gut is that this is a scam.  I would think it is normal for a user to participate as a buyer for some time before trying their hand as a seller.  That they should create an account and jump immediately into selling is a big red flag, IMO".

I can understand your fear, since there has been a rash of (0) feedback seller scams lately.

 However, not every new seller is a scam waiting to happen, and if they have bought and or sold before on another ID, you would not know that.   My selling ID started out cold, with no feedback.  That ID was created because I had opened a brick and mortar store, which needed it's own ID for business reasons. My personal selling ID started the same way.

The one thing that stops me from buying from new sellers is knowing that newbies often have issues with their first transactions. Those who have been buyers only before, often do not know or think, that they will have PayPal's 21 day payment hold, placed on their listings, because they have had a verified account for awhile.  They get confused when they see their first payments marked as "Pending" on their account page, and it can take them awhile to find the info they need, before they ship.  If you win the auction, but see no indication the seller has shipped after a few business days.  Message them and tell them if your payment is marked as Pending, to use the Help & Contact button at the bottom of their PayPal acct page. Then type "Payment Hold" into the topic search box, to get the info they need to complete the transaction.

"Can I cancel the bid? Is the Buyer Protection Program effective if I do get scammed? More generally - does this listing stike others as suspicious. or am I overly paranoid"?

Without seeing the listing, we can't tell you anything.  However if you look up the info I mentioned above, in the listing and on the seller's feedback profile page there may be  indications of a scam, but maybe not.

If it says on the auction page this item is covered by the Money Back Guarantee (MBG) you will covered. Just to the right of that is a |See details button. Click on that and read the terms of the MBG and the time frames for filing disputes. 

As for your suspicions, they may be misplaced, but then again they might not be.  

If you win the auction, and there seems to be problems, come back to this board and either add to this topic or start a new one.  You can navigate back by clicking on the Community button, and you can then click on your ID icon, which will display any topics you have replied to or started. Click on this one to get directly to it. Good Luck!

[mudshark61369]

@1420_gifts,

Most of the info you gave is pretty good.  However there are some things I take issue with.

" Buying doesn't give you the experience necessary to sell on ebay".

Maybe not, but it helps somewhat.  I modeled my first auctions on the listings from sellers I had good transactions with. Especially, those who I bought from repeatedly. Without it being mentioned I learned the Unwritten Golden Rule for selling on ebay.

Describe all items like there are no photos, and photograph them like there is no description.

"Selling over time and learning from your mistakes gives you that experience".

That may have been true once upon a time, but these days eBay's policies make it much harder to recover from mistakes a new seller may make. That along with ebay/paypal's incomplete, overly simplified, and sometimes misleading "suggestions" cause a lot of new sellers to fail before they get off the ground.

Your info on canceling bids, could be seen as suggesting that the OP violate policy, without coming out and saying so.  None of the legitimate reasons for canceling bids applies here. By posting them you are intimating the OP could use one of them to cancel their bid.  You also did not mention, if they did cancel their bid, that on their Profile page, that Bid retraction will be visible to any seller who looks at their profile. It might get them blocked.

[1420_gifts]

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Your info on canceling bids, could be seen as suggesting that the OP violate policy, without coming out and saying so.  None of the legitimate reasons for canceling bids applies here. By posting them you are intimating the OP could use one of them to cancel their bid.

Sorry you were dissolutioned by the info I gave the OP on cancelling bids, however, it was cut and pasted directly from the eBay Help & Contact pages verbatim to help the OP as he obviously doesn't know to look there to answer his question. It was offered for him to understand the eBay Policy. There is NO "suggestion" or "intimating" of anything towards the OP other than eBays clearly stated Policy, except in your head.

[mudshark61369]

@1420_gifts,

I know full well what the policy says, and so do many of those who use the policy to make a false claim of bidding the wrong price, to cancel a bid.  You did not post the rest of what it says to do when a wrong bid amount is placed.

"You accidentally entered the wrong bid amount due to a typographical error. For example, you bid $99.50 instead of $9.95. If this happens, you need to reenter the correct bid amount right away. Changing your mind does not qualify as accidentally entering a wrong bid amount".

https://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bidding-overview.html

If you spend more time on these boards, you'll see the policy is being abused way too often. Now that bid retractions show up on buyers profiles, we have seen some with hundreds of them.  They can't all have bid the wrong price, and not very any auctions get revised to the point where they significantly change enough to qualify for a retraction.

Just because the OP is suspicious of the listing, and didn't do their due dilligence before placing a bid, is not a reason to retract a bid. That is why *help_no_brakes* suggested earlier that the OP ask the seller to cancel their bid, and din't mention retractions.

[*help_no_brakes*]

mudshark you mind reader... lol

That IS precisely why I did  not even entertain the idea of mentioning a retraction... a practice that is far too common & should not be available except for typos.

How eBay would police the immediate re-bidding aspect is beyond my ken.

[mudshark61369]

@*help_no_brakes*,

"How eBay would police the immediate re-bidding aspect is beyond my ken".

It could be done automatically with a few lines of code, the same way the Edit timeout works on these boards. eBay could allow as much or little time as they wished to view and retype a mistyped bid amount.  IMO, 5 minutes would be plenty of time, and a note could pop up when a bid amount is entered before confirming (Please review your bid amount).  It might be a little tough on snipers or those who find an auction with little time left at first, but might put a serious dent in the number of retractions now being done on ebay.

[terrycanarsky]

I admit, I'm always puzzled by the apparent feeling that all 0 feedback buyers and sellers are scammers.

On my personal eBay account, I have a whopping 0 feedback.  I have purchased something, but the seller did not leave feedback.  I did, was a good transaction, went like clockwork.  

So if a seller looks at that criteria only, he/she with this mentality would expect me to be a loser or a scammer.  This seller didn't question my integrity - I'd actually purchased on a 'guest' acct (far more questionable, if you ask me) then created the regular one while I was waiting for the package to arrive - and I did just what I 'promised' when I hit the "buy" button; I paid immediately, and he shipped quickly.

And, to be honest, I might not respond immediately to a message from a seller, because I only check that email once a day. 

Flip all that for this scenario.  Imagine me to be a new seller on a new profile with 0 feedback because, well, new business or enterprise.

Nevermind that I have worked with eBay for some 16 years now as a seller - on the boss' account.

~Melody R

recognizing the fact that there *are* scammers and just bad-intended twits out there

[missjen831]

I have to ask, what did you expect to accomplish by contacting the seller? Did you really think, if it's a scam listing, that the seller would confess?

[pf9000]

You have got to remember to check that Feedback.

[pikabo-icu]

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@missjen316 wrote:

I have to ask, what did you expect to accomplish by contacting the seller? Did you really think, if it's a scam listing, that the seller would confess?

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Sorry but I gotta admit I laughed a little when I read that..

Rack him!!!   Do YOU CON-FESSSSS? 

[7606dennis]

The time to research an item and its seller is before placing a bid not after.

Emailing a seller asking him to prove to you that he is "legit," as you say, is downright insulting.  Frankly, if I was the seller you would go directly to my BBL, not passing GO and definitely not buying my item.  Of course, what assurance can you provide the seller that you aren't a scam artist yourself?  Don't say 100% feedback since that hasn't meant diddly since 2008.

You do not have a valid reason to retract your bid.  To make an invalid bid retraction is a policy violation.  To choose a false reason when retracting a bid does not make it a valid one nor does it keep it from being a policy violation.  It would only display lack of integrity.

Quite frankly, your post has me to feel sorry for the new seller for having encountered you as a bidder on their first listing.  My gut tells me that I do not want to do business with you.

By the way, you cannot accidentally bid on something. You can only carelessly bid on something.

[rolenboy01]

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@bongofury60115 wrote:

I just placed a bid on a computer processor,  reasonably priced, but not in the 'too good to be true' range.  After bidding, I noticed that the user had 0 feedback and that the account was created specifically for the listing on which I bid (I got sloppy, I guess).

I emailed the seller, asking for some sort of assurance that they are legit.  But what could I really do beyond asking them to claim to be on the level (and if they aren't, its not like they would admit it anyway)? No response yet.

My question, I guess, is: how likely would you say I am to get scammed by buying from a new user with no reviews who created the account specifically for the auction in question (never having been a buyer before, much less a seller)?

My gut is that this is a scam.  I would think it is normal for a user to participate as a buyer for some time before trying their hand as a seller.  That they should create an account and jump immediately into selling is a big red flag, IMO.

Can I cancel the bid? Is the Buyer Protection Program effective if I do get scammed? More generally - does this listing stike others as suspicious. or am I overly paranoid?

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Can you explain to me how you can "accidentally bid"?