The buyer asked me to text him and without a doubt I did. He asked me to confirm my username on eBay and then PayPal email to send the money. From hindsight, that should've been a red flag for me since he could easily complete the payment on the website. At the moment I didn't think much of it and gave him my PayPal email. He shared to me that he's buying the item as a surprise gift for his niece and provided me with a new address to send the item to. Being a first time seller on eBay, I didn't think much of anything he asked and said up until he asked me to do him a favor.
I immediately googled to see if this favor could be a possible scam and I'm so glad I did because multiple links came up with the exact same situation! The buyer stopped texting me after I told him I can't but I reported him to eBay anyway. I have not done anything with the transaction yet. I read somewhere that cancelling the transaction on my own could hurt my account. I'm also unsure of what relisting the item might do to my account credibility. No payment was made from the buyer and even if I say yes to the favor, I don't think I would ever receive a payment from him. I'm playing it safe now and waiting for eBay to investigate and provide me with a solution before proceeding to do anything with the transaction/listing.
My takeaway from this is that transactions should never take place outside of eBay, shipping addresses should not be changed, and additional services outside of your listing is against policy. The buyer hit all of the red flags!
I saw multiple discussions on the same scam from months ago and decided to share my story too so people know it's still happening. BE CAREFUL SELLING! When in doubt, just google the scenario to see if it's a scam!
