Bogus Offer?

[st2022]

I'm older and have never bought or sold anything on eBay. I don't understand any of it. Several weeks ago, after failing to find a real person to ask questions about the process, I placed a trial item for sale (a 50 state quarter collection). I understood it was not well written or presented and in about 3-4 weeks I only had 4 views. Then, if I understand this correctly, today I get a notification someone suddenly offered $145 plus shipping with only a $20 asking minimum. This person has no  ratings, reviews, or whatever the profile numbers represent so it seems obviously deceptive, but I have no idea what steps to take to prove it as real or fake. I would greatly appreciate any input or dearly love to speak with a customer service rep. Thanks for your time. 

[alcoforever]

The offer is the start of a scam.   Just ignore it.   

If your quarter collection is of those 50 states quarters issued several years ago, I suspect it is worth exactly $12.50.   Your scammer must have too much time on his hands to scam you out of only $12.50.

[katzrul15]

I can see the one auction listing you have up and it does not show a Buy it Now feature.

If you received an email, it is likely a scam.  They will try to get you to think they are buying it with a fake email.

Please put that Buyer's ID on your Blocked Buyers List. 

As a new, zero FB seller, this seems to happen quite a bit.  Good luck with your auction!

[rebell45]

No use speaking to anyone at eBay. As a new seller you are a target for every scam artist out there. If they offered you that much more than the current value, they're are setting you for a scam.  Do not accept the offer, do not correspond with the user, and put them on your blocked bidder list.  They make these high offers and rely on a persons greed to blind them and then start asking for contact information and usually con the seller into purchasing gift cards and use fake emails to convince you that you have been paid, then you give them the card numbers and you never hear from them again.

You may want to try to go in and revise your item and remove the Best Offer feature.

[slippinjimmy]

Generally speaking (there are a very few exceptions) if you get an offer for more than the asking price it's a scam.

There is only one step you need to take......DO NOT respond to the offer, do not communicate in any way with the users making these offers.

Contacting eBay is pointless, it's brand new buying account so they won't have any history and eBay will just say to proceed (because all scammers are innocent until they are not).

Unfortunately new sellers such as yourself are the prime target for scammers. There are a couple of things you can do.

Think about dropping auctions and using Fixed Price (with the option of Immediate Payment Required)

List things which are not so interesting to scammers (they like easily flip-able non-traceable items)

Do not respond to offers that seem to be "funny" (way to high).

Do not respond to anyone asking for your contact information prior to purchase.

You are in Managed Payments do not respond to anyone asking for your PayPal information.

If in doubt come to these boards (as you just did) and you'll get better advice than from eBay customer service.

Finally, trust but verify and understand that the posts on this board only report the bad stuff, sellers like me who virtually never see scam attempts isn't going to post about a sale they made that went smoothly but this IS the case for the overwhelming majority of transactions,  99% of sales go off without a problem.

[wesk_36]

Only a dummy would offer $145 for the map set that can be easily found  for $20s-$40s.

Usually with this type of scam, the buyer would ask you to text or email them if you were to accept their offer, and take the sale off ebay, and that would be the signal that they are wanting to set you up with false claims that they paid, or asking you to ship to a relative and maybe purchase a gift card to include in the package and they will reimburse you...

As everyone said, ignore them.

If you want an education on how criminals work, accept their offer and take notes on what happens next.

[ted_holland4pn4]

Welcome to eBay!

I'm sorry, but yes, as all others mentioned, it's all a setup.  Then they attempt to defraud you by sending you fake documents and taking you off eBay and then somehow, gift cards come into the equation.

The first thing that kicks in my mind, especially keeping in mind the low feedback scores of both scammer and seller, is how easily and quickly I'd spot this as malfeasance.  I'm not trying to berate you, @st2022 but with a zero feedback score, you are a huge target for scammers.  You may want to buy a few small things first to establish a feedback score.  And, be wary of jokers like this who attempt to suck you in.

All Best, and YMMV.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

I have seen similar situations recently on my listings.

Today. I relisted an item this morning. I received a message from buyer asking if the was still available (?). In their message they asked me to txt. Of course I'm not going to. I clicked on their profile and they just became a member today 8/15/21. Is that even possible? eBay does not send payouts to sellers over the weekends, but confirms new member accounts? Here is the other kicker! The item is pick-up only and they are over 2,000 mile away in CA. 

The other thing I have seen which just make me question. A few recent buyers who have low activity rating along with the last transaction / feedback received over a year ago making low ball offers. 

Last thing was a buyer offering what I considered low ball offer on an item. They had low activity, so I finally blocked them. They them created a new account and purchased at full price. I knew it would not end well. I contacted them questioning their new account and no response. I cancelled the order. Note: I know it was them because both I.D.'s were from the same city.

[gjs_16]

Some people are desperate.

No job, hungry, thirsty, living on the streets...

People like that will do anything for your money.

There is no shortage of them.

It only seems to be getting worse.

Pray for them.