Buyer asking for video after being paid and recieving confirmation from Ebay for Item.

[intelau-0]

Hello Ebay community. Bit of an odd one today. Would love extra insight on what to do. 

So I have sold many items on Ebay before and decided I want to begin a branded new account as a business. I recently uploaded my camera for sale a couple weeks ago and today the camera I had listed has been sold after a few weeks on market. Great. I received the offer earlier today and I finally accepted the offer tonight. 

After the offer was accepted by me, the buyer did indeed pay through Ebay. Indicating that it was a legit sale. Ebay is also saying it has the funds and the item is successfully sold. But is waiting for me to ship to release the funds. Which is also fine.

Although what it making me worried now about being scammed is the buyer is now asking for a video of the product after already paying. Asking it to be sent to an outside email address. 

I have already responded back to the buyer saying I only feel comfortable dealing within Ebay alone and I am happy to send more product photos or add a video to the listing if they prefer. 

Is this a common scam? I know as a newer account we are more targeted by scammers. But even after already being paid for an item? Has anyone seen this or dealt with this before. I am waiting to hear back if they are okay with either of those options? 

What protections do I have if any? Since its super odd to me as if this was a scam, for one. Why would they had already paid for the item? Without requesting anything before. 

Any insight is much appreciated as I need to decide what to do immediately. Thanks

[albertabrightalberta]

If you wanted to start a new account, you should have built up a new account with inexpensive items. If you have an established account, I think you should have used that one for an expensive camera. 

Scammers often target newbies, hoping to fool them in various ways that rip off the newbie.

1. Did you compare the ID of the actual buyer who paid to the buyer who emailed you?

2. Chances are, it's not the same person and the one asking for the video is a scammer.

3. If it's the same person, tell them you cannot communicate outside ebay and let them know you'll send a video through ebay's messaging system and through the order. 

4. Report the message asking for an email. That's scammy and if you send contact informaiton, you're going to risk your own account. 

Again, I'm guessing the message is from a different person and will ultimately ask you to ship to a different address than ebay has in the transaction. DO NOT DO IT!

If the buyer's total payment was $750 or more, you MUST ship with signature confirmation. If the order tells you to ship, you can do so to the address ebay tells you to ship to. 

[reallynicestamps]

I know we can attach photos to Messages. Can we also attach videos?

Tell them you don't have a video machine to make a video.

[intelau-0]

Hey thanks for the reply, So to clarify the message is indeed from the same person. They asked me for the video within Ebay messages itself to send it to the email they had in their Ebay Bio. I of course will not be doing that. I told her I only dealt with Ebay messages and waiting for a reply back now to decide what to do. 

I did indeed receive the payment notification from Ebay and from Ebays automated email indicating a legit payment was made. As well as confirmed on my account that the item was successfully sold. Meaning Ebay does have the funds and the buyer did actually pay. The automated email from Ebay also included the shipping details which is great. Also like you said I will ship solely with signature confirmation.  

I just screenshot the odd message request, as well as her bio as I will include this in the feedback if I do ever have to refund the buyer and or cancel the order within the next 24-48 hours. Or if anything happens after I ship down the line. If she does reply making any other odd requests or outside requests or anything that feels off. The first thing I will do is refund. As its not the end of the world if this account gets negative feedback or it affects my sell ability as its brand new anyway and will use it as a learning experience. I will also be taking significant photos and video of the working product and shipping process before shipping anything as an extra protection as well. 

I appreciate your response

[chapeau-noir]

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@intelau-0 wrote:

Hey thanks for the reply, So to clarify the message is indeed from the same person. They asked me for the video within Ebay messages itself to send it to the email they had in their Ebay Bio. I of course will not be doing that. I told her I only dealt with Ebay messages and waiting for a reply back now to decide what to do. 

I did indeed receive the payment notification from Ebay and from Ebays automated email indicating a legit payment was made. As well as confirmed on my account that the item was successfully sold. Meaning Ebay does have the funds and the buyer did actually pay. The automated email from Ebay also included the shipping details which is great. Also like you said I will ship solely with signature confirmation.  

I just screenshot the odd message request, as well as her bio as I will include this in the feedback if I do ever have to refund the buyer and or cancel the order within the next 24-48 hours. Or if anything happens after I ship down the line. If she does reply making any other odd requests or outside requests or anything that feels off. The first thing I will do is refund. As its not the end of the world if this account gets negative feedback or it affects my sell ability as its brand new anyway and will use it as a learning experience. I will also be taking significant photos and video of the working product and shipping process before shipping anything as an extra protection as well. 

I appreciate your response

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Don't waste your time on that - eBay won't even look at them.

Other than that, it sounds like you've got everything lined up, and I hope this goes well for you!

[caldreamer]

Scammers target new sellers or anyone selling "high value items" (anything they can resell).   Also, you should be aware that anyone can "reverse payment" AFTER they receive your item (keep money and your item).  EBAY will NOT protect you if you get scammed.

While it sounds weird that customer would demand video of item they purchased (I don't understand how would be part of a scam).   But scammers are very smart and there are new scams popping up every day (because they know that EBAY let's them get away with theft).

[a_c_green]

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@intelau-0 wrote:

Hey thanks for the reply, So to clarify the message is indeed from the same person. They asked me for the video within Ebay messages itself to send it to the email they had in their Ebay Bio.

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They're not supposed to have actual off-eBay email addresses shown in their bio page. Emailing to that address would reveal yours (because you'd need to use your off-eBay email account to do so).

What exactly do they want a video of, anyway? Seeing the camera in action? That's almost not relevant, in a way, because if they did receive it and it wasn't working (due to postal mishap or whatever), the Money Back Guarantee would ensure that they can return it for a refund regardless.

[a_c_green]

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@caldreamer wrote:

Scammers target new sellers or anyone selling "high value items" (anything they can resell).   Also, you should be aware that anyone can "reverse payment" AFTER they receive your item (keep money and your item).  EBAY will NOT protect you if you get scammed.

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What process do you mean by "reverse payment"? If eBay (Adyen) has received payment and indicated that it's clear to ship, then they have the funds and it's clear to ship. The buyer can request a refund, but the seller can request the item's return first.

If the buyer files a chargeback with his card provider, the seller can still request a return first, and should also be able to provide proof of delivery (depending on what the buyer is claiming: unrecognized transaction, for example).

[intelau-0]

Absolutely and its a shame this happens. Its honestly one huge red flag to me at this point and makes little sense to me still since they already paid, to be asking odd requests and to go off platform. Sellers sadly really have minimal protection against these people. Since the buyers are the ones who continue to help Ebay grow as a company.

I know too they can of course chargeback and leave the sellers in for a loss. I just hope if I do end up shipping it at all. All the proof of the odd requests I have would be enough for them to see that the buyer is in the wrong. But i do not want to rely on that solely. So if by the shipping date I don't receive an honest reply or replies back or ones that seem like a legit buyer.

I may just end up cancelling the order, blocking them as a buyer and finding someone else to sell the item too as its not worth the worry or hassle honestly. 

Thanks for the reminder as well and for your reply. 

[a_c_green]

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@intelau-0 wrote:

I know too they can of course chargeback and leave the sellers in for a loss. 

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If a chargeback was their planned method of scamming you, they wouldn't be drawing attention to themselves before then by making odd requests post-sale. Anyone could try that, though I doubt that their card provider would give them much more than one bite at the apple.

I would say that you are jumping into the deep end of the pool with this as your first sale, though. If you do end up cancelling this sale, a local sale for cash would be a better idea in the case of this item. Start your selling account with inexpensive items first, ones that you can afford to lose if things go seriously sideways.

[intelau-0]

You are correct in the fact I could request the item back for returns in case they wanted a refund. As well as provide tracking to indicate the item is shipped directly in case of a chargeback via bank. But in the above commenters point. I have seen many times as well that platforms tend to favor the buyer over seller. 

The point of this post is I am not wanting to have to deal with returns out of the ordinary, or any other potential fraud attempt. Which this is a 50/50 chance currently of it indeed being a malicious buyer. Even if they sent the funds already. As they are already violating one of Ebay's main policies of trying to interact off platform. Even after funds being sent.

[intelau-0]

I appreciate your comment. Definitely all something I will consider for sure. If they don't reply back to my messages or are acting strange or request anything odd. I will for sure just cancel the order and likely use a local sale method instead. 

I agree I wasn't expecting this much in depth research to be needed on my first sale back lol

I appreciate your reply

[broto_64]

I don't believe in sellers playing detective after the sale, such as doing google searches on the buyer's address and reviewing the buyer's feedback and such... But when a buyer makes requests / demands after payment that is indeed a red flag, in fact it used to be a reason for cancellation (like literally, buyer making unreasonable demands - and the definition of that was anything that was not originally included in the listing - that video would fit the definition since it is not part of the original sale).
Ebay however got rid of that reason, it doesn't change the fact that questions such as that one should've been addressed before payment was made.

I do not believe the buyer will attempt a chargeback, however I do think the listing's "No Returns" is what is going to cause trouble. I believe the buyer saw the returns policy and started to get nervous, the message requesting a video and the bit with the email may be this buyer's means of attempting to assuage frayed nerves and this to me is the beginning of a buyer's remorse process which will most likely result in a return for refund scenario out of some "Item Defective / Not as Described" scenario the buyer will fabricate out of thin air.

Perhaps consider offering 30-day free returns to avoid these issues in the future.