Buyer asks for gift card with purchase (scam)

[mewal63]

So it’s my first time selling and I excitedly do everything I can in a rush to make this chump happy. He leaves a message and says he is a military captain and sending the dress he is buying as a gift and wants me to purchase a card, two iTunes gift cards (scratch of the back and send him the code) and send it to a location in Texas. It says he’s from Canada. I track the phone number I’m texting him from, it’s illinois. Eager to please, I ignore my suspicion because he asked for my paypal and added the addition $200 for the gift cards. I do my research and see that sending gift card codes over eBay or over text like he requested violates eBay’s regulations and you are no longer protected. Boom I was out. I started calling him out on scamming the honest, hardworking, contributing members of society and he got mad and said he didn’t want to make a transaction with someone who didn’t trust him. Prior to that it was ”you have my word”. Yeah your word in poor English and 3 different locations across North America. Be warned y’all. Fabio made his account day of and I’m sure he’ll make a new one!

[a_c_green]

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@n.claudel wrote:

This happened it us as well, but as soon as I heard the request for a $300 steam card I immediately thought of the Nigerian scam that used to be going around (maybe it still is).

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Yes, that and many others.

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The question now is there a link to report this to ebay or just list the sale as unpaid to it back on the board?

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Best you can do is to open the Unpaid Item case as soon as you are able, which should be after 48 hours from the end of the listing, and close it out after 4 full days (96 hours). That will get your Final Value Fees credited back to you, and the scammer account will get an Unpaid strike (though I don't think they really care). You can relist after that. 

Realistically, the request for a $300 Steam card makes it obvious that you have a scammer here, so you could relist sooner without much likelihood that the scammer is suddenly going to pay, but it's best to close out the first "sale" properly before trying to relist.

You can avoid this particular scam by dumping the Make Offer option and listing as Fixed Price with the Immediate Payment Required option selected. That way they cannot snatch your item off the market without actually paying you for it first.

[buddy_9442]

Same thing happened to me. He almost fooled me to. Talkin bout he was a sergeant from Austria.  Phone area code was newyork. He was begging i put 500 on a steamcard

[whatmorefabric]

I am sorry that one of your first sales is to numb numbs like this.    

Anytime anyone asks you to do anything different than Ebay procedures,  it is  a scam.

This is also not unique to Ebay.       I just got a request the other day on my web site for the same thing.    

Than there was a request from Paypal that my Paypal Credit payment was behind and to send a payment immediately using the link on the email.     

You will shortly look like a more experienced seller and they will leave you alone.  

I once emailed a scammer back and asked him if I looked like I just fell off of a turnip truck.    He asked me if I hurt myself.

[jjmo80]

Recently had the gift card scam happen. Yes, I am fairly new to eBay and want to make customers happy. The buyer asked me to text him to make shipping arrangements.  Here is the messages that followed:

Buyer: Thanks for reaching out to me. I want the order shipped to my sone in Florida as his birthday gift. I will add $50 to cover the shipment fee because I want an overnight FedEx delivery method and will also update the PayPal address. 

Me: I can change the shipping and send you a new invoice. 

Buyer: Ok good, One more thing please, can you help me buy a Gift Card worth of $200 and add it in the package. I will also include the $200 for the gift card in the payment. 

Me: Sorry that I cannot do.

Buyer: No problem

Buyer: I'm a navy Lieutenant and I am presently on multiple deployment and Singapore, I want the item shipped to my son... I would really appreciate it if you can help me add a gift card to the package just like I said earlier it meant to be a birthday gift and I just want it to be memorable that why I want a gift card added. 

Me: Sorry, I will not buy a gift card to add. 

Me: I have sent you a new invoice with updated shipping.

Buyer: Ok good, One more thing can you please buy a gift card...

This conversation continued for a few until I finally said I am sure you understand why I will not do this. Buyer has not paid for the item and it is now the middle of day 2.  I really wish that we could all make a list of these buyers to warn other eBay sellers.  After reading this I am glad I stuck to my guns. The request alone made me uncomfortable. 

[lcmerlot]

This happened to me just now. So disappointed. I was skeptical when they wanted to communicate via text. But, texted anyway (my bad). I said I wouldn't do it. Still feel very much at risk now. 😞

[mis76can]

Ah, yet another spoil-sport 'buyer' on e-Bay.

Being a buyer in Canada; I do not appreciate such scammers who have nothing better to do than sabotage the e-Bay experience for buyers like me, and especially new sellers like yourself.

Good judgment on your part to call him out and expose him for the scammer he is.

Let's hope the next buyer you hear from is sincere and culminates in some cha-chings for you.

[mcgillchinacare]

The same thing just happened to me. I was selling a designer handbag and could not believe someone purchased it in less than 12 hours. He/she claimed to be based in Singapore but the name and address were suspect.

Then he took the conversation to email and offered me $300 more for Steam gift cards because the bag was a gift. Trust me, no one who would ever want a Dior bag would play something as silly as Steam (sorry gamers). 

That tipped me off that this could be a scam and I found this thread. I declined the transaction claiming the seller and I couldn't come to an agreement. 

I hope it doesn't affect my eBay score, but at this point that would be a better case scenario.

[tonyagrooms1]

same thing happened to me but my scammer said he was in the marines and deployed to singapore...purchased the doll and wanted me to buy 3 $100 steam wallet gift cards... scratch off the codes send pictures ofreceipt and codes to paypal...i also got a notice from paypal...how can they do this...i thought paypal was trusted

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@mewal63 wrote:

So it’s my first time selling and I excitedly do everything I can in a rush to make this chump happy. He leaves a message and says he is a military captain and sending the dress he is buying as a gift and wants me to purchase a card, two iTunes gift cards (scratch of the back and send him the code) and send it to a location in Texas. It says he’s from Canada. I track the phone number I’m texting him from, it’s illinois. Eager to please, I ignore my suspicion because he asked for my paypal and added the addition $200 for the gift cards. I do my research and see that sending gift card codes over eBay or over text like he requested violates eBay’s regulations and you are no longer protected. Boom I was out. I started calling him out on scamming the honest, hardworking, contributing members of society and he got mad and said he didn’t want to make a transaction with someone who didn’t trust him. Prior to that it was ”you have my word”. Yeah your word in poor English and 3 different locations across North America. Be warned y’all. Fabio made his account day of and I’m sure he’ll make a new one!

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[joesoucie22012]

eBay needs to get this buyers IP address, ( they can ) and block/flag it. New accounts for this buyer won't be allowed and do it to all other scammers. 

[meowbella123]

Thanks! I wish I read this before I gave my name and email 😞

but luckily there’s no money in the account. Ugh

[janbet-24]

Oh my god I’m going through literally the exact same situation.

[idahotrinketsandfindings]

As someone who was new to selling, I received a similar scam.

They sent me two offers for my items and asked me to text them to let them know about the invoice, so I did. Started nice. Claimed he wanted to buy it as a gift for his niece, so he was going to give me the address and wanted me to add a $300 steam gift card. I said OKAY since he said he was going to send me the money through paypal so I could buy it. Well, when I went into my paypal it didn't show any of the funds supposedly sent to me. I told him I didn't have the money to buy one without it, and he got pushy with me, so I gave him the ultimatum of either take that portion off hold so I could receive it, cancel his orders and no harm done, or I could just send him the invoiced items. He said he was going to report me and sent me a fake email suggesting I would be arrested if I did not get the item within 1 hour. I contacted paypal TERRIFIED and they calmed me down, told me I was scammed and the transaction IDs were fake. 

My recommendation is actually call Ebay support. Paypal told me to do so as well. I noticed a couple days after I wrote Ebay and as requested by paypal forwarded to spoof@paypal.com the emails and text messages, the scammers account was closed, my transaction fees were refunded, and the listings were removed so I could relist them. Unpaid item claim works too, that's what he told me to do rather than open a cancellation case. 

I am sorry you had to experience this as well. Remember, Ebay suggests we should not go outside of ebay, so anyone who is looking to add extra on is likely scamming you! Paypal also reminded me that ANY money sent to them will at least show as funds in hold on my account, so with any transaction emails check your paypal page and see if any funds have appeared. Thus far in my Ebay experience the payments showing up in paypal activity were INSTANT. Be safe!

[coast99]

Your PP response was fake. Sign into PP directly, not from their email to the address you should not have given them. Read comments here...

[crismash-0]

I just got roped into a similar scam as well. And the worst part is, I was already suspicious in the beginning. His area code was from Colorado, but he supposedly lived in Malaysia, and the eBay account was made yesterday when he made the bid. But I was too focused on receiving a good offer for my Harry Potter books (I got offered more than what was listed), so I put it aside. He did the broken English thing, said the books were for his siblings (then changed to one), and it felt like it was all set. Until he wanted $200 Steam gift cards added to the package. My sense of sympathy for the guy got the better of me, so I agreed. I even told him there was no $200 gift cards, and that he meant 2 $100 gift cards. He really had me in "aw poor dude needs my help" mode.

You'd think the PayPal email telling me of my held transaction in my Spam folder would tip me off, but it wasn't until I found out there was no hold pending at all. There was proof of purchase for the shipping label from eBay, but not the $406.25 I was promised when I ran the fake transaction ID. At the very least, I will be able to get back the $12.63 I spent on the shipping label after canceling it, and I didn't buy any Steam gift cards, or respond directly to the Spam emails, or ship my books to the provided address. It was a very crummy thing for this man to do this, wasting all my time and getting my hopes up. And now at 3 in the morning I am upset and disappointed that this should happen to me. First time seller's naïveté got the better of me, I'll admit. There were dollar signs in my eyes. Anyway I'll try to contact eBay about this specific account that tried to use me.

jettbrones080@yahoo.com was his email, and  jebro6706 was his account name, so if he ever repeats it now you know to watch out for him.

[jostra247]

I got the same exact scam with some guy in Austria. I wish it wasn’t a scam because I would have gotten a big payout, but it was and my family helped me to figure it out.

This is what he said:

ok
Can you get a gift card of $500 inside the package before you ship it

I will add $500 to your payment for the steam card so you can purchase it from the store and put it inside the package before you ship it. Do you understand
getting the item as a present, thats why i want a gift card inside the package before you ship it

i serve the Us army and i work here in camp and you are shipping it directly to my cousin

will also add $50 more to your payment for gas and compensation. ok