First listing “bought” by scammer…help

[luxeseller88]

Hi all,

I listed my first item and someone bought it within a day. They are new on EBay, no history, and their address shows vacant land. I was going to give them the benefit of doubt as my account is new also…but then I woke up to a message from them asking me to “kindly call them”.   Nope. How do I proceed? Wait it out as they’re not going to pay? 

Thanks 

[ebooksdiva · Accepted solution]

Wait 4 days then cancel as buyer has not paid and put them in your blocked bidder list. 

No one should have to call anyone on a sale.

Edited to say the buyer will receive an Unpaid item strike.

[vintagecraze50]

Complete scam. Anytime someone requests anything to be sold outside of ebay through a text message phone call etc etc. DO NOT SELL THIS TO THEM, and do not accept any proposed payment outside of ebay where they tell you to give them your pp account etc etc.

[titipeo]

Its a scam to get you to do the transaction off eBay, with the allure that you wont be paying the eBay fees, and making all the profit, heck, they may even offer to send more $. In the end, you get a fake PayPal receipt showing payment submitted to your email, and you ship item to address. In the end, you loose the item. So, no don't deal with them. Instead, just ignore the messages, and wait the 4 days (I think) they have to pay, and eBay will issue a nonpayment strike against them, you will submit the id to blocked bidders list and will then be able to relist item. The buyer, will generate another dummy account and start repeating the same process all over again.

New sellers are magnets for this type of scam. Good luck. 

[donsdetour]

wait the 4 days and cancel due to non paying bidder...

They are trying to get you to off site systems to scam you.

Do not contact them.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Report the buyer https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/reporting-issue-buyer?id=4084 Use the reason "asking to complete a sale off eBay".

Add the buyer to your blocked bidder list: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/BuyerBlock Ignore any further messages from them.

Cancel the sale immediately using "problem with buyer's address". You don't have to let the unpaid item process play out.  This is a scammer, not a deadbeat.  They don't care if they get an unpaid item strike, they'll just open or hijack another account. The people they target don't even know how to block buyers with unpaid strikes anyway. You can cancel here: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/cancelling-transaction?id=4136

[luxeseller88]

Thank you! Any words of wisdom to avoid being a target, or is it just to be expected? 

[ckimodog]

@luxeseller88 

Avoid auction style listings with best offers and list all your items at a fixed buy it now price with immediate payment required checked off.  Sport bidders and non - paying bidders steer clear of these listings as they must pay instantly.   It will also help you accumulate some feedback as well.

 You're a new seller and a target.  Don't set yourself up for another one of these ghost buyers.

  Sorry for your experience. 

[duffy4444]

   You're wise to come here and tell us your concerns as the alarm bell went off in your head.

   Yes, it's a classic scam pulled on new sellers, which we hear all the time on this board. They have no intention of ever actually paying you. They want you to take the sale off of eBay and eBay's messaging system. If you do that, you will lose what few seller protections you do have. The scammer would probably ask you over the phone or thru non-eBay email for your PayPal information so they can manufacture and send you a FAKE payment notice. Then they'll hope you believe that "payment" notice and ship the item to them.

    They may even ask you to include a gift card and "add" money to the fake payment notice - saying all you need to do is buy the gift card and give them the numbers on the card to confirm it is legitimate -- if you do, you just gave them the value of the card for free by following thru with their scam.

    If you ship the item thinking the fake PayPal payment notice is real, they get your jewelry item for free so they can turn around and sell it themselves - of course they won't sell it to another scammer! You've lost your piece of jewelry and never got paid for it, with nothing you or eBay can do about it.

   NEVER ship an item that doesn't show up in your My eBay > Orders > Awaiting  Shipment!  Report this classic scam to eBay, block the scammer's ID on your Block Bidders List (BBL), and do NOT contact the scammer in any way. After 4 days you can relist the item because the buyer didn't pay (you can also have eBay automate this process).

   Instead of selling jewelry like you started out doing, start selling lesser-value items to legitimate buyers in order to get your positive feedback up toward 100 or so. That will lessen (but not totally eliminate) your chances of becoming a scam victim.

    New sellers often get dollar signs in their eyes and start by listing high-value items right from the start. Then comes the heartache because of scammers licking their chops and hoping you're stupid... Again, thanks for coming here first. You did the right thing.

   Good luck!

Cheers, Duffy

[vintagecraze50]

This has been a bad bad problem on here for decades. At one point ebay had all the messages flagged if the messages contained anything about calling you asking for PP account info. They really tried to cut down on these people by imposing restrictions and other types of consequences when someone was trying to scam through the email messages but what happened was that so many of these messages even when they were not intent to steal were getting flagged with possible sanctions that I think they gave up on it. You have to just been keenly aware that anytime someone offers you more for an item than what you are asking, tells you to text them or call them etc is a scammer, and they LOVE NEW SELLERS WITH HIGH SCAM ITEMS.

[soh.maryl]

In addition to all the advice about scammers targeting new kids on the block, have to ask -- Why does the title of that listing say "Designer keychains" when it appears that you are selling only ONE key chain, at least you picture only one? 

[albertabrightalberta]

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@luxeseller88 wrote:

Thank you! Any words of wisdom to avoid being a target, or is it just to be expected? 

---

I always breathe a sigh of relief when I read a post from a newbie who was savvy and alert enough to recognize a scam/scammer.

As a new seller, you will tend to attract scammers but as long as you know that you're a magnet, you'll be alert to them. If any of their offers sound too good to be true or seem not to abide by ebay policy, you can come to the boards to ask. 

Once you gain more experience and feedback, the scammers will find new victims to try to take advantage of.