How To Deal With A Scammer?

[isabelleso_0]

Hi. Sorry in advance if this is not the right area to post this as I'm new at selling and don't use the site that often.

I sold a pair of AirPods at auction this past Sunday night. Someone bid on them and won. The problem is this: I can only ship within the U.S. - I put this on my listing - and their profile says they are from Ukraine. They messaged me a fake address, 

So, where do I go from here? Do I cancel the order or do I file a UIC?

Thanks for your help and advice.

[soh.maryl]

Why would you hesitate to cancel? Sellers can cancel for any reason or no reason at all.

Your reason for cancelling would be:  Problem with buyer's address.

[isabelleso_0]

I just wasn't sure if cancelling would allow me to get my fees back or not. Thanks.

[a_c_green]

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@isabelleso_0 wrote:

I sold a pair of AirPods at auction this past Sunday night. Someone bid on them and won. The problem is this: I can only ship within the U.S. - I put this on my listing - and their profile says they are from Ukraine. They messaged me a fake address, which when Googled, came up on this site: 

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It wouldn't be a "fake" address for the simple reason that they want to receive your item. There is a possible red flag to what you're describing, but it's not the reshipper. That business named in that article you found is one of the biggest; international sellers ship to them pretty often. I know I have. You need to handle the sale on its merits, and Googling the shipping address is not going to show you anything useful that way.

The one suspicious detail I see is that you say you received that address via a message. You only need to ship to the address received with the payment. You have no obligation to change the address to some other destination received in a message, you would give up your seller protection against an Item Not Received dispute by doig so, and the message might not even be from the actual buyer anyway. (See if the ID of the sender is the same as that of your buyer. If not, the message is coming from a scammer.)

That link you posted is a combination of clueless and wrong advice. The more I read, the more I marveled at how many wrong details there were. (e.g. "What usually happens after the seller ships is the buyer disputes the purchase and requests a refund. Since eBay almost always sides with buyers, the seller will be forced to give the money back and not ever get their item back." Rubbish.)

The reshipper named in that article is one of the biggest; international sellers ship to them pretty often. I know I have. You are trying to sell high-value, highly scammed items here, and you will attract scammers trying various methods to part you from your item. You might be better off selling those locally for cash. No one halfway across the country or halfway around the world has a pressing need for your particular AirPods.

[mam98031]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Why would you hesitate to cancel? Sellers can cancel for any reason or no reason at all.

Your reason for cancelling would be:  Problem with buyer's address.

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While I agree the OP can cancel the transaction and really should.  It is NOT correct that a seller can cancel an order for any reason or no reason at all

[mam98031]

I agree with the others, you should cancel this transaction.  You will need to select a reason, I would suggest Problem with the Buyer's address.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/canceling-order/cancel-order?id=4004

Now to prevent this from happening again.  Go to your Site Preferences.

Then to your Buyer Requirements.

On the right click on Edit.

The screen will look like this.  Make sure you select the one I have circled.  That will prevent an international buyer from purchasing any of your listings UNLESS they have a US ship to address.  Then it is fine.  Filling this out will really help you in the future steer clear of issues like this.

Once you fill out the requirements you want.  Click the submit button at the bottom to commit the changes you have made.  What you see below is exactly how I have mine filled out if that helps.

[pjcdn2005]

Although I agree that sellers should use that block, it wouldn’t have made a difference in this situation. The buyer used a US address so they would not have been blocked anyway.

[a_c_green]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Why would you hesitate to cancel? Sellers can cancel for any reason or no reason at all.

Your reason for cancelling would be:  Problem with buyer's address.

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While I agree the OP can cancel the transaction and really should.  It is NOT correct that a seller can cancel an order for any reason or no reason at all

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Sellers can cancel bids for any reason or no reason at all, before an auction ends. Sellers cannot cancel a transaction for no reason (well, technically they can, risking a big fat Neg from the buyer), although in this case the address change request is a good reason to cancel.

[dqdnvwe0]

You may wish to be careful before cancelling, even if it is a scam...

First things first, you can not just "say" in your listing that you do not ship internationally.

That doesn't hold any water. 

Buyers are not obligated to read or follow a seller's rules, they need only to follow ebay's rules.

Therefore you need to have it defined in your selling / site preferences under shipping options.

Once your settings / site preferences reflect that change (that you ship ONLY US), then you shouldn't even receive international orders. 

[mam98031]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Although I agree that sellers should use that block, it wouldn’t have made a difference in this situation. The buyer used a US address so they would not have been blocked anyway.

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You are correct.  I knew that, but somehow my fingers didn't connect with my brain with I typed that.  But YES you are absolutely correct.

[mam98031]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Why would you hesitate to cancel? Sellers can cancel for any reason or no reason at all.

Your reason for cancelling would be:  Problem with buyer's address.

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While I agree the OP can cancel the transaction and really should.  It is NOT correct that a seller can cancel an order for any reason or no reason at all

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Sellers can cancel bids for any reason or no reason at all, before an auction ends. Sellers cannot cancel a transaction for no reason (well, technically they can, risking a big fat Neg from the buyer), although in this case the address change request is a good reason to cancel.

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The OP would not have known the ship to address until the item was purchased.  I don't know that the address they notified the OP they wanted the item shipped to was an address change or just the address they would have used when they paid.  I've had buyer's verify their ship to address with me via email and it is the same on their payment.  But it of course is possible this buyer was trying to do something shady.  Hard to say with the information provided.

I've already said up thread that I thought the seller should cancel the transaction.

[isabelleso_0]

Thanks very much.

[isabelleso_0]

Yes, I went in and changed my preferences after I saw this person was from outside of the U.S. But it doesn't matter anyways because their listed shipping address was in California. On their profile it said Ukraine. And then they messaged me an address in New Jersey.

[mam98031]

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@isabelleso_0 wrote:
Yes, I went in and changed my preferences after I saw this person was from outside of the U.S. But it doesn't matter anyways because their listed shipping address was in California. On their profile it said Ukraine. And then they messaged me an address in New Jersey.

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All you have to do is tell your buyer you will ONLY ship to the USA address that appears as the Ship To address on the PayPal payment, period.  No exception.  If they want an address in NJ, then they need to put that as the ship to address on their PP payment.  They have the ability to do that when submitting the payment.

[equid0x]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Why would you hesitate to cancel? Sellers can cancel for any reason or no reason at all.

Your reason for cancelling would be:  Problem with buyer's address.

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While I agree the OP can cancel the transaction and really should.  It is NOT correct that a seller can cancel an order for any reason or no reason at all

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Seller has legal right to cancel any transaction. They may incur eBay penalties in doing so. 

If its a reshipper, I'd just ship it. You're not responsible once it gets to the reshipper address. 

If they buyer wants you to ship somewhere else that wasn't the address they checked out with then cancel with "bad address."