I just have been speaking with someone about one of my items constantly for the past 24 hours....

[jrizy_shop]

Hi,

I just have been speaking with someone about one of my items constantly for the past 24 hours - providing good customer service and answering his intensely and extensive amount of questions about the product.

To make a very long story short, after 24 hours of talking sending pictures etc etc etc. He finally purchased the item. 
The problem I then had was, his phone number is proxied, the shipped address is to a location that if you google it - it comes back as a known scammer/scamming company in Iceland. 

I don't know what to do, can any experienced sellers or perhaps a member of eBay inform me on what to do. I refuse to ship this order to him due to all of the clues that lead to a very obvious scam.

[femmefan1946]

Any time a customer has more than one or two questions, they will be a timewaster.

You can cancel transactions as "Problem with Address" with no difficulty.

Now.

Google is very unreliable about freight forwarding addresses, which are actually the second safest addresses you can ship to, since most of the eBay Money Back Guarantee does not apply when the buyer uses a forwarder.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy...

The reason Google is unreliable is that we see complaints but , unlike say the Better Business Bureau, we don't see the other side.

Just as we see sellers with hundreds of negative Feedback, but 100% ratings, because they also have thousands of happy customers who left positive feedback.

That being said- thousand dollar fountain pens are high value/high fraud items.

I would not even list them until you have at least 10 DSRs, know what DSRs are, and understand that they are utterly unimportant.  

Cancel as Problem with Address.

It will not get better.

[stuffygrotto]

I was just reading a thread on re--it about the exact type of intense pre-sale unending questions/clarifications tactics. He ended up being scammed, buyer wanted partial refunds after receiving. New seller with low feedback/experience, selling electronics. Everyone said they would have blocked him, sensing trouble ahead. I hope you can talk to someone at ebay about your research. Definitely give them a heads-up. 

[lazarustradingco]

If you are so suspicious of the buyer, just cancel the order and block him. The item is clearly expensive and not worth the risk if you do not feel good about the transaction. Of course, the buyer may leave you bad feedback but hey, at least you still have your valuable item to resell to a better buyer.

[continentalcollectibles]

Ship it through eBay Global Shipping with Insurance, Global Shipping now will also insure it and you get your Seller Protection I Guess it's the most they can do for the absurd prices they charge, but getting your own insurance will double protect you. then let it become eBays problem not yours

[rugerskick]

First block the buyer.

Then contact ebay fraud and security and explain what you have discovered.  They will probably advise you to cancel the order, if they don't themselves being made aware its a scammer account.  You contacting ebay with your evidence of scammer posing as a buyer is now part of your record for this transaction, make sure you state you are warning ebay this person is a scammer, you have serious concerns about being defrauded and ripped off based on the evidence you have uncovered about this person, and that you want this conversation saved and all written and photo (if any) evidence you've sent ebay is saved for this transaction.  Request that you feel uncomfortable completing the transaction based on what you've researched and want to avoid being scammed for yourself but also ebay.  Most likely they will advisd to cancel the transaction if they don't themselves, they will make their own notes about the situation as well.  On the real odd chance they say go ahead, if its a high value item to you, I would decide to cancel,it anyway and cite problem with buyer address, and file a report against the scam buyer.

Fraud and Safety is usually good at backing sellers with fraud concerns before shipping.  Usually.  I'd cancel it if its an expensive item.

First though, block the buyer and don't respond to their emails anymore.  If you respond they can keep emailing you for 30 days of your response.  They may have other bogus buyer accounts so be wary as you were chosen as a target.  One big red flag is too many questions about an item or your policies before a purchase or even after.  If they send more than 3 emails about different questions they are either a scammer or very high maintenance/impossible to please, in which case many sellers just block them right there and cease communicating.

[mam98031]

I'm unsure of what talking "constantly for the past 24 hours" means.  Have you been responding to multiple messages they have sent you or did you exchange phone numbers somehow?

How many messages are we talking about, 2,3,5,15,20 etc.  Each case can of course be different, but if there is more than about 3 messages back and forth, you might consider blocking them from buying from you.  New sellers are often a target for scammers, so you have to be extra careful.  Typically someone can get the questions they need answered in 1 message, maybe 2 or 3 on the outside.  After that it becomes a bit ridiculous.

If you are in EIS you will be shipping the international package to an Ebay facility.  Once they accept it, they finish getting it to your buyer and Ebay takes all the risks, not you.  Assuming you have been paid by the buyer.

Now if you are not in EIS, I would recommend cancelling the sale for problem with the address and block the buyer.

You did the right thing coming here and hopefully we can help guide you.

[gurlcat]

Not to hijack the thread, but this phenomenon of repeat emailers becoming problematic buyers after the sale is one of my earliest cautions I read/heard sellers advising (here, in other social media, youtube, etc), and I've definitely encountered it myself a few times, though not with very expensive items luckily.  -What I don't get is why they do it.  Why make pests of themselves and give the seller any kind of red flags, why not just just silently buy the item so the seller won't think twice about shipping it like any normal sale?  I like to think I'm good at thinking like a scammer, but this tactic doesn't make sense to me, and it is so common.  

[slippinjimmy]

I can see why a buyer might ask questions about a seller with 1 feedback with an expensive item for sale.

Has this buyer actually paid you?

[inhawaii]

Am I the only weird one here who, when someone buys something from me, I ship it.

No investigating.

No googling.

No worrying.

[dbfolks166mt]

     I took a look at a few of your listings, not sure which particular item you sold to this buyer, but you are in the EIS program so my guess is your shipping this item to the eBay EIS hub in Illinois and eBay will handle the shipping from there. 

     Once the item reaches the EIS hub your job is done and you are protected from any type of claim the buyer may file including chargebacks. If this is going through the EIS program mail it ASAP you cannot be any more protected. 

• When you ship internationally using eBay International Shipping, you're responsible for getting packages safely to the US shipping hub. If a buyer reports that an item was lost or damaged during international shipping or it is damaged at the hub, we'll work with the buyer to resolve the issue. You're protected from:
  • the obligation to refund the buyer
  • eBay Money Back Guarantee cases
  • payment disputes
  • open ‘Not as described’ returns in your service metrics
• Any negative or neutral feedback related to item handling that can be attributed to the eBay International Shipping program during international transit will be removed
• Save on selling fees for your international transactions, including no international fee
• All international returns and refunds will be handled on your behalf
• If you schedule Time Away, the estimated delivery date will be updated to reflect this
• You'll be protected against item not received claims and chargebacks
• eBay International Shipping costs are on average 5% cheaper than eBay's pre-negotiated USPS international rates

[slati_2013]

Scammers in Iceland? I don't know why. I just think of Iceland as a good place with good people. But all over the world people are the same. Good and bad.

It is hard to tell without knowing exactly why this company is known to be a scammer company. Could you say without naming the company what they are accused of doing? 

[hollysfinds]

It's been my experience that usually the people that are the most bother

are the people that cause the most problems.

Or, the people that ask the most questions usually end up not

buying after you've spent time trying to answer lots of their questions.

In your situation I'd cancel using problem with buyers address & be done.

[lonebuck-books]

Multiple un-ending questions about an item is a major red flag.  After the second or third questions I would have blocked them and been done with them.  Honestly, looking at your sold listings and you are a low feedback sellers, you have scam magnet written all over your account.  There is absolutely no chance I would send that item out.  Cancel using the problem with the address as your reason and block them.  You have a  99.999%  chance of being scammed.  New sellers should not be trying to sell $1k items on eBay.  Scammers look for them because they know they can easily be ripped off.

[lonebuck-books]

---

@inhawaii wrote:

Am I the only weird one here who, when someone buys something from me, I ship it.

No investigating.

No googling.

No worrying.

---

For the most part, no you aren't.  I rarely look up a buyer.  I just ship.  If however I get multiple questions or the buyer gives me reason to pause, I will check on them.  Sometimes an address looks wonky and I will look it up.   But for 99+% of my orders, I just pack and ship like I would guess almost every other seller does.