Is this a weird message?

[flp]

I got this message (through eBay) last night.

"Hi the add I was looking at showed free shipping, I can send a screenshot, Thank you, Barbara"

I check my item and my shipping showed just fine but...

My reply: "Hi,Yes, please send that. I just checked on my end and it doesn't show that. Thanks!"

She replied,

"Hi again, it won’t let me send the screenshot, I guess I would need ur personal email. Thx for your response though.  All is well,Barbara"

Is this weird or a scam? I did not reply as it bothered me that she wanted my personal email.  Thoughts?

[coastaltechsolution]

Sounds scammy to me

[dhbookds]

What kind of feedback do they have?  If 0, I'd guess a scam............You can't send personal email address thru Ebay messages.......so I would just give them the URL of the item......  Have no idea if the item could be showing somewhere else, off ebay, that would show free shipping......but I doubt it. 

[ebooksdiva]

Sounds like a scam to me,  never send anyone your email address eBay will think you are doing an off site sale and will charge you a fee for that. 

[jonathanbrightlight]

It's tough to determine at this point if it's a scam attempt or a clueless buyer, but either way, definitely don't give them your email address.  If it is a scam, they would use that to send a fake email saying that they had purchased the item, hoping you would ship it without realizing it wasn't actually sold, or else it would try to get you to pay some fee to complete the transaction (those are the two types of scams that I'm most familiar with, at least that would start this way, there are probably other possibilities).

I'd just politely tell them you cannot provide your email address and that all communication must stay on eBay.

[doc-holmes]

I'd block and ignore. It sounds like one of two possibilities. It's either a scammer, which will obviously cause you issues, or its a customer who can't seem to figure stuff out, which will cause you issues. 

[albertabrightalberta]

@flp 

I've seen and read enough posts over the years to hypothesize with 99.999% certainty that "Barbara" is setting you up for a scam in which she will send a fake payment receipt and rip you off. 

I'd block that ID and you won't see further messages from her.

[stuff4divas]

@flp   anytime anyone asks for personal info, it's a scam

anyway, what does a screenshot have to do with one's personal email address vs ebay messaging?

answer: nothing

[valuestore]

Possibly a competitors attempt to lure you into violating eBay rules. 

[soh.maryl]

". . . and you won't see further messages from her"?

Unless she just opens another eBay ID.    

[a_c_green]

---

@flp wrote:

I got this message (through eBay) last night.

"Hi the add I was looking at showed free shipping, I can send a screenshot, Thank you, Barbara"

I check my item and my shipping showed just fine but...

My reply: "Hi,Yes, please send that. I just checked on my end and it doesn't show that. Thanks!"

She replied,

"Hi again, it won’t let me send the screenshot, I guess I would need ur personal email. Thx for your response though.  All is well,Barbara"

Is this weird or a scam? I did not reply as it bothered me that she wanted my personal email.  Thoughts?

---

@flp : I've read all the replies up to this point...

It's true that there has been an ongoing bug in mobile mode in the past where items were listed as Free Shipping when they were not, although I have not seen that talked about recently. If that was the entirety of "Barbara's" first message quoted above, then I would definitely wonder whether that might be what prompted her to write to you in the first place: she was trying to purchase and then getting a Shipping charge at payment time.

As for sending you a screenshot, she absolutely can do that via eBay Messaging, but newbies in particular have had a hard time understanding the poorly designed message interface. Tell her that she needs to click on the little picture icon to the left of the "Send message" line, and then she can upload her screenshot. No security risk involved in doing so, and you do not need to provide any personal contact info.

[reallynicestamps]

"Hi again, it won’t let me send the screenshot, I guess I would need ur personal email. Thx for your response though.  All is well,Barbara"

scam

[sextons-sweet-deals]

scammers never stop!

Sellers need to be on guard 24/7. 

Definitely add them to your block list and maybe take the time to report them to eBay.  

[stephenmorgan]

I don't know it it is a scam or not but using a computer I am unable to send a direct Screen Shot thru eBay Messages.  Within this community I can grab a Screen Shot and right click mouse and then paste it.  With eBay Messages the Screen Shot must be saved to the computer and then uploaded into the message.

[meme6253]

Most likely a scam, You are not allowed to send personal information like phone or e-mail etc., So it's good that you didn't