Is this fishy? What should I do?

[the_sumnerdz]

I havent reached out to ebay support yet, but i think the buyer might be a scam. I listed a laptop in which he placed an offer at the asking price for the item. I accepted the offer, however he is now asking for additional pictures which isn't that odd. The odd part is that the buyer name (full names) on the Invoice does not match the name he gave me in the ebay message requesting pictures. 

Thoughts?

Can I cancel the order suspecting that this may be fraudulent? What should I do?

[gwzcomps]

If the user ID of the person messaging you doesn't match the ID in the purchase, the message is a scam. Sadly scammers target sellers with low feedback expecting them to be easy targets Whether the purchase is legit or not there is no way for us users on these boards to tell. Might not be a bad idea to get help from eBay support. I would recommend asking for "Trust and Safety" if you can get connected with eBay over the phone.

https://www.ebay.com/help/home

[the_sumnerdz]

Will I get dinged if I just cancel the order?

[fashunu4eeuh]

You would have to cancel with “problem with address” to keep getting dinged. But i wouldn't cancel just yet. There is nothing inherently wrong with a request for more pictures. I have had buyers who have had different names on the invoice address than the name of the buyer I dealt with. Sometimes spouses don’t share the same last names, etc. 

Why do they want the pictures now, after the purchase? Or have they paid yet? Until they have paid, there is no transaction to cancel. 

[the_sumnerdz]

He did not say why they wanted the pictures and they would not pay until they received more pictures. 

[gwzcomps]

Does the person messaging you have the same user ID as the person who made the purchase? If they don't want to pay then you have nothing to worry about. Just be sure to only respond to messages through the eBay messaging system. Only ship to the address supplied in the order. Also don't share any contact details like email or phone #.

[fashunu4eeuh]

I am glad that gwzcomps mentioned about keeping all communication thru eBay, to not share any contact info with them until they have paid, etc. Have they requested anything else? Like wanting you to text them the photos, or asked for your PayPal email address? Those are telltale signs of a scammer.

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

It sounds fishy to me all the way around. Extra pictures might be for finding things to complain about later. Be careful here.

[the_sumnerdz]

Yea, he wanted them texted to his phone number that he gave. I decided to go ahead and just cancel. Its not worth the risk. I also notified him that I was cancelling the order and its been radio silence. I think that just confirms my suspicion. 

[dtexley3]

@the_sumnerdz Yes, the request to text to a phone # is a major red flag.  That would have been followed up with a request for your email because there was some issue with payment.  Then a fake paypal "paid" invoice via email to try to convince you to ship.  Pretty standard scam.

In the future we are allowed to cancel such orders using "problem with buyer's address" as the reason so you don't get an out-of-stock ding.  The blues told us to us this reason until they added some additional cancelation reasons to the list, which I personally don't see happening.

[a_c_green]

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@the_sumnerdz wrote:

Yea, he wanted them texted to his phone number that he gave. I decided to go ahead and just cancel. Its not worth the risk. I also notified him that I was cancelling the order and its been radio silence. I think that just confirms my suspicion. 

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Yes, that was a scammer. The reason for asking that photos be texted to his phone number is that doing so would reveal your phone number. After that you would receive various official-looking but completely fake PayPal payment notifications, telling you that you would need to ship first before seeing funds deposited in your account. 

Incidentally, if you were communicating with a real buyer via eBay messaging (which is not what is happening here), you can always attach up to 5 photos to an eBay message. There is no need to email them or text them instead, which would reveal your email or text number respectively.

[a_c_green]

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@the_sumnerdz wrote:

He did not say why they wanted the pictures and they would not pay until they received more pictures. 

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We'll give them the Chutzpah Award for that. Actually, your first red flag with this scammer was that they made an offer at your asking price instead of just buying it outright. They have no right to withhold payment until photos are provided; they were just using that as leverage to get you to reveal your text number.

[tnt-usa]

Sure does sound fishy. Just remember to Always keep all communication through Ebay.