New eBay Buyer Scam? Offer Made At Full Price - Send ASAP

[pierangler]

I received a Best Offer yesterday that was at full listing price.  Seemed odd to me that the buyer did not just pay the Buy It Now price instead of making an offer at the same price.  The offer included the following note:

"Please Send ASAP! Landline will not operate without it. Pretty sure plug will fit old AT&T phone. Respectfully, Jay & Elizabeth"

The buyer has a feedback score 100%, 360 feedback comments since 2015.  

I think that this is somehow a scam.  Not sure how that it will go down, but I am not going to play.  I declined the offer and added the them to my Blocked Buyer List.

Has anyone else experienced this type of strange buyer behavior?

[heckofagame]

Did the buyer pay?

[coastaltechsolution]

He declined the best offer 

[southern*sweet*tea]

They may not have realized they could leave a note if they did a BIN.  What is the item they wanted?  Was it one of the power cords? Seems like they need it for their phone to work.  Unless it was some sort of expensive scammer fodder I would have accepted, but that's just me.  Not everything is nefarious.

[katzrul15]

Best offer is often confusing for a Buyer - who knows of this was a scam?  A phone plug does not strike me as something most are lining up to buy?  Who still has a "true" landline??

[heckofagame]

I still have a true landline...

[coastaltechsolution]

@katzrul15 

I was thinking the same as most of us reach for our smart phones but I guess never know, could be someone out in the boonies with no cell service and relies on the land line 

Hard to say 

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@heckofagame wrote:

I still have a true landline...

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I would LOVE to have one but I'm not paying AT&T $40 a month for a phone that's barely usable. Our phone lines are really bad out here and AT&T will do nothing to fix them as they say they are no longer supporting landlines and DSL.  That's why our internet stinks, it's DSL on WW2 era phone lines.

[chapeau-noir]

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@katzrul15 wrote:

Best offer is often confusing for a Buyer - who knows of this was a scam?  A phone plug does not strike me as something most are lining up to buy?  Who still has a "true" landline??

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I know quite a few people who do.  We have VoIP but that's because we have good internet.

A lot of places don't even have a cell signal and poor internet - some in my own backyard, so to speak. 

Still, it's odd and sounds like the buyer was confused?

[pierangler]

The buyer sent a Best Offer for the full price.  I chose not to accept it as it looked strange and suspicious. 

[pierangler]

The buyer's profile shows them as being from Berkeley, CA - some strange things go on over there 🙂

[7794heather]

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@katzrul15 wrote:

Best offer is often confusing for a Buyer - who knows of this was a scam?  A phone plug does not strike me as something most are lining up to buy?  Who still has a "true" landline??

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I do but only because our cable company says if we have "triple play" we get a huge discount. Try taking phone off  bill and it goes UP $40. Doesn't make sense but I have one, but its unplugged because all we get are telemarketing calls since no one knows we have it. Ridiculous!!

[pierangler]

I do not think that the buyer could be confused.  They've been on eBay for 7 years and have 360 feedback ratings.  I suspect that their account may have been hijacked to get payment addresses without having to pay immediately as is the case with Buy It Now transactions.  Even though it was for an item under $10, they could attempt to overpay me with a fraudulent card somehow and try to get a refund after stating that the cord did not work or do a chargeback scheme.

Anyway, I blocked the buyer and will not need to deal with them again.

[7794heather]

I think you did the right thing. I had a best offer once of the actual price-but from France. I declined and blocked. They could just hit the buy it now button.

If your potential buyers had 300+ feedback, they know how ebay works.

Have a good night....wouldn't put much thought into it now that its over. 

[powell-memorabilia]

Scamming you over a $10 jack converter?  If it is a scam, the buyer isn’t terribly sharp.