Obvious Scam— will I get charged?

[trevorcobb26]

Hi all,

This is my first time selling on Ebay. Within 30 minutes of listing, my watch ($3850) was bought. The buyer then insisted he contacted me by phone which I (stupidly) obliged to (rookie mistake.) He insisted that he pay outside of paypal and that I send the item to an address (Houston, TX) not listed as his ebay address of Canada. 

Now OBVIOUSLY this is a scam and I will not be sending the item as he has not even paid yet. However, when I canceled the order due to problem with shipping address, it says "if the buyer declines to cancel the transaction, this case will be automatically closed and you will not receive a Final Value Fee Credit."

Does this mean that I will be out $385 for not wanting to get scammed? That quote makes it seem like it is entirely in the buyers hands if I get charged a final value fee or not. Really hoping this is not the case as I do not want to lose money for preventing a scam.

Thank you

[jda03121]

You should not have tried to cancel the auction, you should have filed that the buyer did not pay. You would have gotten your fees back.

[m60driver]

Do not cancel the transaction yet because maybe the scammer will not actually pay.  It doesn't matter to Ebay what you told the buyer on the phone.   Also contact Ebay to see what they say to do.  Better to lose $385 then $3850.  And do not try reselling this watch on Ebay.  As a new seller you will attract scammers like flies to, well you know.  The next buyer will pay and then return the item for one fallacious reason or another and then send you back some small used toy in a box and then you will be out the watch as EBay will refund the purchase.

[trevorcobb26]

Okay thank you everyone. Luckily the buyer did agree to cancel the sale so I should get my FV fees back, but I will exercise more caution in the future and will not be relisting the watch. Definitely a learning experience and I appreciate y'all's willingness to help.

Thank you for your advice and I will use other sites to sell my watch.

[myboardid]

This could happen on ANY internet selling platform, the scammers are everywhere.