Receiving messages to change shipping address after selling item, from different accounts.

[kev777zero]

Not sure if this is a new type of scam or what. But here's what happened:

I sold an item this morning, and the buyer (reputable I guess, hundreds of 100% feedback over 10 years) payed for it via PayPal. I printed the shipping label and was about to ship it, then I receive a message that the shipping address needed to be changed as he is going to relocate for a few weeks to avoid the coronavirus pandemic.

Then I realized that it was a different, new account sending this message. I said I never sold this account anything and this account stopped messaging me. Another new account than sent me a similar message.

I felt uncomfortable with this transaction and decided to cancel, after chatting with Ebay, although I do not have any proof the buyer had anything to do with it. The original buyer was not happy obviously.

Reason I felt suspicious was because I could tell English was not the buyer nor the other account's first language, and the buyer and one of the new accounts mentioned a different item that I wasn't selling. The messages were something like this:

Original buyer before purchase said: I just bought a 35mm 1.8 lens but I could not resist the price of your 35mm 1.4 lens (I was selling a 35mm 1.4 lens)

New account message: I am relocating so can you please send your 35mm 1.8 lens to this new address instead?

I don't know if it was coincidence or paranoia on my part. I could very be well be wrong about the original buyer and missed selling my item. But how do these new accounts get a hold of my item after I sold it? Or is this just a new strategy for scammers to watch my item and start messaging me as soon as they see it sold? Please let me know what y'all think cause I'm losing confidence selling on Ebay.

[tdumonde2014]

It's a scam. They are hoping that you will ship to the new address. Sadly this scam does work. Good catch. 

[soh.maryl]

There will always be scam attempts. Those people who sent the messages were, of course, not the actual buyers.

They thought you would change the delivery address and redirect those packages to them.  Fortunately, you didn't fall for it.

Just wanted to remind you of this:  You, the seller, are required by eBay rules to ship to exactly the address you saw when the buyer made payment.  If the legitimate buyer wanted to change that address for any reason, he was given the chance to do so at the time of payment.  If he woke up later and realized he meant to have his purchase delivered to Aunt Minnie in Cedar Rapids, he would be required to notify you.  You could then cancel and refund, then relist for him to buy again, this time giving the correct shipping address.  

Not sure why you felt you needed to cancel that transaction and would be interested to hear what you gave as the reason. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

That coincidence regarding the number on the lens would be enough to cancel the transaction if it were me, and i don’t spook easily. So i think you did the best thing to protect yourself.

Normally the buyer is not in on the scam. Fraudsters generally watch newer accounts with high dollar items and hope the seller’s relative inexperience on the platform will work in their favor.

So they message the seller and request the item be sent to another address. Sometimes the seller is unaware that doing so voids their seller protection, and they don’t notice the account is different from the buyer’s.

So glad that they were unsuccessful in their efforts to scam you.

[kev777zero]

The original buyer may very well have been totally legit, but the original buyer and the new accounts both had poor English. Moreover, I was selling a 35mm 1.4 lens and before the buyer purchased it the buyer mentioned that he/she just bought a 35mm 1.8 lens earlier. Then later the new account messaged me to send the 35mm 1.8 lens that he/she just bought to a new address. Again I have no proof may be totally wrong.