Scam or not? What do you think? Definitely will not ship this item after what happened.....

[stewartit-sales]

Sold my first item on eBay and buyer paid, then 5 minutes later got this email from PayPal - Your PayPal account is temporarily limited.

They want me to 'prove it's me' due to some 'potentially unusual activity' which I refuse to do because I won't jump thru PayPal's hoops for some other person's issues.

I checked the buyer's name and address - This explains everything.

A Russian Sounding Name

460 Copper Dr Ste 099208

Newport DE 19804-9004

Tried to cancel transaction with 'Problem with buyer's address' and refund funds.

eBay is trying to cancel the transaction but PayPal would not let me refund funds.

Guess if this guy wants their money back, they'll have to take it up with PayPal because there is no way I'm shipping this.

[bonjourami]

Thats a reshipper address.if you dont verify who you are, PP will soon suspend you.

[samirr-34]

And sellers wonder why buyers are leaving...

[tamaralea]

Don't correspond through email with PayPal.  Log in to see if there is a problem.  I agree that it looks like a freight forwarder's address.

[hurryagain]

I do not blame you for playing it safe.  It could be an innocent thing where as the buyer may be using a warehouse/freight forwarding service because they are from another country but wants to buy from the U.S. from sellers who do not ship overseas...(I don't ship overseas either).  The Chinese do this to obtain a U.S. address so that they can pose as U.S. sellers...and THAT is annoying!     😃

[gamersbaystore]

The transaction is irrelevant in terms of paypal asking you for more credentials, as they do this for all sellers. If you don't do as they ask, they will terminate your account.

As for your buyer, it appears they're using a shipping forwarder, this is likely why paypal flagged the transaction, there may be other issues that caused it to get flagged as well. I definitely wouldn't ship the item either.

And just for the record, buyers who make use of shipping forwarders lose their ebay money back guarantee protection. Paypal is apparently starting to get more wary of such services as well.

[reallynicestamps]

Freight forwarding is common, legal and usually safe for eBay sellers.

The buyer's Money Back Guarantee (MBG) ends at  the forwarder's doorstep.

EBay has its own forwarding program called the Global Shipping Program.

So that is actually not the problem.

It is normal for the shipment going to a forwarder to have not only the buyer's name but a customer number . That's the "Ste 099208" in the address.

Yes, it's disguised.

Out of boredom, I have googled customer addresses. You'd be amazed how many US addresses that appear to be apartments are actually PO boxes or Mailboxes R Us outlets.  Nothing necessarily nefarious.

 I refuse to do because I won't jump thru PayPal's hoops

Then your PP account will remain limited.

PP is trying to protect you against a possible scammer.

PP seems to have reason to mistrust shipments sent to Meest.us (http://www.meest.us/) .

The company has been in business in the USA for nearly 20 years. Not a fly by night operation.

You are right not to ship.

The payment has not cleared and/or is being held.

Should we assume that the message was, in fact, from Paypal?  (It probably is, scammers would be encouraging you to ship not preventing you. )

eBay is trying to cancel the transaction but PayPal would not let me refund funds.

That makes sense.

EBay is willing to cancel and there will be no penalty.

But Paypal, a different company, is investigating the transaction and that will take time.

As a non-US member, I can attest that it can take up to ten days for an e-cheque payment (from a bank account rather than a credit card) to clear multiple banking systems.  So while the Russian member may have paid, and while the money may have been taken from his bank account, it may not have reached PP yet. They can't refund money they have not received.

You can't stop purchases by overseas buyers using a US-based forwarder, whether than is a commercial outfit like this or  Auntie Ludmilla in Staten Island.

You can Block buyers with non-US Paypal accounts*.

When you talk to PP and give them the information they want to release your account, ask the clerk how to do this.

*You pay 4.4% for non-US Paypal payments instead of 2.9% for domestic payments.

[fab_finds4u]

Go to PayPal and verify the payment was made.  If the payment is there it will tell you the payment status.  It will say completed, OK To Ship or it will indicate it's not completed and wait to ship.   If it says OK To Ship you are REQUIRED to ship it with tracking to the address PayPal provided.  That address appears to belong to a Russian package forwarder that reships to Eastern Europe. (Meest)   

 http://www.meest.us/rus/poslugi/dostavk ... shops.html

Forward the email wanting you to verify to spoof@paypal.com and they'll tell you if it's from them or a phishing attempt. Maybe they want to verify it's you who is getting the payment and not someone that hijacked your account .

[mam98031]

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@samirr-34 wrote:
And sellers wonder why buyers are leaving...

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That is unlikely.  The buyer at this point probably doesn't even know there is an issue.

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

And buyers target new sellers with fake emails trying to get their paypal log on with spoof emails or try to trick sellers into shipping items before a real payment is made.

[a_c_green]

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@stewartit-sales wrote:

Sold my first item on eBay and buyer paid, then 5 minutes later got this email from PayPal - Your PayPal account is temporarily limited.

They want me to 'prove it's me' due to some 'potentially unusual activity' which I refuse to do because I won't jump thru PayPal's hoops for some other person's issues.

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It's not some other person's issues; it's yours. If you're planning to sell things here, you'll need to provide whatever additional account info it is that they're looking for. Log into your PayPal account and see what it is they want. There will probably be a message there to explain it further, or just phone them up and ask.

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I checked the buyer's name and address - This explains everything.

A Russian Sounding Name

460 Copper Dr Ste 099208

Newport DE 19804-9004

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It doesn't seem like it "explains" much of anything, really, but that's just a Meest reshipping address, complete with their customer ID so that they know whose package they're receiving. (Note that that screenshot identifying it as a "new" location is from four years ago.) 

A fifty-dollar pair of memory sticks is not really a high-risk item. If PayPal says that it's okay to ship, then ship. Your delivery responsibility ends as soon as it's scanned as Delivered in Delaware. If your Russian customer wants to return the memory sticks later on, he will have to get them back to his reshipper, because the most you would need to cover for return shipping would be from Delaware, not Russia. That's one reason why sending to a reshipper can be less risky for the seller then shipping direct to another country.