Scam?

[dide_5310]

Seller asked me to email them with additional picture and my paypal. Then said

"Okay, Great. I’d like to have it mailed to my daughter in xx as a birthday present, also, I  want an eBay gift card of $400 included in the package before you ship, would appreciate you assisting me with this cause i work away from home on a business trip and i won't be back until 28th of January next year and i'm not in the right position to have it mailed out myself. I will add $400 to your payment for the eBay gift card and $50 to cover the shipping handling." 

What do you think?

[spark-chaser1]

Absolutely NONE of that is good.

[powell-memorabilia]

Fairly common scam

[ckimodog]

@dide_5310  

Total SCAM!  Ignore, report and block! 

I'm going to add this image that another very helpful person here on the forum posted to help you to identify these types of scammers:

Hope this is helpful.

Happy Holidays.  

[spark-chaser1]

Any transaction that goes so far off the rails when it comes to requests and excuses needs to be binned.

Glad you came here and asked!

[stephenmorgan]

I would decline and advise them they can purchase an Electronic Gift Card theirself from anywhere in the world so that their daughter would have it in a instance.

[spark-chaser1]

Tell them that you'll do them one better and give them a $5000 gift card for being such nice customers. As soon as payment is received, of course!✌

[krazzykats]

Definitely a scam!

Gift Card Scams | eBay.com

Keep everything on ebay.  Payments only through ebay.  Messages only through ebay, no texting! 

Once you text them, they will now have your phone number.

[fab_finds4u]

I think you must have listed an expensive item on an account that has no or low feedback which attracts scammers trying to steal your item and a gift card.

A buyer never needs your PayPal address to pay. N E V E R.

They want it so they can send you a FAKE receipt from PayPal hoping you will think you were paid and ship the item. Then they get your item free. And while they're  scamming you they try to get you to send a gift card as well.

This thief has no intention of paying or else they would be too easy to find.

Cancel and relist using problem with their address (because you do not ship to third parties and lose protection).

Reporting them does no good because they'll just pop up on another new name or a stolen account.

Good you questioned this. It's an old scam as old as eBay.

[duncanvr]

as soon as you hear the words gift card you know its a scam! The whole thing is a total scam. You must be selling a high priced item with a low feedback account. Good luck.

[krazzykats]

You should never play with scammers. 

[spark-chaser1]

Correct. I wasn't trying to actually suggest anyone does that, it was more for humor. But yes- playing with a scammer can backfire, sure.

But oh, back in the day. Telemarketers and Nigerian princes  rued the day they decided to call me and waste my time and money... 

[pburn]

@dide_5310 wrote:

Seller asked me to email them with additional picture and my paypal. Then said

"Okay, Great."

---

@dide_5310 

So you emailed this person outside of the eBay messaging system (which is a violation of eBay's member-to-member contact policy) and included your PayPal information?

[spark-chaser1]

I'm hoping the OP is at this moment contacting PayPal AND eBay. And their bank. Because if he did pass that info on, its about to get real.

[coolections]

Surprised you would even have to ask. Of course it is scam unless you happen to have a $400 gift card listed.