Scammed on a change of address request...

[hammy158]

I just got scammed into shipping a "Won" item to the wrong address.  Within 20 minutes of auction completion, I received a message (which I wrongly assumed was from the buyer) to send the item to a different address: 

After receiving a email from the original buyer today - asking why I shipped his item to Delaware, I figured out  I had been scammed - and see that the User ID from the fake buyer is no longer available in eBay!  Thank goodness it was only a $15 item with First Class shipping.   SELLERS BEWARE!!!!

[dryophelia]

@hammy158 

Yes. Sellers be aware. You must ship to the address that prints on the label. Never change the shipping address. 

Is camping at this time of year common in Delaware?

[readabouthorses]

I'm pretty sure that address in Delaware is to one of those freight forwarders ... it sure looks familiar to me as one other people have mentioned when they were shipping to freight forwarders.

[holidaze1]

A lot to be deduced from lexicon, after reading for 25 years online the red flags in that message  got more red with every sentence. 

[hammy158]

Thank you for the comments - but like they always say - hindsight is always 20-20!   I thought it was strange at the time, because the buyer had already paid for the item before the scammer message arrived.   That should have been my first red flag!   So then I thought - maybe the guy paid for the item after he sent the message - so couldn't get back into the item to change his shipping info.  I failed to note the different "User ID's" at the time.  

The email I received this morning from the New Jersey buyer also had poor English...so now I'm wondering if the buyer was in cahoots with the scammer - otherwise, how did the scammer (Delaware) know that I had just sold the item to the guy in New Jersey?  

[soh.maryl]

Think about it -- he didn't need to know that you sold to the guy in NJ (that was actually a freight forwarder).

Yes, you were scammed.

You will be required to reimburse the NJ guy because he obviously won't be getting the package.

[a_c_green]

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@hammy158 wrote:

The email I received this morning from the New Jersey buyer also had poor English...so now I'm wondering if the buyer was in cahoots with the scammer - otherwise, how did the scammer (Delaware) know that I had just sold the item to the guy in New Jersey?  

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That message is sent out in bulk to every seller of a newly sold item in that category. It's just a bot script using a throwaway account that does a periodic search for recently sold items, sorting the results by Most Recent First, and sends off the same message each time. (Notice that the message says nothing about what the item actually is.) The address is a reshipper; the actual scammer is elsewhere.

If the item was high-value, you might have time to file a Package Intercept request: 

https://www.usps.com/manage/package-intercept.htm 

P.S. The scammer account has already been nuked by eBay, but will probably return via a new throwaway account soon.

[jhr-4800]

Couple of things that jump at me from the message that the so call buyer is saying and asking.

1.  Address that was given.  To me, if you are a buyer or seller that is in US.  You or other people living in States, will not use USA in the address.

2.  The message by the so call buyer, is full of nonsense.  

3.  If some one ask me as a seller, to ship to another address that is not the buyer verify address, I say NO, no can do.  I will only send it to buyer's register address with ebay.  Or I give them the option to have me cancel the sell.

4.  I have been scam in the past, and I have learned from my mistakes.  And when there is one scammer, you might get more scammers in the future.  This has happen to me too.  

Good luck in your selling journey!

[7794heather]

I'm sorry this happened. You've been on ebay for as  long as I have. A lot has changed. 

Back in the day you could ship to whomever and where ever. I remember changing the label because someone was sending their son, daughter, aunt, uncle etc a gift and there was never a problem. 

The policy to send to the address given at time of sale and what prints out on the label has been in place for a very long time. 

Hard mistake to learn, but it might be best to read over ebay's selling policies to be sure you have a grasp on what to do in the future. 

There are a lot of scammers out there, more than I care to know. Each day someone comes here with a new scenario and man oh man these people are creative. 

If you feel your spidey senses going off, come here first before doing anything. The fine folks here have just about heard it all and will help before this happens again.

Good luck and stay safe! 

[dbfolks166mt]

     I am not sure what the content of the message was that you received from the scammer was but the scammer really didn't need to know who you sold the item to. She/he knew the item number and your eBay account and probably just sent you a message through the contact interface in eBay. The Delaware address that you sent the item to is a freight forwarder so odds are that the scammer is in a foreign country probably Russia or one of the FSU republics. You will have no way of knowing where the item actually ended up unless you can pry that information out of the freight forwarder. You are actually pretty lucky given this was a low dollar item, chalk it up as a cheap lesson and don't forget to take the loss off of your taxes this year. 

     Meanwhile the real buyer is due a refund at some point since he is never actually going to receive the item. There are a couple of ways to handle that.  

[iart]

This  has been reported many times.

In future, simply suggest your buyer change their own address. This is allowed (and a seller doesn't even have to know about it). If they cannot access the page to change their address, they are not the buyer.

After shipping, they can change the address back again.

[expo_product]

This is how hackers joked, yes, I also came across this twice.