Sold an item and a different user messaged me claiming they brought it. How do I report this?

[cptwhiteshirt]

So I sold an item today and i got a message from a completely different user claimiing they purchased it and they need the address changed. He gave a name that doesnt match in any way and an address that is on the other side of the country from the actual shipping address. this is obviously a scam. my guess is he was watching my account and waiting for the item to sell, and once it sold, he sent me a message claiming it. thankfully I'm not and idiot. does this happen a lot and how can I report this guy? i mean, he did send me his name and address.

[tdumonde2014]

The scammers's ebay ID in the messages does not match the buyer's ebay ID.

[loveyourimagination49]

I'm not the OP, of course, but wanted to say thanks for your time and explanations. Much appreciated!

[mistwomandancing]

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missjen316 wrote:

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loveyourimagination49 wrote:

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missjen316 wrote:

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loveyourimagination49 wrote:
Did they pay yet?
They can change the ship to address in PayPal.

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The person who contacted the OP is not the buyer though. Its a scam. 

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How do you know it's a scam? Was it not an ebay message?

Just asking.

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OP was contacted by someone other than the winning bidder. A different user ID requested he ship the item to a different name and address than what is on the sales record and the paypal payment. Its a newer scam that popped up on the boards recently. The scammers are watching auctions and then contacting the seller (using the link on the listing so that the message is associated with the listing) after the auction ends and pretends to be the original buyer . The goal is trick the seller into shipping to THEM instead of the actual buyer. 

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Yes... occasionally those scammers are using an old inactive eBay account that they hacked into, but very often a new account they've set up to use briefly to work their scams here, and then they dump and run.. open up another account and start in again.

[mycarolinavintage]

What I would do in this situation is ship the item according to information at hand. ie. PayPal. If a buyer wants the address changed - after the sale has gone through, I would contact the buyer via the buyers user ID and ask if it is their message to you to change the address. If not, mail pkg. as usual and call eBay about the scammerwantabe and then go on with the business of selling and not worry about it. Some sellers flat out refuse to send sold items to any address other than the one listed in PayPal's ship to address and they put that in their listing info. At least you caught it. Good job.

[trustedbasset]

It's not that hard for buyers to change a shipping address. Unless its a 10 dollar item that nobody would scam anyone for I won't ship anywhere but the address on the account.

[mycarolinavintage]

You are so right but some people forget. Once I had this happen and I contacted the buyer. The item purchased was for her daughter in another state and she had forgotten to change the ship-to address. In that case, I did change the ship to address and it worked out fine. I did have only one scammer try to "steal" an item out from under the buyer by contacting me with the "I  just bought this item and need it shipped here..." story.  They caught me off guard because this was the first time this happened to us. I just contacted the buyer and  he had no idea of any change. I did not give the wannabe scammer the satisfaction of even responding to his claim. I didn't give it much thought though and had not thought about it until someone brought the same situation up in a discussion. There are always going to be people who revel in ripping people off.  Luckily they are very much the minority.

[newview]

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@siayan wrote:

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What to do with the scammer. 

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Maybe send him some kitty litter ... used of course.

[siayan]

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@newview wrote:

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@siayan wrote:

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What to do with the scammer. 

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Maybe send him some kitty litter ... used of course.

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I thought of that but I am on thin ice so I kept it to myself.

[mexicanfoodking]

Is there an easy way to determine whether or not the seller you purchased the item from is behind this scam message? I've always been under the impression that other buyers/users wouldn't have easy access to your personal contacts and other private information.

[lookng2015]

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@mycarolinavintage wrote:

You are so right but some people forget. Once I had this happen and I contacted the buyer. The item purchased was for her daughter in another state and she had forgotten to change the ship-to address. In that case, I did change the ship to address and it worked out fine. I did have only one scammer try to "steal" an item out from under the buyer by contacting me with the "I  just bought this item and need it shipped here..." story.  They caught me off guard because this was the first time this happened to us. I just contacted the buyer and  he had no idea of any change. I did not give the wannabe scammer the satisfaction of even responding to his claim. I didn't give it much thought though and had not thought about it until someone brought the same situation up in a discussion. There are always going to be people who revel in ripping people off.  Luckily they are very much the minority.

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I wouldn't have been able to resist sending "nice try" lol

[lookng2015]

They don't need any "info" if they send it through eBay messages.

[starroute-us]

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@cptwhiteshirt wrote:

So I sold an item today and i got a message from a completely different user claimiing they purchased it and they need the address changed. He gave a name that doesnt match in any way and an address that is on the other side of the country from the actual shipping address. this is obviously a scam. my guess is he was watching my account and waiting for the item to sell, and once it sold, he sent me a message claiming it. thankfully I'm not and idiot. does this happen a lot and how can I report this guy? i mean, he did send me his name and address.

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To report call ebay and have a CSR read the message.

To prevent this from ever being a issue for you Or any seller, Always log directly into your PP account for every sale and ship only to the address showing in the PP transactions details page where it also states OK to ship now to XXXX.

If the real buyer asks to change address after payment is made, cancel as "buyer address problem". They can easily change address for shipping when making payment and should not be asking you to do so for them.