Sold item, an hour later an account that isn't listed as the buyer messages me an address.

[jaydoubleyou30]

A separate user account that isn't the account that had the winning bid messaged me with a screen cap of his address, followed by a message saying his account has his previous address listed, and would not allow him to update it for shipping. It also shows my listing at the bottom of the message, however with it being a different account, I'm very skeptical about this, and am assuming its someone trying to scam. There has been no payment yet so I'm not taking any action on this yet anyways but I wanted to see if anyone had any experiences like this that confirms my suspicions or corrects me on any misjudgement.

[wastingtime101]

It's someone trying to scam. Do not reply to them. Report the message and block the ID @jaydoubleyou30 

Even if your actual buyer asks you to change the address, you shouldn't. You will void all seller protections.

Here's info about handling unpaid items in case it comes to that: 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/resolving-unpaid-items-buyers?id=4137

[nobody*s_perfect]

You have indeed spotted a too-common scam. Ignore the message, report that member, and then just wait to see if your real buyer pays for the item. There's no need to contact your buyer or send an invoice.

[pastumpy]

Only ship to the address provided by eBay when it is paid.  Otherwise, you lose all seller's protections.  It s probably a scam.  Under no circumstances mail to the "new" address from the strange email. He may not pay at all, so cancel after 4 days due to lack of payment and relist.  

[paraquip]

So this occurs quite frequently on my profile....if you ship to the messaged address ebay will not provide you with seller protections.

For my cases over 75% of the time these are fraud cases associated with CC chargebacks that ebay looses every time.

Certainly of all the attempts of fraud on my account the "switch the address" and the " made up ship to knickname" are the largest and have a very high correlation with chargebacks.

While we as sellers are required to verify our selling profiles with picture ID's and proper names......buyers are not.

6% of my sales ship to made up names......it is becoming a HUGE issue that my call with ebay executives (not support) have done nothing about.

You will also need to be made aware of the latest scam circulating ebay...... a purchase is made on a credit card and once trackign shows up in the system usually leass than 24 hours after payment the buyer initiates a chargeback with the CC institution circumventing in many ways seller protections.

During covid the common street thugs and petty thefters went online to most this buying platform and made mincemeat if the Ebay terms and conditions.

HK

[luckythewinner]

---

@jaydoubleyou30 wrote:

Sold item, an hour later an account that isn't listed as the buyer messages me an address.

{snip}

I'm very skeptical about this, and am assuming its someone trying to scam. 

---

Congratulations on applying common sense and detecting and avoiding an obvious scam. 

He waited an hour hoping that the real buyer would have paid in the meantime. 

[12345jamesstamps]

After 4 days of no payment...cancel it. Would I contact this person...no. Just my opinion. Block this person...yes. If payment is made...goggle address and such...check if freight forwarding address is used. Check buyer feedback of the person who pays. Would I answer any of their emails...no. Just my opinion.

[jaydoubleyou30]

Thank you all for the replies and the additional tips. I have reported the message and will follow everyone's advice.I Really appreciate it!

[femmefan1946]