Suspicious Buyer POSSIBLE PHISHING ATTEMPT

[cpascal16]

Long read, but bare with me:

Only an hour or so after I listed my iPhone 6 to sell on eBay, I receieved a message from a potential buyer. 

The buyer was interested in purchasing my iPhone. My listing had a starting bid of 159.99 USD and a Buy It Now price of 209.99 USD. He was willing to buy it, and let me know it would be a birthday gift for his cousin who was doing missionary work abroad. He wanted to secure the phone right away and asked what my final price was. I told him my final price was the $209.99 Buy It Now price on the listing.

He responded that he was willing to pay me $250 plus $100 shipping. He wanted me to cancel the auction and he would pay me the $350 via PayPal. He provided me his PayPal email.  He also instructed me to email him on my personal email (same one as my PayPal) with the item # in the subject line. I was a little suspicious because of the bad grammar he used. This seemed too good to be true, but I wanted to be 100% certain.

I emailed him back through my personal email. I thanked him for the offer, but told him I was more comfortable handling the transaction through eBay. I proposed that I could change the Buy It Now price to $350 and change the shipping option to free. It was a win-win because I could sell the phone for what we agreed to, he would buy it immediately, and I would comfortably complete the transaction through eBay.

He said he was "finding it hard to hit the buy it now button" and "its not responding." He told me to send a payment request on PayPal. My suspicion grew, but I continued communicating with him. I complied and sent a request on PayPal.

I then asked for the shipping address while I waited for payment to go through. He gave me an address in Nigeria. Alarms sounded in my head. This was definitely a hoax/phishing attack. I emailed him back saying that I would change the Buy It Now price and free shipping. I cancelled the PayPal request. He says that he sent the PayPal payment through and to check my Inbox and Spam folders for confirmation of payment.

Sure enough, it was in my Spam folder. There was nothing on PayPal indicating payment. There were two emails in my Spam and they both seemed fake. Gmail indicated a possible phishing attack. This was the final evidence I needed to conclude this was all fake.

I told him about my suspicions and that we should continue the transaction on eBay. He sent a last-ditch email and that was that.

I can't report this user because I haven't actually conducted a transaction with him on eBay. I thought this was the next best thing. Hope this is useful to others!

[nawlinsron2]

Run, Forrest...RUN!

[dtexley3]

1) this is a SCAM, stop communicating with the buyer and report them.

2) you are NOT allowed to name the buyer, you need to report your post and ask that the mods edit and remove the buyers name or you may be suspended from posting for a few days.

[dtexley3]

You have also admitted to taking a possible sale off eBay, you will likely receive a warning or even a suspension for that.  Never, ever respond to any request for personal contact information with anything other than "eBay does not allow the exchange of contact information.  I have reported this request and your buyer id to eBay."

[castlemagicmemories]

When you sent the request on Paypal, you tried to take the transaction off ebay.

As noted above, you can get a suspension for that.

Sorry.

[aramintaca]

Why don't you ask this on the thread that's pinned to the top of the SellerTopic page? Leave out the part about it being an off ebay transaction.

[duggmills]

To: dtexlady3,

Do I understand you correctly? You reported the orginal poster to eBay for a maybe almost, possibly, that phone sale outside of eBay's policies.

When I look at his or her very limited experience on eBay, hasn't sold much this year and that he has only one listing and the fact he didn't go through with the sale, I think your being overly harsh with him

By that way, I really love those little Christmas village structures you have. We are building a collection and I see you have quite a selection.

[newnewnewmann]

Sorry if I seem harsh, but you need to educate yourself on scams like this. It scares me that you went so far with this communication. The first and final red flag for me would be someone offering more money than I asked for. Done. Scam. Fraud.

You also may need to change your log-in information/password if you clicked on any links in the emails that the person sent ("He provided me his PayPal email.") 

This person now has your email address and any other information you freely provided. Anyone from anywhere can do these set-ups.

There is a good chance you will be their target for other trick's, like sending money to claim your lottery winnings, or more fake paypal/ebay emails telling you about a item you never ordered, would you please sign in at the link provided...etc etc. They usually work in teams-they almost had you, it will be Uncle's turn next.

Second, on ebay, never go around the protocols. Never let any buyer dictate the terms of your sale or communications. No outside offers, no personal emails, only communicate through ebay messages. Only respond to real ebay members.

You can forward your fake emails to

spoof@paypal.com

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/security/report-problem

[dtexley3]

not a texlady, at least last time I checked. hehehe.

In the current environment setup by eBay it doesn't matter.  Sellers are getting warnings and/or suspensions for just receiving such messages.  Any response should be strongly worded to prevent a repeat request that would even more likely result in suspension.  

You can choose whether or not you want to report the member, but stating that you have or will makes sure the sender/buyer understands the severity of the issue.  A new buyer needs to know in the strongest terms possible that eBay is prosecuting such behavior.

However, I did not say that I was reporting anyone, I was recommending the OP do so or at least warn the buyer that he would.  CYA in the most complete way possible.

Regarding the houses, we do have a goodly number, but they have been going out the door fast. On my way home to ship several more.

[1222256]

I'm seeing the same thing and would like to know how to report these suspicious buyers. They are obviously working a scam so I should be able to report them to ebay to be investigated.