Suspicous emails

[kodiak09]

I just sold an item on eBay and then got an email from another brand new eBay account with some type of sob story about sick grandparents and having to move. They were asking me to send the item to an address that has showed up on this forum before as suspicious. 

18 Boulden Cir Ste2

CAMARATC C70687

New Castle DE

19720-3494

I have not shipped it to this address and sent an note to the original buyers address but people might want to watch for this type of **bleep** as I truly doubt this is legitimate. The main give away was probably the persons name changed as well as coming from a new account. 

[mam98031]

As a firm rule, ALWAYS ship to the address that is shown on the payment / order.  If you don't, you lose your Seller Protections.

So simply tell them if that is the ship to address on their purchase, you would be happy to comply.  Your only choice is to ship to the address on the payment.  No exceptions.

[chapeau-noir]

Yeah, that's a scam.  This is reminding me of old time email in the 90s when every other email was either Nigerian Prince or Viagra.

[fab_finds4u]

They had the chance to enter the shipping address they wanted it shipped to when they paid.

That address is a freight forwarder who forwards packages. 

A sob story is common with scam attempts. 

I'd cancel citing a problem with their address and then block them.

[mam98031]

If your buyer has not yet paid for whatever they purchased from you, you can cancel the transaction with the reason of a problem with the ship to address.  That will not get you a defect on your account.

[moondogblues]

But mam, that's not the problem.  The problem is a third party is trying to scam the seller by pretending to be the real buyer.  They just want something for nothing.

[soh.maryl]

To the best of my knowledge, that address is a freight forwarder in Delaware and is legit.

That request to you to change the shipping address, however, is NOT.

A seller should not EVER change the shipping address.  You HAVE TO SHIP TO THE ADDRESS SHOWN WHEN THE BUYER PAYS.

[mam98031]

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@moondogblues wrote:

But mam, that's not the problem.  The problem is a third party is trying to scam the seller by pretending to be the real buyer.  They just want something for nothing.

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It doesn't matter.  You can't get snagged by this scam if you follow the Ebay protocols and ALWAYS ship to the address stated on the payment.

@moondogblues 

[a_c_green · Accepted solution]

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@mam98031 wrote:

If your buyer has not yet paid for whatever they purchased from you, you can cancel the transaction with the reason of a problem with the ship to address.  That will not get you a defect on your account.

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That's all true, but some folks here (not necessarily you) seem to be missing the detail that it's not the buyer who is writing to the seller, but just a routine scammer with a throwaway account who has nothing to do with the sale. The real buyer would know nothing about that message.

[mam98031]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

If your buyer has not yet paid for whatever they purchased from you, you can cancel the transaction with the reason of a problem with the ship to address.  That will not get you a defect on your account.

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That's all true, but some folks here (not necessarily you) seem to be missing the detail that it's not the buyer who is writing to the seller, but just a routine scammer with a throwaway account who has nothing to do with the sale. The real buyer would know nothing about that message.

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Very true, but doing as I originally suggested still works.  The thing to remember and for the seller to stay safe is to ONLY ship to the address on the payment received for the purchase.  No exceptions.

[1tuna]

if I were you I would wait till they have not paid and then cancel

you have no legitimate reason to cancel as a problem with buyers address

if its the same exact person who contacted you about granny then you have a reason but if the actual buyer wants it you need to ship

going to the cancel button right away because you are scared does not make it right

what is  the original address.........a diffrent forwarder?

[mam98031]

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@1tuna wrote:

if I were you I would wait till they have not paid and then cancel

you have no legitimate reason to cancel as a problem with buyers address

if its the same exact person who contacted you about granny then you have a reason but if the actual buyer wants it you need to ship

going to the cancel button right away because you are scared does not make it right

what is  the original address.........a diffrent forwarder?

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@1tuna 

If a buyer emails you and asks you to ship to a different address than appears on the Payment notification, a seller absolutely CAN do a cancellation for a problem with the address if the buyer insists they use the new address.

In this particular case the OP's email came from someone that does NOT appear to be the buyer of the item.  It might be them using a different ID to contact them as sometimes we forget to log out of one name and into another sometimes.

So if the buyer has not paid, you are absolutely correct, the seller can wait and cancel it in 4 days for non payment.

If the buyer has paid and this email really is from the buyer under a different ID, if the seller wants they can cancel for a problem with the address.  But one would want to make sure that the email they got was really from the actual buyer and not some random ID trying to scam the seller out of the product.

The OP should contact the buyer on record for the purchase and see if this other buyer is someone they know.