Two Users Sending to the same address?

[jonahickma-0]

Hey guys, 

I am a first time seller, long time buyer, and had a weird series of events regarding a phone I just sold. It sold for $70ish, and I then got a message from user-A (who I supposed to be the buyer since they thanked me for the item) asking if I would send it to "X" address rather than the one listed. I did some research, and went to reach out and tell them I would only send to their Paypal address. I then noticed their account had a "no longer a verifed user" label on it, and their account had only been made that day. I thought that was weird and semi-sketchy; but wait, it gets better.

I then received payment and a message about my item from the actual buyer, who I will refer to as user-B, who had been a user for 3 months but had 0 feedback, and I noticed the address I was shipping to was the exact same address as the address user-A had requested I sent it. I asked User-B if he was the same person as User-A and he replied with broken english that he wasn't.

All of this is to say, am I going to get scammed? and if so, will I be protected? The whole thing is weird, and I don't know if that is just because I am a paranoid first time seller or if I am actually in a sketchy situation. Any help is appreciated.

[frodobagginskennedy · Accepted solution]

It sounds like someone it trying to scam you.  You have a option to cancel using problen/m with address.  This option will NOT give you a defect.

If you send to the address on the shipping notification you have protection for shown delivery.  NEVER send to a different address.

Log into you PP to make sure the money is there and it says OK to ship

[jonahickma-0]

What is the scam they are trying to pull (if you know)? I checked my Paypal and the Money is there and it says it is OK to ship, and the address I would send it to is the one in their account, so if I just send it anyway is there anyway this could it still backfire on me? Is there anything else I can do to ensure I am covered? Thanks for your help, and sorry for the bombardment of questions, this is all just very new to me.

[sam9876]

The buyer could file a false SNAD complaint, return a rock to you, and get a full refund from you.

[jonahickma-0]

Yeesh. Is that common? I was excited to nearly be done with my first Ebay sell, but if it is this predatory, maybe I will just sell my phone on one of those low-balling used phone buyers...

Sounds like the best option here is to refund the money and cancel the item, which sucks but I think is my safest option. Thanks for the help guys.

[sam9876]

 If you refund, you will be given an out of stock defect.

[frodobagginskennedy]

 he will not get a defect if he uses problem with address.

[sam9876]

 Why would you think that there is something wrong with the address?

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

There's no problem with the real buyer's address. You have the ok to ship from PayPal - just send it.

The irony here is that the scammer (the one who first contacted you) chose the exact same freight forwarder to "change the address" to, not knowing that was the actual address you already had from the legitimate buyer.

Btw, for future reference, when the message is VERY polite (addresses you as friend especially) and only uses the words "your item", you can pretty much bet it's a scam.

[reallynicestamps]

@jonahickma-0

Yeesh. Is that common?

No.

We see it a lot, because people come to the Boards with problems, but there are hundreds of million of smooth transactions every day on eBay.

It's a known scam. Like the Kubota Tractor Scam or the Nigerian Prince.

(And yup, calling you 'friend' and talking about 'the item' is also a giveaway.)

About the address.

Google it.Look at the street view.

It's very likely that it is a freight forwarder. Your buyer is overseas and you, sensibly for a new seller, do not ship overseas.

Forwarders are quite safe. You are only responsible for delivery to the forwarder's address, which should be the address on your buyer's Paypal

If the buyer later claims Not As Described, you can ask for their purchase back before refunding. If you are told by eBay to provide return shipping, the cost is only to the forwarder-- it's up to the buyer to get the item to the forwarder and to persuad/pay the forwarder to ship to you. Within the eBay deadline.

EBay even has it's own forwarding service, offered as a Seller Protection.

It's called the Global Shipping Program and while foreigners like myself hate it (because we are paying import fees upfront) it works very well as a Seller Protection.

A new seller should not be shipping internationally until she has at least 10 DSRs, knows what DSRs are and why they are unimportant.