What does Ebay do to prevent fake buyer accounts?

[duncbe6]

Today made my very first sale on ebay...or so I thought.

After the bidding closed I immediately sent the buyer an invoice and a few hours later a direct message. Heard nothing back and started to get suspicious.

After looking over the buyer account I did a google search of the shipping address and discovered that it's the street address from the old television show The Munsters. The actual street name does not exist in the city the buyer claims to live in and the buyer's name is a the name of a character in a Japanese anime series.

On top of which, the account was created the same day as the bid was made.

After contacting Ebay I was told that my only option is to wait 48 hours to file a case and then wait another four days after that for the buyer to make payment before I cancel the transaction. If I don't do it that way, the customer service agent said I might have to pay the seller's fee on a transaction for which the buyer never made payment (assuming it's a fake account, which it 100% is).

It's shocking to me that on Ebay, bidding on items that you have no intention of paying for is as simple as using a dummy email address to set up a fake ebay account and within a matter of hours, or maybe minutes, you're able to start bidding on items.

Wouldn't a 24 hour wait period after setting up a new account make sense?

This is my first ebay sale...and most likely my last.

Thanks for listening.

...rant over.

[tunicaslot]

I learn something new every day on this forum - I had no idea about placeholders.

[d-k_treasures]

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@jessicaestellesix1979 wrote:

Sounds like a kid or some person being ugly. I've been selling on eBay now almost 2 years and I have to say for the most part most customers I have dealt with are honest.  I haven't encountered a fake buyer account  if it was me I would just go ahead and cancel the transaction at buyers request and relist it.   Even if the buyer did pay for it I wouldn't ship it to someone providing an address that doesn't exist.  I'm not really sure how a buyer can scam someone by creating a fake account.  It's just headaches for the seller.  Amazon has same problems as eBay both offer buyer guarantees.  Amazon sellers deal with exact same thing eBay sellers do,  unless you ship your items into Amazon and have them deliver it, which eBay offers that with eBay valet.   If you're just wanting to sale and Item every once in a while you may want to consider eBay valet. I'm sorry your first experience with eBay was this. 

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And you would earn yourself a defect - one of maybe 2 or 3 allowed in a year before you get restricted.

[hafoster]

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@duchess-at-speakeasy wrote:
The eBay registration name and address is supposed to be "real." But it really does not matter to a seller because the only required valid name and address is the one attached to the Paypal payment.

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Correct, the Registration address has to be real.But it's separate  from the Primary shipping address.

It's a good idea to fill in a fake address for the latter, warning the seller not to prepare a shipping label until payment arrives with the desired Ship-to address.

eBay really shouldn't show the seller any address whatsoever before payment.

[megadestroyers]

Buyers are a crafty bunch, and there are a dozen reasons or more a bidder can have multiple bidder only accounts:

-get around blocks in place that would impact another bidders account.

-shill bidding.

-used as a "bird dog" to flush out another bidders high bid.

-competitor seller selling same item.  Ties yours up for 6 days.

-fantasy ebay buying!  Yes.  I'm sure there are groups of folks doing this.

File UPI  in 48 hrs.  Wait (ebay places NO value on YOUR time).  Close claim in 4 days.  Go about your biz.  

[duncbe6]

Thanks to everybody who left helpful advice.

Received a message from Ebay this morning saying that the bids for the buyer had been canceled, because the buyer "isn't registered on Ebay."

How can someone makes bids if they're not registered on Ebay?

...does that make any sense?

[megadestroyers]

Apparently, 1313 Mockingbird Lane isn't a real address?

[duncbe6]

I assumed that what happened was the buyer, who was looking to mess with me for some reason, just canceled his account shortly after making the bid.

...assuming that's possible.

For a first-time Ebay user, this has been a pretty eye opening experience.

[a_c_green]

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@duncbe6 wrote:

Received a message from Ebay this morning saying that the bids for the buyer had been canceled, because the buyer "isn't registered on Ebay."

How can someone makes bids if they're not registered on Ebay?

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It may be that they're no longer registered on eBay, meaning that they got bounced. Go to the bidder's feedback page and see if it's now showing "Not a registered user" on it. That indicates a cancelled account; they can't close it themselves.

Regarding the question of the address: what you see on your Shipping form before payment is made is the buyer's eBay address, which may or may not be the actual Ship-To: address. You won't know where you're sending it unless or until payment is actually made. For example, I have a regular buyer in Florida who spends half the year in the Virgin Islands, so until he pays, I don't know which location I'll be shipping to this time.

As a result, it's not a good idea to send an invoice, because that locks in the Shipping charge to be whatever you (or your Calculated Shipping charge) quote to get it to the buyer's eBay address. Once you've sent an invoice, if the buyer's Ship-To: address comes in (with the payment) as someplace on the other side of the country, and you're using a zone-based Shipping method, you may be eating extra shipping fees to get it to the buyer, because that invoice will have locked in the Shipping charge to the wrong location. If you don't send an invoice, the buyer should be seeing a charge that reflects shipping to his Ship-To: address, wherever that may be.

Generally, the buyer knows he's won and that it's time to pay. He has two full days (48 hours) from end of auction within which to pay before you can file an Unpaid Item dispute, and he has four days (96 hours) from the time that the dispute is opened before you can close out the dispute and recover your Final Value Fees. The buyer will get an Unpaid strike at that time. Don't send an invoice unless the buyer requests one (such as for combined shipping, where you will be deciding the final Shipping price yourself).

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@megadestroyers wrote:

Apparently, 1313 Mockingbird Lane isn't a real address?

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Sure it is. There are more if you look for them.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/15362

https://www.walkscore.com/score/1313-w-mockingbird-ln-dallas-tx-75247

https://www.trulia.com/property/1063993298-1313-Mockingbird-Ln-Beverly-Hills-CA-90210

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Bel-Air/1313-Mockingbird-Ln-21014/home/25697200

[megadestroyers]

"Regarding the question of the address: what you see on your Shipping form before payment is made is the buyer's eBay address, which may or may not be the actual Ship-To: address. You won't know where you're sending it unless or until payment is actually made."

A_C makes some good points.  Before payment is made, you can get a looksy at the shipping address by selecting "print shipping label".  Yes.  This will be the buyers registered ebay address.  When Paypal payment is made, you should see the Paypal registered shipping address.  The two SHOULD match.

Many off-shories set up both their ebay and Paypal addresses with the forwarding shippers address.  Final destination from these will be off shore; you would only be held to deliver the item to the confirmed address, strongly preferrable that both be the same.

Some sellers prefer to ship only in the US.  Off-shories get around this desire by having a forwarding shipper here in the States.  The off-shories will have the same forwarding shipper listed as their Paypal address.  If you prefer NOT to ship outside the US, most of these off-shories have non US registered Paypal accounts.  You can set these preferences in Paypal, non US accounts and currency not accepted.

[megadestroyers]

As a follow-up, a discrepency between an ebay address and a Paypal address, ie no match, has been a proven, acceptable reason, for a cancellation.  May take a call to either ebay or Paypal, or both.  But, may save you from a future headache.

[luckythewinner]

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@tarpedge wrote:

@@dunce, it is not uncommon to stage a placeholder name and address to prevent the seller from shipping before payment.

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You learn something new every day!  I've been here for almost two decades and I have never heard of this before.

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

As I said, I have multiple addresses and, at one time, my eBay registration address was NOT a ship-to address. It was a valid address, but it was NOT where I receive packages. I have since selected one of my 6 addresses (used to have 😎 as a registration address but I certainly am not required to use it.

Bottom line: The Paypal ship-to address does not have to be the buyer's eBay address and often it is not. Perfectly fine! After all, people DO send gifts and travel!

~~C~~

[megadestroyers]

Sure.  As a buyer, list as many addresses as you see fit.  As a seller, I ain't guessin' between "print shipping label", ebay address, paypal address, trail of bread crumbs, devining rod, demagnetized compass, smoke signals, or the word of a bellhop from a Motel 6.  

[duncbe6]

There is no Mockingbird Lane is Neward, NJ.

At least not that I could find.

1313 Mockingbird Lane was the address of the mansion in The Munsters tv show back in the 1960s. High Pixie is the name of a demon in a Japanese video game series.

So yes, I assumed the account was fake from the moment I looked it.

...and it turned out it was.