Fake eBay buyer accounts out for revenge?

[sparklyaustralia]

Hi all, I sell fashion jewellery and last night, all of a sudden I noticed that one of my popular items on eBay,  sold nearly 18 separate transactions to 15 different people (its popular but not THAT popular), almost all of the buyers from Mexico, almost all of them bought only this one item, almost all of them had their eBay accounts created yesterday and almost all of them bought within a few minutes from each other.. I'm concerned that these accounts are fake created specifically to give me negative feedback and ask for refunds once the items are sent .. here's the strange part, they all actually paid via PayPal and I received all the funds and when I escalated to eBay and PayPal they agreed it does seem suspicious but if these buyers bought and paid then I'm requested to ship out the items .. the other main issue is that my items are very cheap and I'm unable to offer tracking on them so they can very easily claim they never received ... I think it might be someone out for revenge or a competitor .. thoughts anyone?

[catsnknots]

I would suspect stolen CC numbers.... 

or they will say item not as described and send you back fakes. 

I am not sure what to do... 

[sparklyaustralia]

Possibly, but frankly speaking I'm actually more concerned about the feedback than the money, 18 negative feedbacks in a row can force me out of eBay .. I thought of even sending them messages before I send the item but what am I supposed to say? Especially that when you think of it the person that's gone into the lengths of creating 18 different paypal and 18 different ebay accounts must be someone extremely patient 

[kangarooislandleathercraft]

I agree this is very suspicious.

What happens if you refund the Paypal payments?

I have recently done this when I received an order for items that could not legally be sent to Western Australia.  I also requested Mutual Cancellation which the buyer was happy with but then did not respond within the 7 days so in order to finalise it, I clicked on the cancel button.  I then discovered I did not get my FVF with this option but for a $4.00 sale it is not worth the hassle. Next time I will read the options more carefully:-(

However if the payments are refunded this will minimise the risk of foul play. 

[sparklyaustralia]

I thought of refunding them but unfortunately even if you refund I believe they still have the chance to leave me negative feedback which seems to be the whole point of this exercise 

[donnashuggy]

It's happening to me too, I am going to email eBay now

[motherbear2003]

There's something strange going on with buyers from Mexico - donnashuggy has also had a large number of new buyers overnight and this morning from there:-(  If it happens to me I won't be sending anything; I'll refund and take the chance of getting negative feedback as I think there's some sort of scam going on with Mexico.

[jameshouseofstyle]

HI Op,

I would imagine that removal of 18 negs would be damn sight easier than removing 1 - as the intent is much more obvious.

Ring Ebay and point out your suspicions, and make them put the note in your account, so if it happens it'll be easier to deal with.

Refunding their payments will do nothing to prevent them leaving bad f/back even sooner.

Also, it's would be a most unlikely story if ALL of them tried to claim item nos as described, or item not received.

Did you have an incident with someone registered in Mexico - I mean, why or how likely it is that someone from there is out for a revenge?

Good luck with it all - hopefully nothing bad will happen, they will all be very happy with the items.

[motherbear2003]

You were too quick for me Donna:^O

[2106greencat]

Phone eBay - don't stuff around with the drone that answers the phone, ask to speak to a supervisor and explain your fears.

They should refer you to trust and safety and at least it will be on record if anything does happen.

Note the time, date, name etc of the supervisor you speak to and keep everything you can as proof.