I sense a scam any advice please?

[citrine369]

I'm a private seller and just had my sales limit lifted as a one off to sell my diamond ring. Within a day I had an offer via ebay message as follows: "I offered to pay you a total of £5,900.00 for the ring; which will also cover post office shipping cost."

This is £240 over the buy it now price. I checked and the ebay member had only been one for 2 days with no feedback and location as South Africa. Alarm bells going off I replied politely asking how they would be paying for the item and that I wanted to check with Ebay on any t&c's relating to posting outside the territory listed before accepting any offer.

I spent some time on live chat with ebay customer services who didn't seem concerned and pointed out that once I'd received a paypal payment is wasn't reversible so safe payment was assured before I send the item. I reasoned that assuming I sent the ring with adequate insurance by a reputable courier, on the face of it, it seemed like it should be OK.

Today I received another message from the ebay member as follows: "Thanks for your email, I am still interested to purchase the item if it is still available. I will pay you through Paypal. You will post it using normal post office as it is very safe and cheaper.
Simply send me a paypal payment request to my paypal email (here they spelled out an email address for them so it wasn't deleted by ebay private email editor) or email me your paypal email address to enable me effect payment for the item before shipment."

I don't see where the scam is (but I'm not criminally minded 😉 as I would not reply by private email, only transanct through ebay and paypal but something still feels very 'off' about this potential sale. I'd really appreciate any advice/feedback from more experienced members. I'd like to think I've just had a temporary personality bypass into a drama queen but this is one time in my life that I really can't afford to be ripped off and put it down to experience. Thanks in advance for any replies.

[lyndal1838]

Don't accept a paypal payment of any sort for your ring.   No matter how careful you are there is always the possibility of a chargeback through the buyer's bank if they fund the payment with a credit or Visa debit card.   I am sure the rules in the UK are the same as in Australia in regards to this loophole.

Also, unless you have cash in your hand, do not rely on signed receipts, photos of the buyer wearing the ring or any other "proof" that it has been received by the buyer.

[go-tazz]

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@citrine369 wrote:

I spent some time on live chat with ebay customer services who didn't seem concerned and pointed out that once I'd received a paypal payment is wasn't reversible so safe payment was assured

Hijacked account.

That's a ludicrous statement as these scammers use stolen PP account to "pay" for items or they'll send you

a fake PP  Email stating payment has been made.

eBay "help" staff know nothing about scams,

Today I received another message from the ebay member as follows: "Thanks for your email, I am still interested to purchase the item if it is still available. I will pay you through Paypal. You will post it using normal post office as it is very safe and cheaper.

That should've rung huge alarm bells as anyone paying for an expensive item would want full insurance

cover on it.

Simply send me a paypal payment request to my paypal email (here they spelled out an email address for them so it wasn't deleted by ebay private email editor) or email me your paypal email address to enable me effect payment for the item before shipment."

That's to try and deal outside of eBay so that they can use the same stolen account.

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[citrine369]

Thank you for the education go-taz, I'm pretty amazed (and grateful) after reading everyone's comments that I've only had gr8 experiences buying and selling on Ebay. I had no idea these scams were so prevalent. What a naive twonk! Thanks again, really appreciate your feedback 🙂

[citrine369]

Thank you Lyndal. Yes the rules are the same re chargeback via credit card in the UK, that's something I need to bear in mind for all my sales. Thanks so much for replying, have a great weekend 🙂

[citrine369]

Yes I know 🙂 When I google searched 'Paypal scams origin South Africa' all the best matches were Australian discussion boards. Since I posted this question I've found out one of my Facebook friends in Germany has recently been scammed by a South African buyer. V.grateful to the Antipodean community for all their help. Have a gr8 weekend