@cliffhanger09wrote:l this information, up-front. Ebay does not seem to be bothered by the fact that their members are being routinely robbed.
Here is my solution, which usually gets someone's attention - it's not nice, but it seems to work. When I'm convinced I'm dealing with a fraudulent buyer (which is usually with the very first message) I send a return email saying, **bleep** OFF.
If the "buyer's" email address has actually been hijacked, the poor innocent owner of the address will be shocked and immediately contact ebay, which will alert everyone that fraud has (or is being) committed.
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Oh, Lord!
Just imagine if you inadvertently did misidentify a genuine buyer and grievously offended them with the profanity in your communication! (Actually, are profanities filtered out in eBay messages? I don't know, not having attempted bleepworthy words in any eBay message, and thankfully I've not been the recipient either.)
If it is bleeped out, then the 'solution' you mention is no solution. All the recipient would receive is an expurgated message; yes, they'd probably guess what the likely bleeped-out word is, but you might conceivably be saying "Toddle off".
(If the profanity does get through, perhaps the fraudster adds your details to a list of people from whom international scammers periodically 'purchase', just for the pleasure of yanking your chain. Wouldn't it be better to refrain from giving such people that sort of pleasure?)
Well, I can see your frustration. Being a victim of fradulent faux purchases is annoying, potentially confusing, and for first-time victims possibly very costly and upsetting. Of course, it also wastes your time, and you would need to contact eBay to have your final value fees credited back to you, relist the item, etc.
But as long as you don't fall for the scam, you will at least not have lost out in a more material way - losing both the money "paid" and the item itself. Thankfully you've worked out over the years that the so-called purchases are not genuine.
Going by what I have seen with other eBayers (not myself; I don't sell, but if I did, I would avoid selling the sort of products which attract this type of fraudster), you can protect yourself to some extent by blocking buyers from countries to which you wouldn't sell. I don't know if you've taken a look at the relevant help page; they're difficult to find and navigate, so please excuse me if I'm repeating things you already know. (The Help page is https://www.ebay.com.au/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/setting-buyer-requirements?...). I believe that you may also want to require immediate payment, so that until the item is paid for through PayPal on eBay; until it's paid for, it's not purchased, so you could eliminate the sort of would-be fraudster you've described. (The relevant Help page is https://www.ebay.com.au/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/immediate-payment-works?id=....)
One of the main things I would do in your situation - if a fraudulent buyer still got through and made a purchase, circumventing your blocks in some way - would be to block the ID of such a 'buyer' as soon as they contacted me with the "aggressive" and "needless" communication you mentioned. I would read only enough of the message to identify that it's a scam, and then delete the message without replying. I'd then contact eBay via the Call Me Back option, and when phoned by the rep I'd explain that item number 123456xxxxxx (whatever it is) was purchased by a fraudulent bidder. If it's a hijacked account, you might want to mention that - but if you'd rather minimise the time you spend on sorting out this problem, really you would only have to say it's a fraudulent purchase, you'd like the purchase cancelled and no final value fees to be charged. That should (hopefully) give you the best outcome with the least stress and waste of time.
